Announcing four new Drupal core leaders and a strategy update in the works! With the excitement surrounding Drupal CMS, many in the community are asking: what’s happening with Drupal core? We’re thrilled to share some great updates.
With the excitement surrounding Drupal CMS, many in the community are asking: what’s happening with Drupal core? We’re thrilled to share some great updates.
Updated Drupal core strategy in the worksThe Drupal core team has been hard at work developing an updated strategy to guide the future of core. While the Drupal core strategy document is still a work in progress, we’re excited about the direction it's taking — and we want your input! Community feedback is not only welcome, it's essential. Now is a great time to help shape the next chapter of Drupal core.
Introducing the Drupal Core Leadership TeamAs part of these discussions, we’ve taken a fresh look at how we refer to the people stewarding core. The term "Core committers" focused on the end of the process some of us do, and we recognized that it doesn’t capture the full scope of leadership across the team — especially those whose impact isn’t reflected in code commits.
To better represent the diverse responsibilities and collaborative nature of this work, we’re introducing a new name: the Drupal Core Leadership Team.
Expanding team facilitatorsGriffyn Heels (griffynh) based in Australia and working with PreviousNext, has been doing an outstanding job facilitating meetings in the Bug Smash and Experience Builder initiatives. We reached out if he would be interested to help us in the core leadership team too. We are glad that he accepted, so Griffyn joins the team as a non-committer member, as a provisional Team Facilitator.
Two Drupal 7 committers join the modern Drupal crewAs Drupal 7 reached its end of life earlier this year, we want to take a moment to celebrate the incredible work of the core committers who kept it going strong for so long. Rather than stepping back, two of them accepted our invitation to continue — now as part of the modern Drupal core team.
Please join us in welcoming Juraj Nemec (poker10) from ActivIT in Slovakia and Drew Webber (mcdruid) from Acquia in the UK. Both are joining as General Committers, a new role that focuses on contribution and collaboration without specific leadership responsibilities. We’re excited to have their deep experience and steady hands on board.
Strengthening frontend leadership with a focus on componentsWith Drupal core’s renewed emphasis on frontend components and display building, we’re reinforcing our leadership in this area. Pierre Dureau (pdureau), owner of Beyris in France, has been contributing thoughtful, high-quality work in this space with UI Suite for years. His attention to detail and focus on flexible solutions are exactly what the team needed.
We’re excited to welcome Pierre as a provisional Frontend Framework Manager, bringing more focus and faster momentum to frontend improvements in core.
One of the most surprising moments at Drupal Dev Days Leuven? Getting a phone call from Drupal. Yes, really.
Marcus Johansson gave me a spontaneous demo of a Twilio-powered AI agent built for Drupal, which triggered a phone call right from within the Drupal interface. It was unexpected, fun, and a perfect example of the kind of creative energy in the room.
That moment reminded me why I love Drupal. People were building, sharing, and exploring what Drupal can do next. The energy was contagious.
From MCP (Model Context Protocol) modules to AI-powered search, I saw Drupal doing things I wouldn't have imagined two years ago. AI is no longer just an idea. It's already finding its way into Drupal in practical, thoughtful ways.
Doing a Q&A at Drupal Dev Days in Leuven. I loved the energy and great questions from the Drupal community. © Paul JohnsonOutside of doing a Q&A session, I spent much of my time at Drupal Dev Days working on the next phase of Drupal's AI strategy. We have an early lead in AI, but we need to build on it. We will be sharing more on that in the coming month.
In the meantime, huge thanks to the organizers of Drupal Dev Days for making this event happen, and to Paul Johnson for the fantastic photo. I love that it shows so many happy faces.
DrupalCon Atlanta 2025 brought the spirit of open source to life with vibrant energy, bold ideas, and community connections that stretched across the globe. The event made an unforgettable mark on the Drupal community — from the bustling exhibit hall to the heartfelt hallway conversations, from first-time contributors to long-time collaborators.
