News Roundup

Set up Drupal and PHP apps at home like a pro. Andres Torres walks you through a secure, scalable architecture with Varnish and Pound. Get performance, automation, and SSL – all from your home lab or VPS.

Time is running out to apply for DrupalCon Chicago 2026’s Inclusion and Community Scholarships. The program offers full tickets plus travel stipends—$1,000 for Inclusion and $500 for Community recipients. The application deadline is October 31, so act fast if you qualify.

CMS Mag’s Jorge Mediavilla reports that at DrupalCon Vienna Dries Buytaert framed AI as both a ‘storm and a path’ for Drupal. He revealed full‑page AI generation, a Context Control Centre for brand voice, and autonomous agents to manage content updates. Given these additions and the upcoming Drupal Canvas default page builder in Drupal CMS 2.0, Drupal users should start planning for AI‑native workflows.

Morpht released a major Q4 update to Convivial for GovCMS. It adds dark mode, accessible megamenus, and new media components like 3D viewers. Ideal for teams modernizing government Drupal sites with better UX and compliance in mind.

Jeff Sheltren of Tag1 Consulting walks through connecting Claude Code to Notion via MCP. The integration uses self-hosted LLMs for secure documentation analysis. It’s part of Tag1’s AI Applied series on practical AI implementations.

Just in time for Halloween, Justin Keiser updated the Halloween Lights module for Drupal 11. It adds glowing Jack-o’-Lanterns to non-admin pages with zero config beyond enabling the module. Fun, festive, and now Drupal 11-ready—perfect for some light seasonal theming.

Peter Majmesku of erdfisch has released a new Drupal recipe: Quiz Questions by ECA and AI. It connects the Quiz module with AI and automation via ECA to generate dynamic content. Perfect for marketers, educators, and developers building smarter user experiences.

The Drop Times profiles Wayback Filter, a contrib module by Vertikal.dk, fighting link rot in Drupal. It adds archive.org snapshots beside external links at render time, preserving original references. For sites aiming to protect old content, it's a powerful, low-impact solution backed by over a decade of care.

Coder 9.0.0-alpha1 is here with support for PHP CodeSniffer 4 and early API changes. Maintainer Klaus Purer invites feedback before the stable release. Install the alpha with Composer and follow the API tracking issue on Drupal.org.

The DrupalCon Chicago 2026 organising team is now accepting volunteers for roles like scholarship mentor, photographer, local ambassador, registration support or trivia committee. Each role has defined hours and rewards—up to 20 hours earns a 25% discount, while over 20 hours earns a complimentary ticket. If you’re part of the Drupal community and want to contribute, apply now to join the team and deepen your network.

Brahim Khouy breaks down the Drupal AI Core module in a practical guide for developers. He recommends focusing on the Base Call API and service structure, not provider plugins. A solid starting point for adding AI features to Drupal without being locked into one vendor.

Open source isn’t insecure by default—Drupal proves it. Its global security team, clear processes, and built-in safeguards keep risks in check. Read how Drupal protects users without vendor lock-in.

In Part 3 of FreelyGive’s AI webinar, James Abrahams demos how AI Search boosts Drupal results. Using semantic search, vector databases, and metadata tagging, hallucinations are reduced. It’s a practical path to smarter, intent-aware Drupal search—all within the permission model.

Arcoch IT Company explains how Drupal enables headless architecture by decoupling content from presentation. They outline how Drupal works with React, Vue.js, or Angular front-ends via APIs. The post emphasizes flexibility for developers and a familiar workflow for content creators.

Dries Buytaert’s State of Drupal keynote in Vienna set a bold tone: AI is the storm—and the way through it. He introduced Site Templates, visual editing via Drupal Canvas, and new AI-powered agents. Drupal AI v1.2 and orchestration tools mark a new era for the open web.

