Drupal Live Update Introduces Shared Infrastructure for Browser Updates

Drupal Live Update introduces an alpha-stage infrastructure layer for modules that need to refresh browser content without requiring a full page reload. Alessandro Feijó published Drupal Live Update for Drupal 11 and 12 with a common API built around event channels, Drupal-side access control and browser polling.

The project is intended to give Drupal modules a shared way to publish and consume live-update events instead of requiring features such as notifications, dashboards, chat interfaces or dynamic blocks to create separate delivery mechanisms. Modules publish events to named channels, while Drupal remains responsible for deciding whether a user is allowed to receive them. Browser-side code can then respond by replacing HTML or refreshing configured paths without reloading the entire page.

Polling is the transport included with the base module, allowing sites to use the event layer without operating a separate push service. The architecture keeps that transport separate from the API used by integrating Drupal modules. Feijó said companion integrations could add Server-Sent Events, WebSockets, Node.js or another delivery mechanism later without requiring feature modules to adopt a different event model. Those push transports are possible extensions rather than capabilities currently supplied by the base project.

That scope also separates Live Update from projects addressing adjacent problems. Live content focuses on WebSocket-based content updates, while Chatroom provides an application-level chat feature. The Nodejs project has historically provided Drupal integration with a separate Socket.IO service. Live Update instead targets the reusable event-delivery layer and is intended to complement rather than replace those approaches.

The project page currently lists 1.0.0-alpha5, released on 3 October 2026, as the latest alpha. The project is not covered by Drupal's security advisory policy, while Feijó said he has opened an application for security-advisory coverage and is seeking community testing, feedback and security review. Sites evaluating the project should continue to treat Drupal.org's current security warning as applicable.

A Mindcore live demo shows the module periodically refreshing remote JSON-backed blocks without custom code, including currency rates, weather data and holiday information. The demo describes Live Update as the published module while related Chatroom and Nodejs modernization work remains pending public releases.