Drupal (core)

Episode Number:  218 The Drupal 8 Editor Advanced Link Module allows you to specify additional attributes when creating links in your content. This makes it easy to add a CSS class, an ID, open the link in a new window, or even specify a ... [More] rel="nofollow" tag. The module is very easy to use, but there is a small trick to getting it set up. Watch the video to see how it's done and start customizing your links in no time! Tags:  Drupal Contrib Drupal 8 Site Building Drupal Planet [Less]

Drupal Modules: The One Percent — Delete all (video tutorial) NonProfit Tue, 11/13/2018 - 09:20 Episode 52 Here is where we bring awareness to Drupal modules running on less than ... [More] 1% of reporting sites. Today we'll investigate Delete all, a module which facilitates deleting users and/or content en masse. [Less]

Digital evolution has taken the world of professional publishing by storm. However, this evolution brought along a whole new set of challenges that publishers are still trying to cope up with.

The Paragraphs module in Drupal 8 allows us to break content creation into components.  This is helpful for applying styles, markup, and structured data, but can put a strain on content creators who are used to WYSIWYG editors that allow them to ... [More] click buttons to add, edit, and style content. The Drupal Paragraphs Edit module adds contextual links to paragraphs that give you the ability to  edit, delete and duplicate paragraphs from the front end, giving editors a quick, easy and visual way to manage their content components. Installing Install and enable the module as you normally would, it is a zero configuration module.  It works with Drupal core’s Contextual Links and/or Quick Links module. I did have to apply this patch to get the cloning/duplication functionality working though. Editing To use, visit a page and hover over your content area.  You will see an icon in the upper right corner of the Paragraphs component area.    When you click the Edit option, you are taken to an admin screen where you can edit only that component. Make your changes and click save to be taken back to the page. In components that are nested, like the Bootstrap Paragraphs columns component, you will see one contextual link above the nested components.  If you click this, you will be taken to the edit screen where you can modify the parent, and the children.  That is the Columns component, and the 3 text components inside. Duplicating/Cloning The term that is used most often for making a copy of something in Drupal is to “Clone” it.  This is a little more complicated because it is technically complicated, but once you get the hang of it, it will become second nature. Hover over a contextual link and click Clone. On the edit screen, you are presented with a new Clone To section.  In this section you can choose where to send this clone to, whether that be a Page or a Paragraph.  In this example, I want to duplicate this component to the same page. Type: Content Bundle: Page Parent: (The page you are on) Field: (The same field on that page.) You can also make any edits you want before saving.  For example, you could change the background color. Click save, and your new component will appear at the bottom of the page, with the new background color. There are a bunch of possibilities with this way to duplicate components.  To clone to another page, change the Parent. To clone to a nested paragraph component, change the Type to Paragraphs and configure the settings you need. Deleting Deleting a component is as you’d expect.  Once you click delete, you are taken to a confirmation screen that asks you if you want to delete. Conclusion The Paragraphs Edit module is a simple and powerful tool that gets us a bit closer to inline editing and making our content creator’s lives easier and allows them to be more productive.  Give it a try on your next project and spread the word about this great little helper module! The post Easier Editing with the Drupal 8 Paragraphs Edit module appeared first on Kanopi Studios. [Less]