Held in the heart of downtown Atlanta, the conference welcomed attendees from around the world for four days of learning, collaboration, and celebration. It was a reminder of what makes Drupal so powerful: our people, our purpose, and our shared passion for creating a better web.
A Truly Global GatheringThis year’s conference drew participants from over 25 countries, reaffirming Drupal’s role as a global digital platform and community. The United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and India topped the list, but the impact spanned continents.
Who Attends DrupalConDrupalCon Atlanta attracted a wide variety of professionals from across industries, reflecting the broad applicability and flexibility of the Drupal platform.
From higher education and government to digital agencies and healthcare, Drupal continues to power complex web experiences in some of the most demanding and innovative sectors.
This diversity not only fuels valuable cross-sector knowledge-sharing but also demonstrates Drupal’s critical role across public and private digital ecosystems.
Grassroots Power: Local Camps Take the StageMore than 30 local Drupal camps and meetups were represented at the conference — a testament to the grassroots power of the community. Attendees proudly wore camp stickers, staffed community booths, and gathered to discuss regional challenges and opportunities.
To support local groups, we launched a new ticket-sharing initiative: 1 complimentary ticket for every 5th sold through participating organizations. As a result, 31 Drupal Camps received free tickets, expanding access and rewarding the dedication of our grassroots leaders.
First-Time Attendees & Event StatsDrupalCon Atlanta welcomed 1,288 registered participants, with a 96% check-in rate — one of our strongest ever. Of those:
Hosting the event at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta provided an integrated, accessible experience for attendees. Sessions, social events, and accommodations were all under one roof, creating ease, comfort, and connection.
“Everything I needed was right there — it made attending so much easier.”
“It felt like the whole community was in one place. Loved that.”
Survey feedback from attendees, speakers, and sponsors is being carefully reviewed as we begin shaping DrupalCon Chicago 2026. You told us what worked — and what we can improve — and we’re listening.
Key themes that will shape future events include:
- Even more dynamic and diverse session formats
- Streamlined navigation and event layout
- Focus on wellness, accessibility, and inclusive experiences
- Continuing to strengthen the “hallway track” and contribution culture
The success of DrupalCon Atlanta 2025 would not have been possible without the dedication and vision of the North American Steering Committee. This volunteer-led group helped shape the event’s content, community outreach, and overall experience. Committee members collaborated across key areas—local engagement, DEIB, contribution advocacy, marketing, and speaker content—to ensure an inclusive and impactful conference.
We are deeply grateful for their time, leadership, and creativity:
Their efforts helped bring the Drupal community together in meaningful and memorable ways. Thank you for helping make DrupalCon Atlanta such a success!
The Power of Sponsor SupportDrupalCon Atlanta was made possible by the generous support of our sponsors, who invested not just in the event, but in the long-term health and success of the Drupal project.
Total Sponsorships: 97
Their support made this experience possible — from coffee breaks and contribution mentoring to summits and stage time. Thank you again to our DrupalCon Atlanta Sponsors!
Looking AheadDrupalCon Atlanta was more than a conference — it was a homecoming for some, a first step for others, and a milestone for us all. The connections forged, the ideas sparked, and the paths paved here will ripple out through projects and communities around the world.
We’re already looking ahead to the next stops on our journey
You can learn more about all upcoming events at https://events.drupal.org/
Until then — thank you to everyone who joined us in Atlanta. Let’s carry this momentum forward, together.
Following the recent announcement made in the Driesnote at DrupalCon Atlanta, we are glad to share with you that we are kicking off the research process for the Marketplace. And, as per usual, we need your help!
As we are starting to work actively on framing the idea of the Marketplace, we want to hear the thoughts of our partners. Hence, this Monday we sent out a survey to DCPs and contributing partners in order to gather their thoughts on the matter.
Meanwhile we are also looking for individual contributors. So if you feel courageous and excited about this new initiative, please, check out our “Join the Marketplace Volunteer Team!” form and become a part of the crew - we are thrilled to have you on board!
Hello fellow Drupalers,
In case you missed the news, the 2025 Global Drupal Developer Survey is out!