DrupalCon Vienna 2025 delivered big changes, from AI-first tooling to visual site builders. Reading Room highlights Drupal’s evolving roadmap with Canvas, Mercury, and smarter workflows. With security, flexibility, and open governance, Drupal’s future looks fast, visual, and AI-ready.

Talking Drupal dives into design this week with guests Dave Pickett and Kelly Smith. They share how site builder certifications empower designers to collaborate more effectively. Plus, Sitewide Alert is featured for its real-time notification features.

Oaisys 2025 by QED42 will host a two-day AI conference in Pune from November 29–30. Tracks include a Drupal AI sprint, open architecture talks, and community-led sessions. With just 100 seats, it’s built for practitioners to share tools, lessons, and real-world insights.

DrupalCamp Scotland 2025 has published its full session and speaker lineup for November 7 in Edinburgh. Talks will explore multisite strategy, contextual media, AI, UX, and component design in Drupal. Speakers from universities and agencies will share real-world lessons and hands-on techniques.

Sandstorm held a Drupal Contribution Day during its company summit in Chicago. Teams contributed across code, design, content, and event planning efforts. The initiative aligns with the company’s values and supports the Drupal ecosystem.

Acquia’s Greg O'Toole recaps DrupalCon Vienna 2025 and what’s ahead for Drupal CMS 2.0. New Drupal Templates, Canvas 1.0, and brand-aware AI tools took center stage. Expect visual building and smarter automation in the January 2026 Drupal CMS release.

Muhammad Asim Dewan shared a guide on boosting Drupal site speed using PageSpeed Insights. Key tips include caching, image compression, CDN use, and efficient CSS/JS aggregation. Ideal for devs aiming to lower bounce rates and improve SEO with global best practices.

DrupalCamp Brasil 2025 has launched a new mobile app ahead of its November event in Florianópolis. The app runs on a headless Drupal backend and was built using Flutter in a rapid dev cycle. A reusable Drupal + Flutter distribution is now in progress to support future community events.

FLOSS/fund has allocated $1 million across 30 FOSS projects in its first year. The fund uses a public funding.json model and is backed by Indian fintech leader Zerodha. Drupal projects could tap this model for sustainable, non-application-based open-source funding.

amazee.ai’s Michael Schmid explains the split between AI training and running AI in production. Each phase has distinct infrastructure and security needs, from GPU use to prompt injection risks. Private, sovereign hosting is key for enterprise AI control, compliance, and performance.

The Linux Foundation Europe Roadshow arrives in Ghent on 29 October. Two parallel tracks tackle cybersecurity and open‑source innovation. Join industry, community and government voices to shape Europe’s open‑source future.

Cancer Australia’s website is now live on Drupal 11, built by PreviousNext on GovCMS PaaS. The project introduces a robust tech stack with Docker, OpenSearch, and a streamlined GitLab CI pipeline. It’s a model example of modern Drupal architecture tailored for government platforms.

QED42 has launched a webinar series to prep developers for the Drupal AI sprint at Oaisys 2025. The first session covers setting up Drupal AI on Drupal 11 and key contribution workflows. It's a hands-on way to get involved in advancing Drupal’s AI capabilities this November.

Annertech’s Drupal-based ePlanning platform wins a major digital transformation award in Ireland. The portal simplifies planning applications across 30 local authorities. Built-in validation and a unified dashboard improve access and reduce delays.

Sergiu Nagailic has shown that you don’t need a high‑end graphics card to experiment with artificial intelligence. Using an AMD Threadripper processor, he tested how far a powerful desktop CPU can go when running large language models. By carefully tuning memory settings and processing threads, he achieved results close to GPU performance—then shared his open‑source testing toolkit so others can try it too.

The Drop Times is hosting its November Townhall on November 5, open to the entire Drupal community. Topics include editorial planning, outreach, tech updates, and open floor feedback from contributors. Join via Google Meet to help shape how TDT supports and grows Drupal.

The Drupal Association is inviting community input to shape the Community Summit at DrupalCon Chicago 2026. It’s aiming to make the Summit inclusive and designed for both new and veteran contributors. Your survey responses will guide which topics the Summit covers, so please take a few minutes to help shape it.