This blog has been re-posted and edited with permission from Dries Buytaert's blog. Please leave your comments on the original post. Layout Builder, which will be in the next release of Drupal 8, is unique in that it can work with structured and ... [More] unstructured content, and with templated and free-form pages. Content authors want an easy-to-use page building experience; they want to create and design pages using drag-and-drop and WYSIWYG tools. For over a year the Drupal community has been working on a new Layout Builder, which is designed to bring this page building capability into Drupal core. Drupal's upcoming Layout Builder is unique in offering a single, powerful visual design tool for the following three use cases: Layouts for templated content. The creation of "layout templates" that will be used to layout all instances of a specific content type (e.g. blog posts, product pages). Customizations to templated layouts. The ability to override these layout templates on a case-by-case basis (e.g. the ability to override the layout of a standardized product page) Custom pages. The creation of custom, one-off landing pages not tied to a content type or structured content (e.g. a single "About us" page). Let's look at all three use cases in more detail to explain why we think this is extremely useful! Use case 1: Layouts for templated content For large sites with significant amounts of content it is important that the same types of content have a similar appearance. A commerce site selling hundreds of different gift baskets with flower arrangements should have a similar layout for all gift baskets. For customers, this provides a consistent experience when browsing the gift baskets, making them easier to compare. For content authors, the templated approach means they don't have to worry about the appearance and layout of each new gift basket they enter on the site. They can be sure that once they have entered the price, description, and uploaded an image of the item, it will look good to the end user and similar to all other gift baskets on the site. Drupal 8's new Layout Builder allows a site creator to visually create a layout template that will be used for each item of the same content type (e.g. a "gift basket layout" for the "gift basket" content type). This is possible because the Layout Builder benefits from Drupal's powerful "structured content" capabilities. Many of Drupal's competitors don't allow such a templated approach to be designed in the browser. Their browser-based page builders only allow you to create a design for an individual page. When you want to create a layout that applies to all pages of a specific content type, it is usually not possible without a developer. Use case 2: Customizations to templated layouts While having a uniform look for all products of a particular type has many advantages, sometimes you may want to display one or more products in a slightly (or dramatically) different way. Perhaps a customer recorded a video of giving their loved one one of the gift baskets, and that video has recently gone viral (because somehow it involved a puppy). If you only want to update one of the gift baskets with a video, it may not make sense to add an optional "highlighted video" field to all gift baskets. Drupal 8's Layout Builder offers the ability to customize templated layouts on a case per case basis. In the "viral, puppy, gift basket" video example, this would allow a content creator to rearrange the layout for just that one gift basket, and put the viral video directly below the product image. In addition, the Layout Builder would allow the site to revert the layout to match all other gift baskets once the world has moved on to the next puppy video. Since most content management systems don't allow you to visually design a layout pattern for certain types of structured content, they of course can't allow for this type of customization. Use case 3: Custom pages (with unstructured content) Of course, not everything is templated, and content authors often need to create one-off pages like an "About us" page or the website's homepage. In addition to visually designing layout templates for different types of content, Drupal 8's Layout Builder can also be used to create these dynamic one-off custom pages. A content author can start with a blank page, design a layout, and start adding blocks. These blocks can contain videos, maps, text, a hero image, or custom-built widgets (e.g. a Drupal View showing a list of the ten most popular gift baskets). Blocks can expose configuration options to the content author. For instance, a hero block with an image and text may offer a setting to align the text left, right, or center. These settings can be configured directly from a sidebar. In many other systems content authors are able to use drag-and-drop WYSIWYG tools to design these one-off pages. This type of tool is used in many projects and services such as Squarespace and the new Gutenberg Editor for WordPress (now available for Drupal, too!). On large sites, the free-form page creation is almost certainly going to be a scalability, maintenance and governance challenge. For smaller sites where there may not be many pages or content authors, these dynamic free-form page builders may work well, and the unrestricted creative freedom they provide might be very compelling. However, on larger sites, when you have hundreds of pages or dozens of content creators, a templated approach is going to be preferred. When will Drupal's new Layout Builder be ready? Drupal 8's Layout Builder is still a beta level experimental module, with 25 known open issues to be addressed prior to becoming stable. We're on track to complete this in time for Drupal 8.7's release in May 2019. If you are interested in increasing the likelihood of that, you can find out how to help on the Layout Initiative homepage. An important note on accessibility Accessibility is one of Drupal's core tenets, and building software that everyone can use is part of our core values and principles. A key part of bringing Layout Builder functionality to a "stable" state for production use will be ensuring that it passes our accessibility gate (Level AA conformance with WCAG and ATAG). This holds for both the authoring tool itself, as well as the markup that it generates. We take our commitment to accessibility seriously. Impact on contributed modules and existing sites Currently there a few methods in the Drupal module ecosystem for creating templated layouts and landing pages, including the Panels and Panelizer combination. We are currently working on a migration path for Panels/Panelizer to the Layout Builder. The Paragraphs module currently can be used to solve several kinds of content authoring use-cases, including the creation of custom landing pages. It is still being determined how Paragraphs will work with the Layout Builder and/or if the Layout Builder will be used to control the layout of Paragraphs. Conclusion Drupal's upcoming Layout Builder is unique in that it supports multiple different use cases; from templated layouts that can be applied to dozens or hundreds of pieces of structured content, to designing custom one-off pages with unstructured content. The Layout Builder is even more powerful when used in conjunction with Drupal's other out-of-the-box features such as revisioning, content moderation, and translations, but that is a topic for a future blog post. Special thanks to Ted Bowman (Acquia) for co-authoring this post. Also thanks to Wim Leers (Acquia), Angie Byron (Acquia), Alex Bronstein (Acquia), Jeff Beeman (Acquia) and Tim Plunkett (Acquia) for their feedback during the writing process. [Less]

