News Roundup

The Drupal economy is shrinking fast, with many agencies reporting steep workforce reductions. But not all is bleak—some firms are growing, and new opportunities are emerging globally. The Drupal Center of Excellence says recovery is possible through smart tools, hiring, and engagement.

amazee.io is hosting a free webinar on Private AI solutions for enterprises on November 20. Speakers will cover how to embed AI in secure, compliant workflows without losing data control. It’s ideal for IT leads and execs managing sensitive data and compliance concerns.

Jay Prakash Kushwah of August Infotech shares a step-by-step Docker setup for Drupal 10. Using Docker Compose and key services like MySQL and Redis, the guide builds a stable dev environment. It’s ideal for teams needing speed, consistency, and DevOps-friendly Drupal workflows.

Ranjith Kumar of Specbee shows how to build an interactive calendar in Drupal 10 using FullCalendar View. The module connects Drupal Views with the FullCalendar JavaScript library for a clean, clickable event layout. It’s a practical tool for anyone managing schedules, bookings, or events on a Drupal site.

Matt Glaman will speak on “Drupal Canvas and AI” at the Fox Valley Drupal Meetup on December 17. The hybrid event includes lightning talks and a main session exploring automation in site building. You can join on Zoom or attend in person in St. Charles, Illinois.

Most digital platforms fade after launch—but Marco S explains how to stop that from happening. With Drupal and ongoing lifecycle support, value doesn’t end at go-live. Build once, evolve continuously, and turn your site into a lasting digital asset.

In this episode of Talking Drupal, the discussion turns global as Drupal’s role at the United Nations Open Source Week takes center stage. Guests Tiffany Farriss and Mike Gifford examine how open source contributes to digital governance and public infrastructure, highlighting Drupal’s relevance in these conversations. The episode also features the Local Association module, designed to support federated Drupal associations.

The Drupal Association is spotlighting DrupalCamp Burkina Faso, scheduled for April 24–26, 2026. Organisers are seeking global sponsors and virtual speakers to strengthen local open-source capacity. It’s a key chance to support digital growth and Drupal adoption in West Africa.

DrupalEasy's latest Show & Tell episode explores the Custom Field module with students and alumni. It shows how to build compound fields—like full names—without using entity references. The hands-on session highlights how Custom Field supports complex setups in a cleaner way.

Yas Naoi previews a no-code workflow engine powered by YAML and GenAI at DrupalCon Nara. The session shows how LLMs can interpret rules from a RAG datastore to drive real-time approvals. It’s a practical guide to automating digital workflows with AI across Drupal and beyond.

Ivan Zugec gives us a hands-on look at Drupal CMS V2 alpha1, featuring the new Canvas builder. It’s a drag-and-drop system with reusable components, JSX support, and site templates. This alpha signals a major shift in how Drupal sites are designed and managed.

Tag1 has released Drupal 7.104, the first update since Drupal 7 reached end-of-life. It includes a fix for a critical JavaScript vulnerability and adds PHP 8.4 support. Thousands of D7 sites can now stay secure and compatible.

Rachael Censuales makes her speaking debut at DrupalCamp Italy 2025 in Rome. Her session explores OpenAI integration with Drupal using contrib modules like Drupal AI and vector search. It’s a big step for a new developer—and a great sign for the community’s future.

amazee.io will showcase Drupal AI use cases at DrupalCon Nara 2025. Founder Michael Schmid leads a session on running implementations and developer lessons. The team will also demo enterprise hosting tools at their event booth.

Dries Buytaert shared how to run Activepieces with Docker to test Drupal workflows locally. It works with DDEV and skips tunneling tools by running on localhost. This setup is ideal for testing workflows, but not for editing the integration code itself.

Dries Buytaert explains how to set up Activepieces for local Drupal development. Fork the repo, tweak the config, and launch the app with live reload for testing. It’s a straightforward setup for contributing new Pieces or debugging integration issues.