The Global Drupal Developer Survey helps Drupal contributors, service providers, tool developers, and the Drupal Association understand the unique experiences of Drupal developers all over the world.
The survey takes less than 10 minutes to complete. Every question is optional. The results are shared publicly under a creative commons licence after the survey closes (except for any personal data collected).
This year the survey closes at 23:59 April 20 UTC ad the results will be available in May.
So please, take a moment of your time and fill it in - we are truly looking forward to hear your thoughts!
Gander’s ability to simulate real-world traffic and performance conditions is already helping developers identify bottlenecks and fine-tune site performance — without the overhead of manual testing. Check out our latest Tag1 Team Talk to learn more!
michaelemeyers Wed, 04/16/2025 - 06:34Between 2018 and 2021, Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) emerged as the next big thing in marketing technology, promising a centralized, first-party data engine to create the 360-degree view of the customer, improve engagement, and drive personalized, compliant experiences. However, many organizations found CDPs expensive to implement, hard to use, or lacking in clear return on investment. As a result, there was a shift back to composable stacks, a move toward native platform tools, and a continued reliance on patchwork solutions.
So why revisit the idea of a CDP in 2025?
Marketers now face increasing data privacy regulations, rising expectations for personalization, and new possibilities with the rise of AI (especially agent-based AI systems). All of these are transforming what marketers can do with data. It’s time to reconsider the role of a CDP.
Here are three powerful reasons why healthcare marketers should take a fresh look at CDPs this year.
Marketing in healthcare is a balancing act. On one hand, consumers expect the same seamless, personalized experiences they get from retail and travel. On the other hand, you have to navigate strict privacy standards, especially HIPAA.
A well-implemented, HIPAA-compliant CDP can be your ally.
At their core, CDPs collect customer data by ingesting and aggregating it from all of your disparate sources, such as websites and mobile apps, web forms, and email marketing subscriber lists.
They then clean that data by reviewing each bit of data and separating the sensitive information from non-sensitive information, anonymizing or pseudonymizing it before activating the data by sending portions of that data back out to destinations such as web analytics systems, marketing automation tools, or personalization systems.
That cleansing process means that you can collect sensitive data but send only the cleaned non-sensitive data out to your marketing stack.
CDPs allow you to collect and use only what’s necessary, keeping Protected Health Information (PHI) separate from non-sensitive data, anonymizing or pseudonymizing data before sharing with vendors, and sanitizing incoming data so marketing platforms don’t handle PHI directly.
CDPs can also track marketing consent and opt-outs across channels, log timestamped consent records, and build audiences that automatically exclude users who opted out. A centralized CDP makes oversight easier, allowing you to monitor who accesses PHI and how, apply and audit role-based permissions, and quickly spot and respond to data misuse or anomalies.
HIPAA demands accountability, and CDPs can deliver by maintaining immutable logs of access and activity, generating reports for internal or regulatory audits, and simplifying incident response workflows.
Instead of relying on ad hoc tools or worrying about where your PHI might be leaking, a CDP gives you centralized control. And unlike legacy tools, modern CDPs often include built-in consent and preference management — making it easier to honor opt-outs, track timestamped consent, and keep your outreach clean.
You don’t have to trade compliance for marketing performance. A CDP lets you protect your patients and reach them more effectively.
2. Your First-Party Data Is More Valuable Than Ever — A CDP Helps You Use ItMarketers from across all industries have long been bracing for the end of third-party cookies and the decline of the third-party data ecosystem. The solution to this ever-impending tragedy is to adopt a first-party data strategy. Few have adopted this approach due to the perceived barriers to entry: infrastructure or technology gaps, organizational silos, lack of strategic clarity, and dependence on third-party tactics.
Few organizations feel the urgency to change, because Google and the rest of the third-party data ecosystem continually push back the date when that third-party data will cease to be available: January 2020, June 2021, July 2022, September 2023, April 2024, with another delay in April of 2025. Additionally, Google occasionally teases various replacements to third-party cookies - FLOC, Privacy Sandbox, the Topics API - each of which is intended to keep marketers within their advertising ecosystem but none of which have come to fruition.