  We’re thrilled to announce the acquisition of DAHU; a strategy-focused, user experience and design agency. By adding DAHU capabilities we have creatively and strategically “leveled up” to provide more comprehensive solutions for clients. ... [More] Specifically, DAHU will enhance our UI design, User Experience and add the following capabilities: WordPress development, messaging, and branding.   [Less]

Episode Number:  217 The Drupal 8 Editor File Upload Module is a great module for allowing your content editors to upload files directly in your website content. If you have ever needed to upload a file, and then include a link to that file, then ... [More] the Editor File Upload module will be useful. Rather than having to upload the file manually using FTP or through another module, then having to go back to create a link in your content to that file, this module lets you do it all in one step. Tags:  Drupal Contrib Drupal 8 File Management Site Building Drupal Planet [Less]

Adam Bergstein is the maintainer of SimplyTest.me, runs the Drupal Coffee Exchange and participates in the Governance Task Force that just released its community proposal. Learn how Adam, aka Nerdstein, feels about Drupal 8 core development. READ MORE

Content authors want an easy-to-use page building experience; they want to create and design pages using drag-and-drop and WYSIWYG tools. For over a year the Drupal community has been working on a new Layout Builder, which is designed to bring this ... [More] page building capability into Drupal core. Drupal's upcoming Layout Builder is unique in offering a single, powerful visual design tool for the following three use cases: Layouts for templated content. The creation of "layout templates" that will be used to layout all instances of a specific content type (e.g. blog posts, product pages). Customizations to templated layouts. The ability to override these layout templates on a case-by-case basis (e.g. the ability to override the layout of a standardized product page) Custom pages. The creation of custom, one-off landing pages not tied to a content type or structured content (e.g. a single "About us" page). Let's look at all three use cases in more detail to explain why we think this is extremely useful! Use case 1: Layouts for templated content For large sites with significant amounts of content it is important that the same types of content have a similar appearance. A commerce site selling hundreds of different gift baskets with flower arrangements should have a similar layout for all gift baskets. For customers, this provides a consistent experience when browsing the gift baskets, making them easier to compare. For content authors, the templated approach means they don't have to worry about the appearance and layout of each new gift basket they enter on the site. They can be sure that once they have entered the price, description, and uploaded an image of the item, it will look good to the end user and similar to all other gift baskets on the site. Drupal 8's new Layout Builder allows a site creator to visually create a layout template that will be used for each item of the same content type (e.g. a "gift basket layout" for the "gift basket" content type). This is possible because the Layout Builder benefits from Drupal's powerful "structured content" capabilities. Many of Drupal's competitors don't allow such a templated approach to be designed in the browser. Their browser-based page builders only allow you to create a design for an individual page. When you want to create a layout that applies to all pages of a specific content type, it is usually not possible without a developer. Use case 2: Customizations to templated layouts While having a uniform look for all products of a particular type has many advantages, sometimes you may want to display one or more products in a slightly (or dramatically) different way. Perhaps a customer recorded a video of giving their loved one one of the gift baskets, and that video has recently gone viral (because somehow it involved a puppy). If you only want to update one of the gift baskets with a video, it may not make sense to add an optional "highlighted video" field to all gift baskets. Drupal 8's Layout Builder offers the ability to customize templated layouts on a case per case basis. In the "viral, puppy, gift basket" video example, this would allow a content creator to rearrange the layout for just that one gift basket, and put the viral video directly below the product image. In addition, the Layout Builder would allow the site to revert the layout to match all other gift baskets once the world has moved on to the next puppy video. Since most content management systems don't allow you to visually design a layout pattern for certain types of structured content, they of course can't allow for this type of customization. Use case 3: Custom pages (with unstructured content) Of course, not everything is templated, and content authors