Talking Drupal

Nic Laflin and Matt Glaman sit down to discuss Drupal caching and Matt's new Leanpub book, Understanding Drupal: A Complete Guide to Caching Layers.
For show notes visit:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/cafe016
Topics
New Book on Caching
Why Drupal Caching Shines
Cache Tags Explained
Cache Context Variations
What Caching Really Is
Invalidation Across the Stack
NGINX Layer Pitfalls
What Drupal Can Cache
Writing Cacheable Render Arrays
Debugging Metadata Issues
Testing Caching Strategies
Researching the Book
Variation Cache Deep Dive
Access Policy and Performance
Permissions Caching and Disk IO
Extension Discovery Tangent
File Cache Explained
Clearing File Cache in Tests
Updating the Book Over Time
Leanpub Pricing and Royalties
Publishing Workflow and Tools
Writing Process and Editing
Matt Glaman
Matt Glaman is an experienced software engineer and a prominent member of the Drupal community. With over a decade of experience in web development, he has developed a wealth of knowledge and expertise. He is the author of several books, including "Drupal 8 Development Cookbook" and "Drupal 10 Development Cookbook," which provide a comprehensive guide to building and customizing Drupal sites. And recently, the book Understanding Drupal: A Complete Guide to Caching Layers.
Nic Laflin
Nic Laflin is an accomplished Drupal architect and the founder of nLightened Development LLC, a web development and design firm established in 2008 that leverages highly extensible CMS frameworks to solve complex business challenges.
They've been working with Drupal since late 2008, delivering creative solutions for a diverse roster of clients—from government agencies and e-commerce platforms to higher-education institutions and HIPAA-compliant medical services. Recently, Nic has focused on Native Web Components for platform-agnostic design, and has deep experience integrating AWS and building mobile application back ends.
A recognized Drupal guru, Nic speaks regularly at regional Drupal camps and co-hosts the Talking Drupal podcast, where they share best practices and innovations with the community.
Outside of technology, Nic enjoys building with LEGO, experimenting in the kitchen, and designing home automation projects. You can learn more at www.nlightened.net.
Resources
Understanding Drupal: A Complete Guide to Caching Layers
https://mglaman.dev/blog/leveraging-list-cache-tag-entity-types
If you're using a reverse proxy then disable the internal page cache
https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal/issues/3414825
Guests
Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
Matt Glaman - mglaman.dev mglaman

Kevin Thull, who leads the Drupal Recording Initiative (DRI), joins us to discuss why DRI started, how it scaled from Kevin recording local camps to supporting many events, the hub-and-mentorship model for maintainers, differences between shipping kits vs onsite support, costs compared with traditional AV vendors, and challenges like aging capture hardware, audio/video troubleshooting, and sustainable funding.
For show notes visit:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/551
Topics
Module of the Week TFA
Why Recording Matters
Early Events and Growing Pains
Post Production and Gear Limits
Recording DrupalCon vs Camps
Costs and Value Breakdown
Pittsburgh Turning Point
Hubs and Mentoring New Recordists
Beyond Drupal Events
Hands Off Goals
Impact and Adoption
Workflow Pain Points
Content First Recording
Maintainers and Volunteers
Volunteer Stress Factors
Funding and Platforms
Drupal TV Origins
Roadmap and Growth
Wrap Up and Contacts
Resources
MOTW - Two-factor Authentication (TFA) - https://www.drupal.org/project/tfa
TFA Email OTP Plugin - https://www.drupal.org/project/tfa_email_otp
National Institute for Standards and Technology's Special Publication 800-63B section 3.1.1.2 "Password Verifiers" - https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-4/sp800-63b.html#passwordver
Drupal Recording Initiative - https://www.drupal.org/project/dri
DrupalCon Chicago Playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpeDXSh4nHjQpb2cHv9rgQv4lvq1-ZkC3
Guests
Kevin Thull - Drupal Recording Initiative kthull
Guest Host
Bernardo Martinez - bernardm28
Hosts
Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
Avi Schwab - froboy.org froboy
Module of the Week
with Avi Schwab- froboy.org froboy
Two Factor Authentication - Two-factor authentication for Drupal sites. Drupal provides authentication via something you know – a username and password while TFA module adds a second step of authentication with a check for something you have – such as a code sent to (or generated by) your mobile phone.
TFA is a base module for providing two-factor authentication for your Drupal site. As a base module, TFA handles the work of integrating with Drupal, providing flexible and well tested interfaces to enable your choice of various two-factor authentication solutions like Time-based One-Time Passwords (TOTP), SMS-delivered codes, pre-generated codes, or integrations with third-party services like Authy, Duo and others.

In episode 550 of Talking Drupal, Rod Martin joins us to discuss how Drupal site builders are defined, how their role has changed across Drupal versions, and what the future may look like with Drupal CMS, Canvas, and Drupal AI. The show's module of the week is Password Policy, presented by Avi Schwab, covering customizable password constraints and password expiration/reset features, along with supporting modules Password Policy Extras and Password Policy Pwned, which checks passwords against the Have I Been Pwned database. The conversation also explores the challenges site builders face around layout, theming, and configuration management, and the need for better templates, workflows, and guardrails as AI-assisted site building evolves.
For show notes visit:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/550
Topics
Module of the Week: Password Policy
MidCamp 2026 Promo
Defining Drupal Site Builders
Rod's Training Background
Site Builder Role and Skills
Comparing Drupal WordPress Joomla
Editors vs Site Builders
Site Building Changing in Drupal
Layout Builder Fallout
Canvas and AI Promise
Barriers and Bulk Fields
Prompt Built Architecture
Guardrails and Nuance
Playbooks and Context
Drupal Must Shift
Templates Over CMS
Dev and Builder Handoff
Two Paths Forward
Recipes Upgrade Gotchas
Closing and Contacts
Resources
NIST Password Guidelines - https://specopssoft.com/blog/nist-password-guidelines/
Password Recipe -
Emdash - https://blog.cloudflare.com/emdash-wordpress/
Talking Drupal #122 - Taxonomy or Entity Reference
https://talkingdrupal.com/122
Guests
Rod Martin - DrupalHelps.com imrodmartin
Hosts
Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
Avi Schwab- froboy.org froboy
Module of the Week
with Avi Schwab- froboy.org froboy
Password Policy - A password policy can be defined with a set of constraints which must be met before a user password change will be accepted. Each constraint has a parameter allowing for the minimum number of valid conditions which must be met before the constraint is satisfied.

