Drupal Planet

The Impact of Web Design on Conversion: Strategies and Tools for a Successful Web Project Editor Mon, 04/29/2024 - 13:01

Do you still doubt that web design directly affects the conversion of your Drupal site? Today, high-end web design goes beyond a simple and beautiful layout, well-optimized photos, or an eye-catching color scheme. If you neglect the connection between web design and conversion, your lead generation progress won’t help you realize your digital marketing objectives and desired ROI rates.
With the right choice of design strategies for conversions, novice professionals can drastically improve the target platform’s responsiveness and accessibility — with user journeys improved and bounce risks reduced. 

Dear Readers,

This is your reminder that everyone has their path in life, so embrace the uniqueness of your journey.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

— Laozi (Lao Tzu), Tao Te Ching (Daodejing), Chapter 64

Instead of fixating on others' paths, focus on discovering what works best for you. Your journey to success unfolds uniquely, guided by your own rhythm and routine. Trust in your process and celebrate your progress along the way. Just as in the diverse Drupal community, where each contributor's unique experiences and skills enrich the whole, your unique contributions to your own life and the lives of others around you are invaluable. Embrace your individual journey, just as Drupal embraces the diversity of its community.

Drupal itself is built on the principle of open collaboration, fostering an environment where different perspectives lead to better solutions and innovations. This ethos extends beyond the technology, influencing the Drupal community to support each other's growth and development. The community thrives on the collective effort of individuals who bring their distinct paths and insights, contributing to the strength and flexibility of Drupal as a platform. As you walk your path, remember the power of a community that values each step of your journey.

Now, Let's take a moment to revisit the highlights from last week's coverage at The Drop Times.

Alka Elizabeth and Kazima Abbas, sub-editors at The Drop Times, spoke with Dominique de Cooman, the founder of Dropsolid. He discussed his journey, from his profound interest in Drupal to the establishment of his company, sparked by a pivotal experience at DrupalCon Munich in 2012. Read about his inspiring story here.

Anoop John, the founder and lead at The Drop Times, explores the scope and composition of the Drupal community. To get the full insights, read the article here. 

Ajith Thampi Joseph recounts his transition from traditional server setups to modern development tools in another feature. His article discusses the challenges he encountered and the solutions he implemented. Learn more about his journey here.

Acquia sets the stage for a memorable evening at DrupalCon Portland 2024 on Tuesday, May 7. This event promises an evening of fun-filled activities, including vintage arcade games, bowling, and karaoke. To know more, click on the link here.

Just one more week until DrupalCon Portland 2024 kicks off! The event is scheduled to run from May 6th to May 9th. Are you ready to dive into the excitement? We invite volunteers to join our team and help us cover the biggest open-source event in North America.

In collaboration with DubBot and Iowa's Department for the Blind, Lullabot will host a webinar on web accessibility on Thursday, May 16, 2024. This event coincides with Global Accessibility Awareness Day and aims to highlight common issues impacting individuals with disabilities. 

CTI Digital's webinar on "Navigating Drupal 7 End-of-Life: What To Do Next?" is scheduled for Friday, May 3, 2024. The webinar will be led by CTI Digital's Drupal Technical Director, David Bishop, and Sales Director, James Tillotson. 

EvolveDrupal returns to Montreal for its Second Edition on June 14, 2024. This event promises a day filled with learning, networking, and inspiration. Learn more about the event here.

Northern Commerce and Acquia have collaborated to host a free "Lunch & Learn" event titled "Unlocking the Digital Student Journey," aimed at providing insights into enhancing the digital experiences of students. Scheduled for Thursday, May 08, 2024, the event promises valuable discussions and strategies for navigating the evolving landscape of digital education.

NEDcamp 2024 is set to take place on November 15-16, inviting Drupal enthusiasts to mark their calendars for this exciting event. With a rich tradition of fostering collaboration and learning within the Drupal community, NEDcamp promises attendees engaging sessions and networking opportunities. Drupal events are held worldwide each week to keep Drupal enthusiasts engaged. A complete list of events for the week is available here.

Michael Anello has unveiled version 1.0.1 of the Drupal Markdown Easy module. This version boasts a minor bug fix, default configuration settings, Drupal 11 compatibility, and enhanced code quality, ensuring smoother markdown experiences for users. The Beautify HTML module for Drupal has been updated, introducing enhanced formatting tools to streamline HTML code editing. With these improvements, users can expect a more efficient and user-friendly experience working with HTML on Drupal websites.