Absent this external pressure, marketers are content to continue the present course and delay the long-term investment.
But these delays should be seen as only a temporary reprieve. Organizations should start now and transition to a first-party strategy so that they are no longer holding their breath and waiting for the major advertising vendors to solve their data problem.
Healthcare brands sit on mountains of data. But too often, that data lives in silos — EHRs, CRMs, billing systems, web platforms — each holding a piece of the puzzle. Without a unified view of the patient, it’s nearly impossible to deliver the kind of relevant, consistent experience today’s consumers expect. Additionally, the first-party gathered directly from a visitor is more valuable and trustworthy than the “hearsay” data that one might get from third-party sources.
A CDP brings it all together.
It ingests and resolves identities across channels so that someone booking an appointment by phone and logging into the portal later is seen as the same person. With that unified profile, you can build smarter segments based on real-time behavior, care gaps, or location.
Those segments can then be used for improved email marketing, HIPAA-compliant A/B testing, or true personalization. For instance, a patient reading about joint pain might get follow-up reminders for a screening; one could personalize content in portals based on demographics or visit history, or promote local screenings and events to nearby users.
When you activate this data across channels — email, ads, SMS — you move from generic messaging to meaningful engagement. The results? Higher ROI, improved visitor experience, and fewer missed opportunities.
3. CDPs Are Foundational to Your Agentic AI StrategyGenerative AI has changed how marketers think about content and engagement. But AI doesn’t work in a vacuum — it needs context. It needs to know who it’s talking to, that person’s history, and what matters to them now.
This is where a CDP becomes essential.
As large language models (LLMs) evolve into agent-based AI systems — think virtual health assistants, intelligent marketing copilots, or automated personalization engines — they need more than just prompts. They need to understand user preferences, past interactions, and longitudinal behavior available via structured, first-party data in order to operate effectively.
Emerging standards like the Model Context Protocol (MCP) are creating ways for CDPs to act as a bridge between LLMs and your first-party data, allowing the CDP to supply this context directly to AI systems. Some CDPs (like Tealium AudienceStream) already support these integrations.
Put simply, your CDP becomes the long-term memory for your AI agents, enriching their capabilities and making your digital experiences smarter, safer, and more personalized.
What Happens When Everything ClicksWhile any of these three reasons should spur healthcare communicators to reconsider the CDP, what’s powerful about these shifts is how they reinforce and build on each other.
When your CDP helps you manage HIPAA-compliant data, it unlocks more meaningful first-party strategies. And when that data is structured and consented, it becomes the foundation for AI-driven engagement. It’s a virtuous circle that creates better marketing outcomes — but only if your CDP is up to the task.
Jason is a digital communications strategist with more than 15 years' experience in creating award-winning online presences. Over the course of his career, he has developed customer and audience engagement strategies for national brands like CrossFit, national non-profits like the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation, and government organizations like the National Institutes of Health and the US State Department.
Featured Blog Post? Yes Has this blog post been deprecated? No Summary CDPs are making a comeback. Discover why healthcare marketers should revisit them to stay HIPAA-compliant, unlock the full value of first-party data, and power AI-driven experiences — all while meeting rising personalization demands. Topic Integration Systems Promo ImageDear Readers,
Open-source communities depend on more than just code. They rely on discussion, disagreement, and collaboration to shape projects' progress. In Drupal, dialogue is the anatomy of every decision. When the stakes are high or the path isn’t apparent, the process often begins with people asking questions, sharing use cases, and voicing concerns. DrupalCon Atlanta is in the books, but one update by Dries Buytaert is just getting started. During the Driesnote, Dries officially announced the launch of the Drupal Marketplace Initiative. Think of it as shelf space for the community’s best work, not just a place to download themes but a real way to explore, test, and launch starter sites confidently.
Marketplace Initiative is a clear example of an approach through dialogues. It's a proposal with practical goals but also a test of how Drupal makes decisions as a community. The core idea is to build a public marketplace for Drupal site templates, giving users easier ways to get started while making real examples of Drupal's capabilities more visible. The proposal includes both free and commercial templates. That last part has sparked debate, not because it's technically difficult, but because it touches on long-standing questions about values, equity, and direction.
