Talking Drupal

Michael Kinnunen and Steve Wirt share how they each got started with Drupal through higher-ed jobs and stayed for the communit. They compare those community values to FIRST Robotics, explaining FIRST's K–12 programs (FRC, FTC, and FIRST LEGO League), kickoff-style challenges, and the "coopertition" culture where teams help competitors with parts and repairs. Both mentor highschool robotics teams in the US.
For show notes visit:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/cafe019
Topics
Cafe Catch Up
Drupal Origin Stories
Why Drupal Community
What Is FIRST
Mentoring Journeys
Team Names Numbers
Kickoff Build Sprint
Coopertition In Action
Awards And Impact
Drupal for Team Ops
Trying Recipes and Canvas
Time Investment and Module Fixes
Getting Students into Drupal
Mentor Load and Teaching Java
Student Run Team Culture
Robot Ecosystem and Everybot
Team Roles and Onboarding
Adversity and Grit Lessons
FIRST Programs and How to Join
Wrap Up and Good Luck
Steve Wirt
Drupal Developer for CivicActions by day, FIRST Robotics mentor by night
Steve has been a Drupal Developer for 19 years and helps government agencies build tools that help improve their mission. He is founding mentor of FRC team Compass Robotics.
Michael Kinnunen
Backend Engineer for CivicActions
Michael has been working with Drupal for about a decade, starting with Drupal 7 in 2016 as a Web Developer at Northern Michigan University. He has also spent the past six years as a mentor for the Negaunee Minerbotics FRC team, where he has helped students build technical skills in programming and engineering.
Guests
Steve Wirt - swirt
Michael Kinnunen - mkinnune
Resources
FIRST Robotics
Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition
Michael's team
https://github.com/minerbotics
https://www.facebook.com/MinerBotics4827/
Steve's team - Compass Robotics

Today we are talking about Aaron Winborn, The award named after him, and what winning is like with guests George DeMet & April Sides. We'll also cover Summit as our module of the week.
For show notes visit:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/561
Topics
Who Was Aaron Winborn
Award Origin Story
How Winners Are Chosen
Why Community Matters
What Winners Share
April Learns She Won
Handcrafted Award Stories
On Stage Emotions
After Winning Reflections
How To Contribute
Nominations And Makers
Surprise Award Ideas
Wrap Up And Contacts
Resources
TD Cafe #018 - Drupal Site Templates
Aaron Winborn Award Winner
AskWookiee
Guests
April Sides - weekbeforenext
George DeMet - palantir.net gdemet
Hosts
Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Ashraf Abed - drupito.com ashrafabed
MOTW
Correspondent
Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu
Brief description: Have you ever wanted to create a website purpose-built for an event like a Drupal camp, that collects, moderates, and schedules user-submitted sessions, and do all of that within the Drupal CMS installer? There's a site template for that.

Module name/project name: Summit Site Template

Brief history How old: created in June 2026 by yours truly
Versions available: 1.0.0, released yesterday

Maintainership Actively maintained
Security and test coverage
Documentation some in the repo we'll talk about later
Number of open issues: no open issues, though there are a couple of open issues on the Event Platform Starter, from which Summit was created

Module features and usage We've talked before on this podcast about the Event Platform that grew out of an initiative from the Event Organizers Working Group. The goal is to remove friction for anyone organizing a Drupal camp or similar event in creating a website that sets them up for success
The Event Platform was created before Recipes were a thing in the Drupal-verse, even though it was initially built in ways that were similar to recipes
A couple of years ago, I started working on the Event Platform Starter recipe to help spin up a fully-built event website in a single step. That ran into some technical complexities, so it ended up being being a time-saver, but still required a number of manual steps
As the newer concept of site templates took shape, I could see that the Event Platform ecosystem had the necessary elements to become a site template, in particular a theme and a battle-tested a content architecture
I ended up needing to decouple the configuration and the functional code that had previously been in Event Platform. The configuration would reside solely in the site template, so the functional code was moved to a new project, Event Platform Helper
Along the way, there have been a number of significant changes: Canvas integration for a fully customizable homepage, also a set of Canvas components to allow building new, custom layouts, a new, custom cache context, improved management of event information, and more
Now, you set everything up with a single click in the Drupal CMS installer. There's an open issue to get it into the Drupal CMS installer by default, but today it's just a composer require away
The repo does also include an AGENTS.md and CONTENT-STRUCTURE.md files, to help human or AI agents who want to work a site built using Summit to understand the initial state of the content architecture it provides, as well as the different logical components and how to troubleshoot them, individually or in combination

Today we are talking about Content, syndication, and Synchronization between Drupal Sites with guest Thiemo Müller. We'll also cover Drupal core 11.4 as our module of the week.
For show notes visit:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/560
Topics
Origins and Use Cases
Hub Model and Flexibility
Media Sync and Governance
Composable Pages Challenge
Governance With Blocks
Canvas And Recipes
Real Time Syndication
Scaling To Thousands
GEO And AEO Explained
GEO Audits And Loops
ContentSync Recommendations
Permissions And Drupal 11
AIM Assess Improve Monitor
Boosting Drupal AI Presence
Ecosystem Alignment Signals
Recency And Messaging Tips
Resources
Content Sync
Content Sync A-I-M
Content Sync Drupal Module
Deprecated extensions meta issue
GEO Generative engine optimization