Four new moderately critical vulnerabilities have been patched in Drupal core. These include issues like cache poisoning, defacement via crafted URLs, and gadget chain risks. Admins should update to the latest supported versions immediately.

On the second webinar of the Drupal AI Foundation series (part of Oaisys Conf), developer Akhil Babu showed how Drupal sites can implement semantic search using the AI Search module. He walked through vector‑databases, chunking & embedding content, and building a RAG‑enabled conversational interface. The takeaway: you don’t need to rebuild your site—semantic search + chatbot on Drupal is now within reach.

Stanford WebCamp 2026 is calling for volunteers to support its upcoming event on April 30 and May 1. Roles include session support, tech assistance, media coordination, registration, and more. Both in-person and online opportunities are available. Those interested can sign up through the event website.

Dries Buytaert shows how to connect Drupal with Activepieces for workflow automation. Using JSON:API and Basic Auth, Drupal can trigger actions across tools like Slack or Sheets. Advanced setups use the Orchestration module to add AI agents and smarter automations.

Seventy-one Drupalers gathered in Troutdale, Oregon, for the 2025 PNW Drupal Summit on October 18–19. They shared 24 sessions, lively unconference topics, and post-event drives through the Columbia Gorge. Recordings are now online—alongside a call to grow and support local Drupal communities in the region.

Drupal Canvas is almost here—and Webhaven is already putting it to use. Currently in RC3, this community-built drag-and-drop editor lets you build pages visually in Drupal with live previews and flexible components. It’s a huge step toward making Drupal friendlier for content teams.

Marcus Johansson shows how to build a Drupal AI agent that creates content directly from PDFs. It uses the Tool API and AI Simple PDF to Text to extract fields and auto-generate nodes. The tutorial includes examples, modules, and security tips for agent behavior.

The Drupal Association has opened sponsorships for DrupalCon Chicago 2026, happening March 23–26. Packages include booths, summit tie-ins, and branded add-ons for exposure to 1,200+ Drupal professionals. Early booking secures prime placement and strategic access across key sectors like AI, gov, and higher ed.

A new blog from Lunar Fashion explores Drupal-native design systems using SDC, UI Suite, and Storybook. The post reviews component theming with bundled Twig, JS, and CSS inside SDC architecture. It’s a must-read for designers building structured UI systems directly within Drupal.

Phil Norton shows how to programmatically change Layout Paragraphs in Drupal 11. His method remaps nested layout metadata using service code and behavior settings. This helps clean up overused layouts and improves editorial UX at scale.

Fox Valley Drupal hosts a hybrid meetup on Nov 19 featuring a Drupal Forge demo by Salim Lakhani. The tool enables Drupal site launches in under five seconds, with support for templates and recipes. Developers can join remotely via Zoom or in person at Fox.Build in St. Charles, Illinois.

David and Lydia Bishop will present Council Insight at LocalGov Drupal Week on November 18. Their AI tool analyses 4,000+ public user journeys monthly to help councils improve service UX. It’s a free webinar for teams using LocalGov Drupal to enhance content and user flow.

Fox.Build hosts an AI collaboration night in St. Charles on November 12. Attendees will demo, prototype, and co-create AI tools in a maker-space environment. It’s a grassroots event ideal for devs exploring AI workflows or Drupal-AI integrations.

Klee Group shares a hands-on guide for starting Drupal 11 projects with Upsun Fixed hosting. The tutorial covers YAML config, PHP tuning, cron, and deployment automation via hooks. It’s a practical walkthrough for modern Drupal cloud setups with CI/CD and service tuning.

Velir's Kevin Quillen explains how to extend Optimizely’s Opal AI with Node.js and Express. The guide walks through building custom tools agents can call via a discovery endpoint. This empowers devs to integrate external services with AI-driven workflows.

The Drupal AI Awareness Series continues on November 12 at Oaisys 2025 with a session on AI Agents. Akhil Babu will demo how agents handle multi‑tool workflows and real‑world automation. It’s a must‑watch for anyone building advanced AI use cases in Drupal.