often need to create one-off pages like an "About us" page or the website's homepage. In addition to visually designing layout templates for different types of content, Drupal 8's Layout Builder can also be used to create these dynamic one-off custom pages. A content author can start with a blank page, design a layout, and start adding blocks. These blocks can contain videos, maps, text, a hero image, or custom-built widgets (e.g. a Drupal View showing a list of the ten most popular gift baskets). Blocks can expose configuration options to the content author. For instance, a hero block with an image and text may offer a setting to align the text left, right, or center. These settings can be configured directly from a sidebar. In many other systems content authors are able to use drag-and-drop WYSIWYG tools to design these one-off pages. This type of tool is used in many projects and services such as Squarespace and the new Gutenberg Editor for WordPress (now available for Drupal, too!). On large sites, the free-form page creation is almost certainly going to be a scalability, maintenance and governance challenge. For smaller sites where there may not be many pages or content authors, these dynamic free-form page builders may work well, and the unrestricted creative freedom they provide might be very compelling. However, on larger sites, when you have hundreds of pages or dozens of content creators, a templated approach is going to be preferred. When will Drupal's new Layout Builder be ready? Drupal 8's Layout Builder is still a beta level experimental module, with 25 known open issues to be addressed prior to becoming stable. We're on track to complete this in time for Drupal 8.7's release in May 2019. If you are interested in increasing the likelihood of that, you can find out how to help on the Layout Initiative homepage. An important note on accessibility Accessibility is one of Drupal's core tenets, and building software that everyone can use is part of our core values and principles. A key part of bringing Layout Builder functionality to a "stable" state for production use will be ensuring that it passes our accessibility gate (Level AA conformance with WCAG and ATAG). This holds for both the authoring tool itself, as well as the markup that it generates. We take our commitment to accessibility seriously. Impact on contributed modules and existing sites Currently there a few methods in the Drupal module ecosystem for creating templated layouts and landing pages, including the Panels and Panelizer combination. We are currently working on a migration path for Panels/Panelizer to the Layout Builder. The Paragraphs module currently can be used to solve several kinds of content authoring use-cases, including the creation of custom landing pages. It is still being determined how Paragraphs will work with the Layout Builder and/or if the Layout Builder will be used to control the layout of Paragraphs. Conclusion Drupal's upcoming Layout Builder is unique in that it supports multiple different use cases; from templated layouts that can be applied to dozens or hundreds of pieces of structured content, to designing custom one-off pages with unstructured content. The Layout Builder is even more powerful when used in conjunction with Drupal's other out-of-the-box features such as revisioning, content moderation, and translations, but that is a topic for a future blog post. Special thanks to Ted Bowman (Acquia) for co-authoring this post. Also thanks to Wim Leers (Acquia), Angie Byron (Acquia), Alex Bronstein (Acquia), Jeff Beeman (Acquia) and Tim Plunkett (Acquia) for their feedback during the writing process. [Less]

Visualization styles are configuration entities that store a reference to a drawer plugin (its Id) and a set of configuration defaults. These styles are used to create drawings. As VisualN defines it, a drawing is a ready, self-contained piece of ... [More] markup (or render array) with possibly styles and scripts attached. Almost anything can be a drawing: a chart, an image gallery or even a web app. In a sense, they are similar to image styles which are applied to an original image in order to get a styled one. In the case of visualization styles, they are applied to sets of data to get a drawing as a result. Though some drawers don't even need data to create a drawing. Visualization styles can be created either using Available drawers preview UI or directly using VisualN > Visualization Styles administration page. Once created, they can be used anywhere on the site to create drawings: views, fields, blocks, embedded into content via ckeditor, tokens etc. Multiple styles can be created for the same drawer. On the screenshot below a style is created for the Linechart Basic drawer provided with VisualN module. To create a visualization style, its label must be set and drawer plugin selected. If selected drawer plugin configuration form provides required fields, those must be set up too. [Less]