Semrush
Peec ai
Otterly ai
Profound
Guests
Thiemo Müller - content-sync.io thiemo
Hosts
Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Ashraf Abed - drupito.com ashrafabed
MOTW
Correspondent
Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu
Brief description: Are you excited for a feature release of Drupal core that delivers even more performance acceleration, a modernized developer experience, and a slew of administrator and editor improvements? Drupal core 11.4 delivers all that and more

Module name/project name: Drupal core 11.4

Brief history How old: created on July 1 2026 by catch of Tag1

Changes Performance improvements When Drupal 11.3 was released, we talked about what a massive performance jump it represented, the biggest improvement in a decade. 11.4 has done it again! Database queries are reduced by half, across a range of requests due to optimizations in how entity fields are loaded. Overall, that represents a nearly ⅔ improvement for database and cache lookups on a cold cache compared to Drupal 11.0 or 10.6
Entity listing queries have also been refactored to use fewer table joins, reducing slow queries. Additionally, the link field introduces a resolvable_uri property and token, which returns a ready-to-use front-end link (like /#main-content) right out of the API instead of raw internal URIs, which will be a huge benefit for anyone using Drupal for decoupled and JSON:API-based use cases
Applying recipes in Drupal 11.4 is significantly faster, reportedly twice as fast, and that includes installing Drupal CMS
Drupal now supports Brotli compression, which should yield 15-25% better compression of CSS and JS assets

Security Drupal 11.4 offers a new password hashing algorithm, argon2id, that will become the default in Drupal 12 later this year
Also, the drupal/core-recommended package no longer strictly locks minor versions for critical dependencies like Guzzle, Twig, or Symfony Polyfills, making it easier to immediately receive important security updates
Drupal's default robots.txt now blocks well-behaved search crawlers from indexing search queries, helping to solve a potential source of traffic overload on sites using faceted search

Developer experience There's been a significant shift towards the adoption of PHP Attributes in recent Drupal releases, and 11.4 is no exception You can now define application routes directly within your PHP controller and form classes using the Symfony #[Route] attribute. This drastically reduces the need to jump back and forth into *.routing.yml files
The new #[Bundle] attribute allows developers to define bundle classes directly, eliminating the need to write old-school entity_type_info or entity_type_info_alter hook implementations.
All core .theme and .theme-settings.php files have been moved entirely to PHP classes. Support for legacy .theme files will be dropped in Drupal 13. Furthermore, dozens of core .module files have been fully converted into clean PHP classes

Front controllers now leverage the symfony/runtime component to isolate bootstrapping logic from request handling, preparing the Drupal core architecture for advanced environments like FrankenPHP, known for its blazing-fast performance, among other features
Drupal 11.4 introduces a native, extensible command-line tool (./vendor/bin/dr) built in partnership with Drush maintainers. This kicks off a transitional period where Drush commands will gradually be migrated to the core native binary
Also, the new HttpKernelUiHelperTrait for kernel tests lets developers make mock HTTP requests and assertions without running the full Drupal site installer. This allows many traditional browser tests to be rewritten as much faster kernel tests

Editor experience Drupal 11.4 includes the new Default Admin theme, a version of the popular Gin admin theme, now in core
The Navigation module is now enabled by default, replacing the legacy toolbar
CKEditor once again has a fullscreen button available without a contrib add-on, allowing editors to fully immerse themselves in a WYSIWYG element's content, great for working on long-format pieces

Deprecations The initial 11.4.0 release actually removed a number of core recipes. They were since restored in an 11.4.1 release, but they are deprecated and will be removed from Drupal 12
Also on their way out are a number of modules, including Ban, Contact, Field Layout, History, Migrate Drupal and its UI, Search, Settings Tray, Shortcut, Telephone, Toolbar, and a flag module called layout_builder_expose_all_field_blocks. For themes, Claro, Stable 9, and Olivero are all deprecated, and will be moved from core. We'll include the meta issue about these deprecation in the show notes, and if any of these are important to you, it's worth tracking where they are on the path of moving to contrib