Octahedroid has unveiled a new preview feature that facilitates decoupled Drupal and Next.js integration, empowering developers with advanced preview capabilities. This release marks a significant advancement in decoupled architecture, offering seamless content preview experiences for Drupal-powered websites using Next.js frontend frameworks.

Kevin Wall has introduced a groundbreaking new feature for Drupal module installation in collaboration with Accorbis, promising to simplify and streamline the process for users. With this innovation, Drupal users can expect a more efficient and user-friendly experience when installing modules, enhancing their website development workflows.

Scheduled for November 2024, PHP 8.4 brings enhanced security and functionality, providing developers with improved features and safeguards. Learn more here.

We acknowledge that there are more stories to share. However, due to selection constraints, we must pause further exploration for now.

To get timely updates, follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Also, join us on Drupal Slack at #thedroptimes.

Thank you,
Sincerely
Elma John
Sub-editor, The DropTimes.

Angie Byron, Community Director at Aiven and former Drupal Core Co-Maintainer, shares insights on her journey in tech. This interview explores her transition from Google Summer of Code participant to Drupal Product Manager, her advocacy for diversity in tech, and her work in fostering community collaboration.

April 23rd, 2024 saw the first LocalGov Drupal Camp, held at the Birmingham Council buildings in Birmingham city center.

It's been ages since I attended an in person Drupal Camp in the UK, so when I saw that the LocalGov Drupal people were organising one just down the road for me I jumped at the chance to grab a ticket.

LocalGov Drupal is a distribution that combines Drupal, some configuration, some contributed modules, and some glue code with the aim of making it easier for councils to generate sites.

The initiative was started a few years ago where two councils (Brighton & Hove City Council & Croydon Council) decided to re-use some of their Drupal work and create a system that they could both benefit from. There are now 44 different councils around the UK who use the distribution in some capacity.

I work with a few of the councils in my day job and I have been really impressed by the power of the distribution. The fact that it is also backed up by a dedicated team of developers really helps with support and future development of the project.

Introductions

The day started with a few introductions and thank you messages, followed by a number of lightning talks from various members of the community.

Read more

Are you new to the world of Drupal, eager to dive into its powerful capabilities, but encountering obstacles in the form of outdated tutorials and confusing documentation? You're not alone. Beginning your Drupal journey can feel like navigating uncharted territory, leaving many feeling frustrated before they even begin.

Last month, we announced that depending on readiness of the codebase to 11.0.0 beta requirements today on April 26, 2024, Drupal 11 would be released either on the week of July 29, 2024 or the week of December 9, 2024.

The Drupal 11 codebase progressed a lot since then, it is based on Symfony 7 and jQuery 4, and the deprecated APIs have been removed. However, while we are making rapid progress on PHPUnit 10 support, we need to fully complete that update to PHPUnit 10 before a beta release, which will not quite be ready for next week.

To help the community prepare for Drupal 11, we decided to make Drupal 11.0.0-alpha1 available next week (on the week of April 29, 2024), alongside Drupal 10.3.0-beta1. This also means that those attending DrupalCon Portland 2024 the week after can already try out the first tagged version of Drupal 11, and modules can add Drupal 11 compatibility confident that all runtime APIs are stable.

We are giving ourselves an additional couple of weeks to run down the last PHPUnit 10 issues and any other remaining beta blockers ready for a stable Drupal 11.0.0 release on the week of July 29, 2024. Assuming all goes well, we'll make a final decision by May 10th and release a beta shortly afterwards.

In Drupal 10, you can create custom tokens using your custom module. Before creating custom tokens, you need to have the Drupal tokens module installed on your Drupal site. This contributed module already comes with some predefined tokens. These defined tokens can be used globally.

Steps to Create the Drupal Custom Tokens

1. Begin by creating a yourmodule.module file in your custom module directory.

2. Establish your custom token type.

 

Discover how DDEV, Docker, and NGROK can revolutionize your local development process. Our latest guide dives into the seamless integration of these powerful tools, offering you the most efficient way to set up, develop, and test your Drupal projects right from your local machine. Streamline your workflow and enhance productivity with our comprehensive insights!"

How to create a partial date field in Drupal (i.e. Year & Month without Day)

One of Drupal's main strengths is its data modeling.

But sometimes choosing the appropriate field type comes with a form widget that isn't what we're looking for. For example, using a Date field results in the form displaying a date "widget" (form input) which includes a full date consisting of a day, month, and year, and optionally a time.