Rather than settle those questions behind closed doors, the initiative is designed to gather input from across the Drupal ecosystem. It’s about how decisions get made in a project that serves many users with different needs. Whether you're excited about the potential or cautious about the trade-offs, this is the right time to speak up, and what comes next will be shaped by the people who show up now.
Right now, there are multiple ways to get involved. The working group has opened a Slack channel #drupal-cms-marketplace where you can jump into discussions, share ideas, and react to ongoing prompts. They’ve also released the first in a series of community surveys, starting with one focused on contributors, agencies, and Drupal Certified Partners. There are live community sessions planned too, open to anyone who wants to help shape how this all unfolds.
Dries didn’t take a side but made the case for a conversation. Many organizations already pay for templates off-platform through agencies or contractors. Bringing that activity into the open could create better options, reward contributors, and strengthen the ecosystem. But it also raises questions about fairness, values, and long-term sustainability. Those questions are now on the table; everyone is invited to weigh in.
This is how decisions happen in Drupal: not with final announcements but with open discussions that invite more people into the room. Dialogue remains the structure we build on. With that, let's move on to the important stories from last week.
INTERVIEWDISCOVER DRUPALWe 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. You can also join us on Drupal Slack at #thedroptimes.
Thank you,
Sincerely
Alka Elizabeth
Sub-editor, The DropTimes.
Welcome to the last article in the series. Today, we’ll wrap up by covering how to debug migrations, performance considerations, and the importance of checking your site for broken links before launch. We’ll also briefly discuss migrating into Drupal CMS and using AI to assist with the migration process.
mauricio Tue, 04/15/2025 - 06:24Drupal 11.2 alpha phase begins May 7
In preparation for the minor release, Drupal 11.2.x will enter the alpha phase the week of May 7, 2025. Core developers should plan to complete changes that are only allowed in minor releases prior to the alpha release.
The 11.2.0-alpha1 deadline for most core patches is May 7, 2025.
The 10.6.x release branch of core will be created for the next maintenance minor release.
Developers and site owners can begin testing the alpha after its release.
The 11.2.x release branch of core will be created before the alpha is tagged. Future feature and API additions will continue to be targeted against the main development branch, 11.x.
After 11.2.x is branched but before 11.2.0-alpha1 is tagged, alpha experimental modules will be removed from the 11.2.x codebase. Their development will continue in 11.x only.
Following the release of Drupal 11.2 and 10.5, only security issues will be fixed in Drupal 11.1 and 10.4. Additionally, Drupal 11.0 and 10.3 will become end-of-life (EOL).
During the alpha phase, core issues will be committed according to the following policy:
Roughly two weeks after the alpha release, the first beta release will be created. All the restrictions of the alpha release apply to beta releases as well. The release of the first beta is a firm deadline for all feature and API additions. Once the beta commit freeze begins, issues in the Reviewed & Tested by the Community (RTBC) queue will be committed to the next minor release only.
The release candidate phase will begin the week of June 2.
Security support of Drupal 10 and 11 Drupal 10.3.x and 11.0.x Security releases will be provided until June 18, 2025. Drupal 10.4.x and 11.1.x Security releases will be provided until December 10, 2025.See the Drupal core release process overview, the Drupal core release schedule, allowed changes during the Drupal 10 and 11 release cycles, and Drupal 10 and 11 backwards compatibility and internal API policy for more information.
Today we are talking about Drupal Forge, how it works, and why it’s changing Drupal with guest Darren Oh. We’ll also cover ECA VBO as our module of the week.
For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/497
TopicsDarren Oh - drupalforge.org Darren Oh
HostsNic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Kathy Beck - kbeck303
MOTW CorrespondentMartin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu
Images are the heart of any website’s design — they tell stories, capture attention, and shape the user experience. But to make a real impact, they need to be polished, properly formatted, and optimized for both aesthetics and performance.