Join Martin, Andy and Mike as they discuss what Drupal site templates are and how they differ from Drupal's traditionally bare-bones starting point, aiming to reduce setup effort and total cost of ownership while making Drupal competitive again for small nonprofits and smaller sites. They compare building templates versus client sites, covering the evolution from early Layout Builder/Recipes work to today's simpler packaging via a Drush site:export workflow, plus tooling like DripYard Recipe Builder for extracting reusable "recipe" parts.
For show notes visit:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/cafe018
Topics
Martin Anderson-Clutz
Based in London, Ontario, Martin transitioned from graphic design to web development, ultimately specializing in Drupal in 2005. Currently working as a Product Marketing Manager at Acquia, he is Triple Certified in Drupal and UX-certified by the world-renowned Nielsen Norman Group. His key contributions include: As a speaker & writer, presenting at Drupalcamps and Drupalcons, and a published blogger across multiple platforms, including the Acquia Dev Portal and opensource.com; as a podcast host, participating in the Talking Drupal podcast, including as the "Module of the Week" correspondent; and as an open source maintainer, developing and maintaining popular Drupal contrib modules and recipes, including Smart Date and Fullcalendar.
Andy Giles
Andy is a Drupal back-end developer. In 2012, he founded Blue Oak Interactive, a development and consulting agency focused on complex Drupal site builds, particularly in e-commerce. In 2025, he partnered with Mike Herchel to launch Dripyard, a premium Drupal theme designed to reduce the cost of ownership and enhance the developer experience for modern Drupal projects.
Mike Herchel
Mike is a founder & developer at Dripyard, and is a longtime contributor to Drupal. He has played a key role in modernizing Drupal's frontend architecture, performance, and accessibility, and is known for helping bring Drupal's component-driven development into mainstream use. Mike has delivered projects for organizations including IBM, the U.S. Small Business Administration, and the U.S. court system. He is a frequent speaker on performance, accessibility, and modern frontend practices.
What Are Site Templates
Drupal CMS Template Picker
Why Templates Matter
Building Templates Workflow
Recipes And Custom Tooling
Canvas And Theme Strategy
React Components And AI
Drupal 11.4 Compatibility
Canvas Patterns Explained
Pricing Adoption And AI
AI In Their Workflow
Internal Templates And Wrap Up
Guests
Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu
Andy Giles - andyg5000 Dripyard
Mike Herchel - mherchel Dripyard

Today we are talking about Marketing, AI, and Drupal with guest Paul Johnson. We'll also cover Curated Colors as our module of the week.
For show notes visit:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/559
Topics
Paul's Current Projects
Enterprise AI Summit Details
Marketing the AI Initiative
Partnering on Event Booths
Drupal's Outside Perception
What's Working Now
Growing the Marketing Team
How to Contribute
Outside In Storytelling
Case Study Examples
AI Initiative Impact
Roadmap and Launch Planning
Finding New Adopters
Where Pros Research
Conference Pitch Story
Local Event Playbook
Funnel and Webinars
Industry Guides and Demos
SEO and AI Search
Why Agents Avoid Drupal
High Leverage Contributions
Measuring AI Mentions
Vibe Coders to Governance
Fixing Misconceptions
Resources
Drupal AI Initiative home page
Slack #ai-initiative-marketing

Enterprise AI Summit Rotterdam
AI Dev Summit Rotterdam
Drupal AI TV We've curated a selection of the best presentations, workshops and demonstrations freely available to provide a practical way to stay informed about the latest innovations in Drupal AI.

Drupal AI Webinars playlist
Demos
Ryan Whitcombe
1xINTERNET S1xSignals free AIO GEO assessment
All things open
World cancer day
Guests
Paul Johnson - pdjohnson
Hosts
Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Scott Falconer - managing-ai.com scott-falconer
MOTW
Correspondent
Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu
Brief description: Have you ever wanted to allow editors on your Drupal site to choose styling from a brand-approved color palette? There's a module for that.

Module name/project name: Curated Colors

Brief history How old: created in Apr 2026 by Kyle Einecker (ctrladel) of True Summit
Versions available: 1.0.0 which works with Drupal 10.3, 11, and 12

Maintainership Actively maintained
Security coverage
Test coverage
Documentation - in-depth README
Number of open issues: 2 open issues, neither of which are bugs

Usage stats: 27 sites

Module features and usage Curated Colors enforces brand consistency by replacing generic color text inputs or wide-open color pickers with a curated, visual swatch popover containing only pre-approved, named options
It streamlines rebranding by storing abstract keys (such as brand-primary) instead of raw hex values (e.g., #0678be) in the database. That means updating a brand color in the future only requires a CSS or configuration change rather than a massive data migration
Curated Colors is also extensible beyond colors. It functions as a generic visual variant selector. Site builders can repurpose it to let editors pick card layouts, button styles (like primary, outline, or danger), hero text alignments, or icon themes
Editors can pick from neatly organized groups with human-readable labels and see a live preview swatch of their selection before saving
Palettes are managed as exportable Drupal configuration. Each entry maps a machine key to a label, administrative hex preview, and optional custom CSS
The module provides a curated_color field type and an accompanying swatch-based popover widget that can be restricted to specific palette groups. It also features a native curated_color_picker Form API element and integrates with the Canvas module via SDC annotations
The field exposes properties like value, hex, style, and css, making it simple to output selections as classes, inline styles, or raw codes in Twig templates
Finally, Curated Colors includes an example submodule providing a working SDC component and sample palette templates so you can see exactly how it's meant to be used