In Episode 549, Randy Fay and Stas Zhuk join us to discuss what DDEV is, recent improvements, and where it's headed. Module of the week is the DDEV Drupal Contrib add-on. Randy and Stas discuss priorities like reliability, consistent UX, add-ons discoverability, and new features including revamped ddev share with Cloudflare and rootless Podman support. They also cover coder.ddev.com, a cloud-based DDEV environment built on coder.com for easier onboarding and contribution, plus sustainability, community support, and challenges such as AI-driven PR volume and Stas's development constraints in Ukraine.
For show notes visit:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/549
Topics
Module of the Week - DDEV Drupal Contrib
DDev Drupal Contri Overview
Contrib Workflow Q&A
Drush in Core Debate
Add-on Registry and Contact
Drupal AI Summit Plug
What Is DDev
Stas Origin Story
Recent Releases and Priorities
DDev Share and Podman
Developer Experience Changes
Database Upgrade Pain Points
Coder DDev Cloud IDE
Cloud DDEV Basics
VS Code Remote Workflow
Pair Programming Training Wins
Docker Desktop Alternatives
Onboarding Teams Faster
Windows Support Reality
Building Through War
Roadmap Env File Fixes
Beyond Drupal Adoption
Addons Discovery Tools
Funding Community Health
AI Pull Requests Pressure
AI Agents MCP Plans
How To Get Involved
Resources
DDEV - https://ddev.com/
DDEV Add-on Registry - https://addons.ddev.com/
Introducing coder.ddev.com: DDEV in the Cloud - https://ddev.com/blog/coder-ddev-com-announcement/
About Stas Zhuk - https://ddev.com/blog/introducing-maintainer-stas/
Power Through Blackouts: How DDEV Community Helped Me in Ukraine - https://ddev.com/blog/power-through-blackouts-ddev-community-support/
Drush command in core - https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal/issues/3453474
Drush's Final Act - https://weitzman.github.io/blog/drush-final-act
coder.com - https://coder.com/
Service hosting coder.ddev.com - https://www.hetzner.com/
Funding DDEV - https://ddev.com/blog/sustainability-for-ddev/
Gen AI DDEV newsletter note - https://ddev.com/blog/ddev-march-2026-newsletter/
Sharing Coder.ddev.com workspaces - https://github.com/ddev/coder-ddev/issues/80
Guests
Stas Zhuk - stasadev
Randy Fay - ddev.com rfay
Hosts
Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Rod Martin - DrupalHelps.com imrodmartin
Module of the Week
with Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu
DDEV Drupal Contrib - DDEV integration for developing Drupal contrib projects. As a general philosophy, your contributed module/theme is the center of the universe.

In episode 548 we welcome back JD Leonard to discuss what CRMs are, what problems they solve, and which organizations benefit from them. JD explains why Drupal CRM defines CRM as "Contact Relationship Management," outlines core expectations like contact and relationship tracking and integrations, and describes Drupal CRM's Drupal-native architecture using dedicated, fieldable entity types for contacts, relationships, and contact methods. The panel compares Drupal CRM to older Drupal CRM efforts and user-based approaches, covers security considerations for PII and plans for field encryption, and highlights ecosystem projects such as CRM Email, CRM Membership (including Drupal Commerce integration), and event registration needs.
For show notes visit:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/548
Topics
Module of the Week: Module of the Week: Social Media Links Block and Fields
Use Cases and Discussion
How to Suggest Modules
What Is a CRM
CRM Hats and Naming
Core CRM Features and Users
Why Drupal CRM Exists
Drupal CRM Architecture Deep Dive
Demos and Legacy Alternatives
Project Origins and Community
Out of the Box Features
Security and PII Considerations
Field Encryption Limits
Core First Drupal Native
Search Deprecation Drupal 12
Choosing Contrib Integrations
Ecosystem Modules Upstream
Getting Started
Evaluating CRM Options
Common CRM Pitfalls
Community Sustainability Vision
Funding Volunteers Sponsors
Roadmap Toward 1.0
Ecosystem Membership Events
Resources
Try the latest - https://drupal.org/project/crm
Field encrypt - https://www.drupal.org/project/crm/issues/3558040
Primary entity reference - https://www.drupal.org/project/primary_entity_reference
Member Platform initiative - https://www.drupal.org/project/member
Financial sponsor of Steve Ayers' time working on Drupal CRM - https://www.govwebworks.com https://www.portlandwebworks.com
CRM ecosystem modules - https://www.drupal.org/project/crm/ecosystem
Drupal Slack #crm channel: - https://drupal.slack.com/archives/C08N90UF9TR
Guests
JD Leonard - modernbizconsulting.com jdleonard
Hosts
Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu
Module of the Week
with Martin Anderson-Clutz
Social Media Links Block and Field
The modules provides a configurable block that display links (icons) to your profiles on various popular networking sites.
With this module, a website can be quickly extended with a "Follow us" functionality. Or you make the block available for your site editors, and they can configure the social networks themselves.