News Roundup

Wassim Ben Sassi outlines advanced Drupal cache invalidation strategies across Redis, Varnish, and Akamai. He details cache tags, TempStore, TTL layering, and real-world optimizations from high-traffic sites. It's a must-read for teams scaling Drupal performance across multiple caching tiers.

To mark Drupal’s 25th birthday, developer Wassim Ben Sassi shared 25 career lessons from using the CMS. He reflects on config management, caching, and trusting contrib—plus the community’s real human impact. It’s both a technical guide and a heartfelt thank-you to the Drupal ecosystem.

This week, Drupalists are celebrating and collaborating worldwide. From Belgium’s 25th birthday bash to technical deep dives in Seattle, Omaha, and Waterloo. Join a local meetup or tune in virtually to stay connected with the Drupal community.

Nauras Abul Haija outlines seven costly mistakes nonprofits make when picking a donation platform. From data lock-in to poor integration and lack of crisis readiness, she calls for open-source control. Drupal-based platforms offer faster response, better security, and zero vendor fees.

To mark Drupal’s 25th anniversary, Vijaya Chandran Mani launched an interactive timeline and trivia platform at drupalhistory.org. Built on Moshe Weitzman’s curated dataset, the site combines milestones with a gamified quiz of 200+ questions on Drupal history. It’s a fun, educational way for community members old and new to explore and celebrate Drupal’s open‑source journey.

DrupalCon Rotterdam 2026 is recruiting Program Team volunteers to help shape its session lineup. Track chairs and reviewers will get a free ticket, Drupal.org recognition, and hands-on experience. Apply by January 23 to be part of building this major Drupal event.

To mark 25 years of Drupal, Moshe Weitzman launched a retro-themed interactive timeline. It highlights key milestones in Drupal’s journey—from its 2001 origins to global CMS status. The site celebrates the community’s legacy and invites everyone to relive its open-source history.

DrupalCamp England 2026 is now open for early bird tickets and returns to the University of Salford in Greater Manchester from 28 Feb to 1 Mar 2026. The larger‑venue event features AI‑focused workshops, a “Drupal in a Day” course, community sprints, and sessions for all skill levels. Grab your early bird tickets at the official site before prices rise and join the community for hands‑on learning and networking.

Ronald te Brake introduces “Agent Skills”—modular AI instructions that improve efficiency and context handling. Drupal now explores first-class support with a curated library and project-level config tools like Drupal Surge. This modular AI approach could make smart development more maintainable and Drupal-specific.

Carlos Ospina built an AI-powered recipe site with Drupal to celebrate its 25th anniversary. Using Drupal Recipes, Claude AI, and multilingual tools, he created laollita.es in just three days. It’s a heartfelt, functional tribute to Drupal’s evolution—and a blueprint for AI-assisted site builds.

This post shows how Drupal migrations can be used to refactor existing content. Jaymie Strecker walks through, wrapping taxonomy values in nested paragraphs. It is a practical guide to unifying data structures across content types.

Drupal 12.0.0 will require PHP 8.5 and PostgreSQL 18, as announced by Gábor Hojtsy. MariaDB 10.11, MySQL 8.0, and SQLite 3.45 also set new baselines for platform compatibility. These updates improve performance and security—site owners should begin preparing now.

Saroj K. offers a practical tutorial on mastering Drupal’s hook system for custom module development. It breaks hooks into alter, action, and information types, with examples from Drupal 9–11. A must-read for devs aiming to build upgrade-safe, maintainable Drupal code.

Drupal and Wikipedia communities in Kerala marked a dual 25‑year milestone with a joint event at ICFOSS Thiruvananthapuram. Speakers highlighted community contribution, open knowledge, and the launch of “Drupal in a Day” and “Wiki Loves Drupal” initiatives. Sponsors and local contributors reaffirmed commitment to grow the open source and free knowledge ecosystem in the region.

Dries Buytaert says AI didn’t kill Tailwind’s business—it exposed its reliance on static documentation. He argues open source monetization must shift toward operational services like uptime and deployment. Reusable code isn’t enough; ongoing value delivery is key in the AI era.