How to remove the time from a date field in Drupal

Because removing the time from date fields is such a common request, Drupal allows its removal without writing any custom code.

How to hide the time Drupal's frontend

Fortunately, the date field has a highly configurable display on the frontend. By visiting the "Manage Display" page (or configuring the field's block, if using layout builder), you will have the option of selecting (or creating) a date format.

Follow these steps to change the date's output for your frontend:

ashrafabed Fri, 04/26/2024

It’s less than two weeks to DrupalCon Portland 2024, and the excitement is building! If you’re gearing up for the biggest Drupal event of the year, we’re here to help you maximize your travel experience to Portland. Let’s dive right in!

Hotel Bookings at Great Prices

You still have a chance to book your DrupalCon Portland hotel within the official hotel block. By staying within the hotel block, you'll get the best proximity to the conference center as well as the chance to run into other Drupalists on your floor! Book now:

• Hyatt Regency Portland 
• DoubleTree by Hilton - book by Sunday 28 April

When and where is DrupalCon’24 happening in Portland?

DrupalCon North America 2024 will be held from 6th to 9th May 2024 at the Oregon Convention Center (yes, in-person!). Located right in the heart of the city, it is a perfect hub for exploration. You'll find hotels, restaurants, and shops just around the corner. It's also super easy to get to fun stuff like entertainment and hiking. With endless possibilities, you're sure to find something that suits your fancy.

Things you should NOT miss out on in Portland

May is a delightful time to be in Portland, with spring in full bloom. Enjoy the sunny weather and mild temperatures, making it the perfect season to explore the city's vibrant outdoor scene. There are several must-visit places that capture the city's unique charm.

1. Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park

This is the perfect place to enjoy Portland's beauty while watching the river flow by. Visitors to the park can enjoy a variety of recreational activities, from leisurely strolls and picnics to jogging and biking along the paved pathways. The park also hosts numerous events throughout the year, including festivals, concerts, and outdoor markets, adding to its vibrant atmosphere.

One of the park's highlights is the Salmon Street Springs Fountain, where children and adults alike can cool off in the refreshing water jets during the warmer months. The park also features several monuments and public art installations, adding cultural and historical significance to its landscape.

Image Source: https://www.travelportland.com/attractions/governor-tom-mccall-waterfront-park/

2. Powell's City of Books

Powell's City of Books is a literary wonderland located in downtown Portland, Oregon. As the world's largest independent bookstore, Powell's spans an entire city block and boasts multiple floors filled with books of every genre imaginable. One of Powell's most unique features is its rare book room, home to a collection of rare and out-of-print titles, first editions, and signed copies that will delight bibliophiles and collectors alike.

In addition to its vast selection of books, Powell's hosts author readings, book signings, and other literary events, fostering a sense of community among book lovers from near and far.

Image Source: https://www.travelportland.com/attractions/powells/

3. Portland Art Museum

Founded in 1892, the Portland Art Museum is the oldest art museum on the West Coast and holds a rich and diverse collection of artworks spanning various time periods, cultures, and mediums. It is located in the heart of downtown Portland. One of the museum's highlights is its extensive collection of Native American art, which celebrates the rich artistic traditions of indigenous peoples from the Pacific Northwest and beyond. 

In addition to its permanent collection, the Portland Art Museum hosts rotating exhibitions that showcase both established and emerging artists, offering visitors the opportunity to engage with cutting-edge contemporary art and explore new perspectives.

Image Source: https://www.travelportland.com/attractions/portland-art-museum/

4. Voodoo Doughnut

Voodoo Doughnut is more than just a bakery; it's a Portland icon, a symbol of creativity, and a culinary experience like no other. It was founded in 2003 by friends Kenneth Pogson and Richard Shannon and has gained international fame for its wacky doughnut creations.

It is located in the heart of downtown Portland, Voodoo Doughnut draws long lines of locals and tourists, eager to sample its unique offerings. Some of the must-try snacks: Voodoo Doll doughnut, pretzel stake and raspberry filling, Bacon Maple Bar topped with crispy bacon strips. If this has got you drooling (like me), make sure you head to this place while you’re at Portland.

Image Source: https://www.travelportland.com/attractions/voodoo-doughnut/

5. Oregon Museum of Science and Industry 

The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) is a beloved institution in Portland, Oregon, dedicated to inspiring curiosity and fostering a love of science through engaging exhibits, interactive displays, and educational programs. Located on the east bank of the Willamette River, OMSI's sprawling campus encompasses a variety of attractions that cater to visitors of all ages. 