Luton Council is rebuilding its website using LocalGov Drupal with accessibility as the guiding principle. The team is rewriting content manually and using Editoria11y to meet UK accessibility standards. This project highlights best practices for inclusive content and civic technology with Drupal.

Drubernetes 2.0 has dropped Bitnami and now uses the official MariaDB Operator for Drupal on Kubernetes.
The switch addresses Bitnami’s licensing changes and strengthens open-source alignment for secure deployments.
Users must manually update their stacks—upgrade guides are live on GitLab.

The Drupal Association has opened scholarship applications for DrupalCon 2026, closing October 31. Two programs—Inclusion and Community Scholarships—support diverse and active contributors facing financial barriers. Apply now to increase access and representation at next year’s event.

A new Drupal Professionals Group has launched on LinkedIn, created by Hrushikesh Mohapatro. It’s aimed at developers, designers, and learners sharing Drupal best practices and career support. This community space fosters collaboration, mentorship, and open-source networking across skill levels.

DrupalCamp Italy 2025 just released its full agenda for the Rome event on November 14. Talks will span AI in Drupal, CMS architecture, and visual builders, with sessions from top Italian contributors. Check the full schedule to plan your day if you're heading to Sapienza University next month.

Coming up this week in the Drupal ecosystem: local in‑person meet‑ups, global webinars on accessibility and AI, and hands‑on sessions for performance optimisation. Tune in, engage, and join your peers in building the open web. Find out where and when this week’s events are happening.

Stanford WebCamp 2026 returns April 30–May 1 with free public sessions on open web topics. Thursday offers virtual beginner content; Friday hosts in-person, advanced talks at Stanford. Drupal, accessibility, UX, and DEIB will headline the hybrid program for all skill levels.

Four Kitchens welcomes Colleen Carroll as its new CEO. She succeeds Co-Founder Todd Ross Nienkerk and brings a strong record in open source and digital leadership. The agency remains focused on higher ed, content strategy, and AI-powered platforms.

Florida DrupalCamp 2026 is now accepting session proposals for its February 20 to 22 event in Orlando. The camp features trainings, talks, and contribution sprints, with sessions on AI, Composer, DevOps, accessibility, and more. Proposals are due by December 3, and mentorship is available for first-time speakers.

At DrupalCon Europe 2025, Roberto Peruzzo led a BoF shaping the future of the Search API Typesense module. Plans include schema “recipes,” a secure JS proxy, and possible Views integration—plus support for vector search and RAG workflows. With momentum building, the project invites new contributors to help define Drupal’s next-gen search experience.

Southwark Council and agency Chicken are building an AI-powered PDF-to-HTML importer for LocalGov Drupal. It transforms static documents into accessible HTML using Claude Sonnet—cutting hours of work to under a minute. The tool helps UK councils shift toward faster, HTML-first digital publishing.

TDT highlights 12 standout Drupal modules for conversational AI and chatbot integration. These contrib modules support OpenAI, AWS, and WebLLM, offering multilingual, offline, and node-aware chat features. Drupal devs can now embed smart assistants into their sites with minimal config and flexible APIs.

Germany’s KERN UX Design System is launching a new Drupal integration with a community-led project. It brings 40+ accessible UI components into Drupal, starting with a kickoff on October 24. The initiative opens doors for Drupal in public-sector UX across Germany and beyond.

Adaptive’s Steve Allen attended his first DrupalCon in Vienna, calling it 'insightful, exciting, and exhausting.' Hear what left him inspired, overwhelmed, and ready to contribute more to the Drupal community.

Isaac Pavón gave his first-ever Drupal talk at DrupalCamp Spain 2025, sharing AI-based refactoring tips. He spoke on using Cursor AI for legacy code and navigated real-world prep and presentation challenges. The experience highlighted both the power of community and the pace of AI in Drupal dev work.