ComputerMinds reflects on Drupal’s 25-year journey from student project to global CMS. They credit its modular design, active community, and adaptability through eras like mobile and headless. It’s a milestone that honors both technology and the spirit of open-source collaboration.

As part of Drupal’s 25th anniversary, the Drupal Association has launched a community-driven Bingo card.
Each square celebrates moments like patch submissions or attending a meetup — big or small. It’s a fun way to reflect on your Drupal journey and share it using #Drupal25Bingo.

Drupal turns 25 with a new browser game. Place community milestones in the right order. Play solo or share scores during birthday events.

Nico Grienauer of ACOLONO GmbH designed 3D‑printable Drupal cookie cutters to celebrate Drupal’s 25th anniversary. The free designs include the official logo, Druplicon, cake toppers, and fun phrases like “Clear Cache!”. It’s a playful way for the community to bring Drupal spirit to meetups, camps, and kitchen tables worldwide.

The Delhi Drupal community is hosting a meetup on January 15, 2026, at 18:00 IST in Saket, New Delhi to celebrate Drupal’s 25th anniversary. The event will explore the platform’s evolution and spotlight how AI is shaping Drupal’s future. It’s a chance to connect, share experiences, and discuss innovation with local Drupal professionals and enthusiasts.

DrupalCamp Florida is giving away two free DrupalCon tickets. Winners will be drawn on January 15 and notified by email. The camp takes place February 20 to 22 in Orlando.

Drupal turns 25 tomorrow—January 15, 2026—and communities worldwide are hosting special events to celebrate. Highlights include hands-on demos in Geneva, an AI showcase in Costa Rica, and social gatherings from Vienna to Montreal. Join your local Drupal group or check #celebratedrupal to mark this open-source milestone.

The Drupal Edinburgh community will meet on Thursday, January 15, 2026, to mark Drupal’s 25th anniversary. It’s part of their ongoing Drupal Drinks series—an informal, agenda-free social meetup at Cold Town House starting 6 PM. No registration needed, just drop in and connect with fellow Drupal enthusiasts.

CKEditor5 Table Fix v1.0.9 is now available, maintained by Olstad and Mulvihill. It restores advanced HTML table markup and adds native media embed support in CKEditor 5. This upgrade helps teams modernizing from CKEditor 4 ensure stable, accessible content editing.

The Drupal Costa Rica community is hosting a special Drupal Social event on Friday, January 16, 2026, to celebrate Drupal’s 25th anniversary with demos, food, and community time. Highlights include live demos of Drupal Canvas (the upcoming visual page builder) and Drupal AI tools shaping future content workflows. It’s a relaxed, in‑person gathering open to all at República Sabana near San José National Stadium from 18:00–20:00 CST.

Drupal and Wikipedia turn 25 — and Kerala’s open communities are throwing a joint celebration. The January 15 event in Thiruvananthapuram brings together tech and knowledge contributors at ICFOSS. Sessions will spotlight history, future, and new initiatives for Drupal and Wikipedia.

A new Weekly Drupal post explains the core difference between configuration and content in Drupal. It encourages a config-first mindset to avoid deployment issues and improve team workflows. This foundational concept is key for beginners managing multiple environments or CI/CD pipelines.

A new tutorial explains how to manage test content in Drupal using the Default Content module. It shows how to export nodes and media into YAML files, streamlining test setup across environments. This approach simplifies dev workflows and ensures consistent data during builds and resets.

A new analysis from Attico shows Drupal’s continued dominance in enterprise projects in 2026. It counters myths about complexity and obsolescence, citing real use in government, higher ed, and regulated sectors. Drupal’s flexibility, security, and stability still make it the go-to for serious digital platforms.

ImageX explores how AI tools in Drupal can improve SEO workflows and site structure. Modules like Metatag AI and AI Image Alt Text help automate metadata, alt text, and internal links. It’s a smart way to balance automation with editorial control for content-heavy sites.