OMSI's planetarium is a highlight, where visitors can explore the wonders of the night sky, learn about astronomy and astrophysics, and take virtual journeys through space. The museum also features a state-of-the-art IMAX theater, where visitors can experience immersive films on topics ranging from nature and wildlife to history and technology.

Image Source: https://www.travelportland.com/attractions/omsi/

Find more information to plan your trip here.

Learning Drupal with the Help of an AI Tutor

TL; DR: Use this prompt and the text from a Drupalize.Me tutorial to experiment with using generative AI as a tutor for learning Drupal.

A while ago, I wrote an article and gave a presentation about why learning Drupal is so hard. One of the key challenges I identified is the “pit of despair”. It's that point in the learning journey where you can no longer rely on the hand holding of step-by-step tutorials. You need to step out into the chasm and come up with your own unique solutions to your specific problems. That point where you know just enough to realize the breadth of what you don’t yet know. And I had said, based on input from many peers, that the quickest way through the dip is real-world experience and drawing on the expertise of others. The advice could be summed up as: if you want to learn fast, get a tutor.

It can be hard to find a mentor. As much as we would love to be able to do so, our small team at Drupalize.Me can't scale personalized individual tutoring. So I've been thinking about how you might be able to use AI to help get at least some of the benefits of tutoring.

joe Thu, 04/25/2024 - 11:29

The Drop Times delves into the dynamics of the Drupal community with a detailed analysis of LinkedIn data, revealing the distribution and growth trends of Drupal professionals worldwide. This comprehensive study sheds light on regional concentrations and potential areas for community engagement.

Legal forms are often challenging to understand and fill-out. Breaking them into manageable chunks was essential for end users and content editors.

Authored by: Nadiia Nykolaichuk.

Drupal 7 was released 13 years ago, during the Jurassic period in the world of modern software. However, as of April 2024, there are 322,700+ websites officially listed on drupal.org as still running on Drupal 7, which sadly makes it the #1 installed Drupal major core version but, luckily, this number is steadily reducing.

One of the most impactful things to do in preparation for any migration project is to understand the source site. The more insight you gather into how the current site was built, the better equipped you will be to perform the migration.

Read more mauricio Wed, 04/24/2024 - 06:00

Welcome back to “Skills Upgrade” a Talking Drupal mini-series following the journey of a D7 developer learning D10. This is episode 8.

Topics

• Review Chad's questions

  • What is the process of creating a new issue, reviewing automated tests, and creating a merge request for review by the project maintainer?

    • https://www.drupal.org/docs/develop/git/using-gitlab-to-contribute-to-drupal
    • https://www.drupal.org/docs/develop/git/using-gitlab-to-contribute-to-drupal/creating-issue-forks
    • My example issue: https://www.drupal.org/project/smart_date/issues/3432819
    • My example merge request: https://git.drupalcode.org/project/smart_date/-/merge_requests/94

  • If we're not using Composer to pull the contrib module, how do we make sure that all dependencies are handled?

  • How can someone navigate so many complex issues without getting lost or "barking up the wrong tree"?

• Tasks for the upcoming week

  • Work toward getting the merge request accepted.
  • Document learning bullet points for this journey.

Resources

Chad's Drupal 10 Learning Curriclum & Journal Chad's Drupal 10 Learning Notes

The Linux Foundation is offering a discount of 30% off e-learning courses, certifications and bundles with the code, all uppercase DRUPAL24 and that is good until June 5th https://training.linuxfoundation.org/certification-catalog/

Hosts

AmyJune Hineline - @volkswagenchick

Guests

Chad Hester - chadkhester.com @chadkhest Mike Anello - DrupalEasy.com @ultimike

This is part 1 of a series of articles that defines our approach to frontend performance optimization. In this part we get into the details of an effective cache policy.

We're extremely excited to announce the 1.0 release of the Drupal API Client. This release includes a fully functional JSON:API client and completes our commitment as a result of funding from the 'Pitch-burgh' innovation contest.

Before diving into the details of some recent updates, let's recap the state of the project now that it has reached 1.0.

What is the Drupal API Client?

The Drupal API Client is a set of JavaScript packages that simplify the process of interacting with common Drupal APIs. Most commonly, developers will use our JSON:API client to interface with Drupal's JSON:API endpoints, but we also publish a base API Client package that can be extended, a client for Decoupled Router, and may support other Drupal APIs in the future.