Promet Source highlights new capabilities in the Provus Drupal distribution for meetings, forms, and microsites. Features include agenda consolidation, CRM-integrated webforms, and centralized multisite control. These tools aim to simplify content governance and service delivery in complex Drupal setups.

ImageX shares role-based best practices for Drupal sites in nonprofit and higher-ed sectors. The guide outlines practical user roles like Donor, Faculty, and Event Coordinator with tailored permissions. It’s a great reference for improving access control and streamlining site workflows.

Sebastian Bergmann outlines major updates in PHPUnit 12.4 on his blog. Reusable data providers and regex-based deprecation filters lead the improvements. This release simplifies automated testing workflows, especially for large or evolving test suites.

Dripyard has released version 1.0.5 of its premium themes, optimized for Drupal Canvas. The update adds new components, bug fixes, and early compatibility support for the upcoming builder. A future webinar and NEDCamp talk will explore theming workflows with Canvas and AI.

The Drupal Association has relaunched its industry-specific pages to showcase Drupal’s sector impact. Each page now features targeted messaging and case studies from Certified Partners. The refresh supports enterprise outreach and strengthens Drupal’s strategic visibility.

At DrupalCon Vienna, over 100 university students joined a free one-day crash course called “Drupal in a Day,” part of the Drupal Open University Initiative. Created by Hilmar Kári Hallbjörnsson and supported by global contributors, the program is designed to teach the essentials of Drupal quickly and accessibly. It’s open source, repeatable, and headed next to DrupalCon Chicago. The effort is not only about education—it’s building the next generation of contributors.

amazee.io has acquired Amazee Labs, reuniting the original Amazee Group's tech branches. The merger boosts AI, maintenance, and cloud capabilities while keeping Labs’ teams intact. Their focus shifts to white-label services—supporting agencies without taking on new build projects.

Varbase 10.1.0-beta1 is out, adding WCAG 2.2 accessibility fixes and new ECA-powered workflow models. It also updates frontend tooling with Bootstrap 5.3.8, Node 20, and Yarn 4.9.3 for Drupal 11 readiness. This beta targets early adopters looking to build modern, inclusive Drupal projects.

DDEV’s latest release adds support for PHP 8.5 and PostgreSQL 18, while streamlining communication between local projects. New tools enhance diagnostics, integrations, and workflow flexibility for developers. CI users should skip this version due to a known bug and upgrade directly to the next release.

Drupal Open University is calling for global instructors to teach its “Drupal in a Day” course. The course offers hands-on training for newcomers and is a key part of Drupal’s academic outreach. Interested contributors can join the #open-university-initiative channel on Drupal Slack to get involved.

This week in Drupal: Join hands-on AI workshops, community camps in Italy and Rhode Island, and key training on code of conduct response. Don’t miss this packed week of events—virtual and in-person

SparkFabrik kicks off a new tutorial series by Luca Lusso on Drupal’s Service Container. The first part covers service tags, compiler passes, providers, and autoconfiguration. It’s a must-read for developers managing complex dependencies in custom or contrib modules.

Ravi Shekhar has released Saar, a new responsive Drupal theme built for business and agency websites. The theme supports Drupal 9, 10, and 11, and is optimized for speed, mobile-first layouts, and easy setup. It’s free to download and works out of the box—no extra modules needed.

Mark Conroy’s “Designing for LocalGov Drupal” session is set for November 19, with 30+ already registered. The talk focuses on using LGD’s styleguide and components to streamline frontend development. It’s a free, Zoom-based event for public sector teams looking to build maintainable Drupal sites.

amazee.ai's new AI Provider module connects Drupal 10.2+ sites to AI tools in under two minutes. It offers a built-in vector database, open-source transparency, and region-based data control. Developers get 30 days of unlimited access to experiment, build, and train—no external config needed.