DXPR Theme 8 introduces AI-assisted design tools and AAA accessibility features inspired by automotive UX. Site builders get smart font and color pairing tools, real-time style previews, and accessible nav systems. It’s a modern take on Drupal theming that balances aesthetics, usability, and inclusion from the start.

TD Café episode #012 features Johanna Bates and Jess Snyder on Drupal in the nonprofit space. They discuss community collaboration, mission-driven tech, and the origins of the Nonprofit Summit. It’s a practical look at how Drupal supports social impact work through open-source values.

The Denver Drupal Meetup returns January 15 with a hybrid session hosted by Drupal Colorado. This open-format event welcomes newcomers and invites community-led planning for 2026. It’s a chance to reflect, connect, and shape the year’s local Drupal initiatives.

The January 2026 Drupal for Nonprofits Chat takes place on Thursday, January 15. It’s an open, agenda-free session where users can share challenges, ideas, and recent projects. All experience levels are welcome to join and shape the conversation around Drupal for social impact.

The European Commission will host a Drupal AI Hackathon in Brussels on January 27–28. Participants will prototype real AI tools using Drupal Canvas and automation workflows in a trusted setting. It’s a major cross-functional push to grow Drupal AI adoption with public sector support.

A beginner-friendly overview of Drupal’s core building blocks. Explains how Nodes, Taxonomy, and Users shape content and access. Sets the groundwork for understanding Views, APIs, and performance.

Bartek Filipiuk tested Claude Code’s AI refactoring plugin on a Drupal contrib module. The tool split large functions, added early returns, and improved readability using SOLID principles. His review shows AI’s practical role in maintaining and cleaning up Drupal codebases.

Promet Source and amazee.io will host a webinar on secure AI use in government Drupal sites. They'll demo a solution stack using ProvusGov, Civic AI Navigator, and secure hosting from amazee.io. It's a roadmap for agencies to adopt AI in Drupal while meeting compliance and privacy needs.

Kristen Pol's session at GovCMS Mega Meetup 2025 explored AI integrations in Drupal. She demonstrated AI-assisted tools for content suggestions, alt text, and layout design using Canvas and CivicTheme. This highlights real-world benefits of Drupal AI for public sector sites and beyond.

FreelyGive, the European Commission, and Dropsolid are hosting a free webinar, “Build AI Agents in Drupal — No Code Required!”, livestreamed on January 13, 2026 at 16:00 Brussels time. The session covers how AI agents work, real use cases like alt text and SEO drafts, and a live demo of an agent‑powered Kanban board. It’s part of the Free Drupal AI series and sets up the upcoming “Play to Impact” hackathon.

A new dashboard shows Drupal Core code complexity dropping sharply across major versions. Created by Dries Buytaert, it tracks metrics like complexity, maintainability, and test coverage. The data confirms long-term refactoring is making Drupal more modern and maintainable.

The Geneva Drupal community is hosting a public event to mark Drupal’s 25th anniversary. Organised by Happy Coding, the meetup includes demos, hands-on sessions, and a mini contribution sprint. Attendees will explore upcoming Drupal CMS 2.0 features and connect with local contributors.

John Picozzi reflected on Drupal’s growth across events, products, and community in 2025. Highlights included DrupalCon Atlanta, non-code contributions, Drupal Canvas, and responsible AI progress. The review positions 2025 as a year when long-term ideas became practical tools.

The Montréal Drupal community is marking Drupal’s 25th anniversary with a local celebration. Hosted by Evolving Web and Symetris, the event takes place January 15, 2026. It’s an open, informal gathering welcoming longtime contributors and newcomers alike.

A DrupalSouth article explains why Drupal is enterprise-ready open source. It highlights security, scalability, governance, and long-term stability proven in production. The takeaway: Drupal already runs high-stakes government and business platforms at scale.

Sebastian Bergmann outlined how PHP and its ecosystem test each other through nightly CI. PHP runs frameworks and tools against development builds, while PHPUnit tests upcoming PHP versions. This catches breaking changes early and strengthens trust across open source projects.