The Drupal API Client takes great care to be framework-agnostic and universal. It can be used:

• with your JavaScript framework of choice, vanilla JavaScript, or even in Drupal itself.
• with or without TypeScript.
• on the server, or on the client.
• with a bundler, or as a script import from a CDN.

Recent Developments

• We've completed our Pitch-burgh commitment and released JSON:API Client 1.0. Thanks to all who contributed along the way!
• We've published detailed documentation on GitLab Pages. The docs include live code examples, and is itself an example of using the API Client with Astro.
• We've opened an issue proposing that the Drupal API Client packages be promoted to the Drupal namespace on npm. We'd love your feedback and support on the issue.
• We're refining our 1.x roadmap and soliciting community feedback. One proposed priority will be TypeScript improvements and automatic type generation.

See you at Stanford WebCamp and DrupalCon!

Moving forward, we hope to prioritize additional features for projects that could use our libraries as a dependency. Catch up with us at community events in May to learn more and share your use cases.

• The Drupal API Client will be featured in a session at Stanford WebCamp. Sessions are free and virtual, so this is a great way to get a more detailed overview of the project.
• We'll be holding a Birds of a Feather discussion and participating in contribution events at DrupalCon Portland. The BOF will be on Monday, May 6 in room G129 at 4PM.

Beyond these events, we're always available in the #api-client channel on Drupal Slack and monitoring our issue queue. Hope to see you there!

Imagine a world where installing Drupal instantly launches you into a creative experience, allowing you to build and style pages right out of the box, without any need for additional modules or configuration.

The introduction of Drupal's Layout Builder in 2018 was an important milestone toward this vision, but it was just the first step. Layout Builder provides site builders with a powerful drag-and-drop interface for creating and arranging content within customizable layouts.

Despite its success, there is a clear and pressing need to improve the existing Layout Builder. The numerous community-developed modules enhancing Layout Builder highlight the need for a more comprehensive solution.

That is why at DrupalCon Lille last year, I was excited to announce the "Next Generation Page Builder" initiative, aimed at improving and expanding the Layout Builder to provide a truly intuitive, out-of-the-box page-building experience.

Since announcing the 'Next Generation Page Builder', led by Lauri Eskola (Acquia), a Drupal Core Committer, we've done extensive research and planning.

Inspired by user feedback, we decided to make two changes. First, we decided to broaden our focus: not only will we improve the page-building features of Layout Builder, we will also integrate basic theming capabilities, enabling users to style their pages effortlessly without having to edit Twig files. Second, reflecting on this wider scope, we renamed the initiative from 'Next Generation Page Builder' to 'Experience Builder'.

In recent months, we explored several options for how to create such an Experience Builder, including accelerating development of the Layout Builder, switching to Gutenberg, adopting Paragraphs, or using the newly open-sourced Plasmic.

After thorough analysis and discussions with key stakeholders, including Automattic's Gutenberg team, the Drupal Core Committers decided the best approach is to expand the Layout Builder while also incorporating the best elements of Paragraphs.

Looking to the future, I hope the Experience Builder becomes the preferred Drupal tool for layout design, page building, and basic theming. Our main goal is to create a tool that site builders love, with an amazing out-of-the-box experience. By integrating key features from Paragraphs, we also aim to create a unified solution that reduces fragmentation, accelerates innovation, and ensures Drupal remains at the forefront of site building.

Our future success hinges on expanding Drupal's usability to a wider audience. Our CMS capabilities are often better than our competitors', but aren't always as user friendly. In the Drupal 7 era, Drupal was the OG (Original Great) of low-code but today we are being outpaced by competitors in terms of ease of use. Without user experience improvements, we'll lose ground. The Experience Builder initiative is all about introducing more people to the power of Drupal.

I feel strongly that a unified Experience Builder is one of the most important initiatives we can undertake right now.

Developing an Experience Builder is a big task that will require substantial effort, extensive collaboration, and significant expertise in user experience and design. As Drupal Core Committers, we are driven by a sense of urgency to advance this initiative. We are committed to moving quickly and iterating rapidly, but to succeed, we also need your support. There will be many opportunities for the community to collaborate and contribute to this initiative.

For more information, please check Lauri's latest blog post on the topic. Additionally, I will discuss this further in my upcoming DrupalCon Portland keynote in a few weeks.

At DrupalCon Lille 2023, Dries announced a new strategic initiative to build a Next Generation Page Builder. The goal of the initiative was to improve and expand Layout Builder to provide a truly intuitive out-of-the-box page building experience.

We have started defining what experience would look like by identifying user journeys from beginning to end, from customizing Drupal to match a brand and content strategy to creating and editing pages. We have identified that to provide the desired experience, we need to define a standardized way for builders and creators to transform designs into optimized digital experiences. To realize the Ambitious Site Builder vision announced by Dries in 2022, we are providing visual, browser-based tools that require minimal technical expertise. This will make it easier for users without prior knowledge about Drupal or coding to implement a digital experience with Drupal. Our working name for this is Experience Builder to highlight that the module seamlessly integrates a page builder and a theme builder.

With the Experience Builder, site builders can create fully customized pages and themes using no-code/low-code tools in the browser. It provides site builders, developers, and content creators a single platform to collaborate. Content creators are empowered to create and update content without having to reach out to a developer. Site builders can balance brand consistency and creative freedom by selecting which visual editor controls to expose to the content creator. As a result, anyone in your organization can easily build and update sites, accelerating time to market while remaining brand compliant.

To keep the out-of-the-box experience simple for non-technical users, Drupal will continue to optimize the experience for site builders without the need of building custom, code-based headless front ends. We are actively exploring ways for Drupal to enable JavaScript developers to work with Drupal without the need of managing a large custom code base. Meanwhile, we will still deliver capabilities that enable headless use cases and retain much of the work that has been done to enable headless use cases so far.

How should we build the Experience Builder?

The Drupal core committer team has decided to expand on our existing solutions. Incorporating the best features of Paragraphs into an expanded Layout Builder will provide a solution that can significantly surpass the existing options explored. We are still evaluating if there are smaller components that exist in other open source projects that could be utilized by the Experience Builder.

What options did we consider?

We researched the existing Drupal based page building solutions, as well as other open source projects to decide how we should realize the Experience Builder. We evaluated Paragraphs, Layout Builder, and Gutenberg using six criteria: expertise required to realize our vision, effort required to realize our vision, effort required to migrate existing sites, future-proofness of the solutions, how well it matches with our persona, and ability for market differentiation.

Gutenberg was the primary option that we considered adopting from outside the Drupal ecosystem. With the help of the Pitchburgh fund, I had couple long days of working sessions with a group of Gutenberg maintainers, as well as the team behind Drupal Gutenberg. We learned that there are many parallels between the problems the different teams are aiming to solve. However, Gutenberg is primarily built for the content creators, which is at odds with our promise to build a platform for the Ambitious Site Builders. Gutenberg would provide us a fast way to enable content creators, but would slow us down delivering on our vision for site builders.

From the Drupal-based solutions, Paragraphs has the largest user base. Site builders attribute this to its relative simplicity and flexibility to implement nearly any kind of design system. However, Paragraphs focuses solely on component composition and content composition, and therefore doesn't enable non-technical builders to control the display of structured data, or the page as a whole.

Layout Builder originally focused on providing site builders with a way to display structured data from entities using more complex layouts. For this reason, the out-of-the-box experience hasn't been optimized for content creation. As a result, some sites using Paragraphs also choose to use Layout Builder as a tool for builders to customize the page layout, leading to a less integrated UX.

All of the solutions we evaluated came with trade-offs. The core committer team decided to prioritize how well the solution would match with our Ambitious Site Builder persona and having an ability for market differentiation. Based on our research, evolving Layout Builder, and enhancing it with capabilities that exist in Paragraphs today best meets these criteria. This approach requires a lot of expertise and effort to realize our vision, in particular UX design, but makes it easier to migrate existing sites and integrate with other Drupal APIs and use cases.

Next steps

We have identified three lanes of work to implement the Experience Builder:

1. Creating a revamped user experience that is optimized for creating pages using components, as well as defining the layout for structured data.
2. Implementing a new mechanism for defining components, alongside blocks. Components can be defined through the UI as no-code components, or as code components. The experience for creating code components will be similar to Single Directory Components.
3. Implementing a browser-based theme builder that enables site builders to implement themes custom to brand without leaving the browser.

Expected timeline and call for help

The core committer team is convinced that a unified Experience Builder is one of the most important initiatives we can undertake. We are committed to moving quickly and iterating rapidly, but we need your support to succeed. We know that with the help of the community, we are able to develop a proof of concept and demo of the new user experience later this year. The first release as a contributed module is targeted for the first half of 2025.

If you are willing to help fund this project, you can reach out to Lauri or Dries. If you are willing to help with the implementation itself, we are planning to set up a recurring meeting. Join the #layouts channel on Drupal Slack for updates and opportunities to contribute!