TD Cafe #017 - Drupal Beginners with Mike and Rod

Talking Drupal #556 - A Chat with Moshe

Today we are talking about Drush, Core Contributions, and Drupal's Past with guest Moshe Weitzman. We'll also cover Cache Metrics as our module of the week. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/556 [https://www.talkingDrupal.com/556] Topics * Moshe Updates and Clients * Maintaining Drush Long Term * Locale Performance Overhaul * CLI in Core Initiative * Which Commands Make the Cut * Roadmap Contrib Commands * Moving Commands Technical Hurdles * How to Help From AI Initiative * DDEV Add-ons for Local CI * MySQL Toolkit Database Images * Testing With Real Databases * Devel Module Status * Organic Groups Origins * Where Ideas Come From * Finding Drupal Early Days * Release Cadence And Backward Compatibility * Avoiding Maintainer Burnout * Maintaining With AI And Xdebug Resources * Drush's Final Act [https://weitzman.github.io/blog/drush-final-act] * Drupal cli issue [https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal/issues/3453474] * DDEV addons * https://github.com/ddev/ddev-drupal-contrib [https://github.com/ddev/ddev-drupal-contrib] * https://github.com/weitzman/ddev-mtk [https://github.com/weitzman/ddev-mtk] * https://www.drupal.org/project/dtt [https://www.drupal.org/project/dtt] Guests Moshe Weitzman - weitzman.github.io [https://weitzman.github.io] moshe-weitzman [https://www.drupal.org/u/moshe-weitzman] Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com [https://www.nLighteneddevelopment.com] nicxvan [https://www.drupal.org/u/nicxvan] John Picozzi - epam.com [https://www.epam.com] johnpicozzi [https://www.drupal.org/u/johnpicozzi] Scott Falconer - managing-ai.com [https://www.managing-ai.com] scott-falconer [https://www.drupal.org/u/scott-falconer] MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com [https://mandclu.com] mandclu [https://www.drupal.org/u/mandclu] * Brief description: * Have you ever wanted insights into how cache is working on your Drupal site? There's a module for that. * Module name/project name: * Cache Metrics [https://www.drupal.org/project/cache_metrics] * Brief history * How old: created in Oct 2019 by Moshe Weitzman (moshe weitzman), today's guest, a consistent core contributor, a member of the security team, and one of the rare few with a two-digit user id on drupal.org [http://drupal.org] * Versions available: 2.0.3, 2.1.0, and 2.2.0, the last of which works with Drupal 8.7.7, 9, 10, and 11 * Maintainership * Actively maintained * Security and test coverage * Documentation - in depth README * Number of open issues: 2 open issues, 1 of which is a bug, but is marked fixed * Usage stats: * 37 sites * Module features and usage * With this module enabled, your Drupal site will log all cache tag invalidations * Additionally, cache tag invalidations will be sent to New Relic as custom events, where you can use the rich reporting tools available to mine for further insights. Many Drupal hosting options include New Relic out-of-the-box, and there's a free tier you can use if you're self-hosting, so this a reporting tool lots of Drupal sites can use * Cache hits and misses are also sent to New Relic, so you can investigate things like cache misses as a percentage by cache bin * Finally, the aforementioned README also includes information about how to use a different analytics provider, in case New Relic doesn't meet your specific needs * Drupal sites probably don't need this kind of visibility on a regular basis, but if you're troubleshooting any kind of cache-related issue, this could be really useful

TD Cafe #017 - Drupal Beginners with Mike and Rod

Mike Anello and Rod Martin discuss the sharp decline in demand for beginner Drupal training. Drawing on data from their businesses, events, and other training providers, they explore factors including AI-driven self-service learning, Drupal's growing complexity for newcomers, and limited community-wide marketing. They also discuss how initiatives like Drupal AI and broader promotion efforts could help attract and support the next generation of Drupal users. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/cafe017 [https://www.talkingDrupal.com/cafe017] Topics Mike Anello Mike, widely recognized by his Drupal.org username "ultimike," is a prominent figure in the Drupal community with over 20 years of experience as a developer, educator, and community leader. As the co-founder and vice president of DrupalEasy, a Florida-based training and consulting firm, he has been instrumental in shaping the careers of countless Drupal professionals through comprehensive programs like Drupal Career Online and Professional Module Development. Mike's contributions extend beyond education. He has been deeply involved in the Drupal ecosystem, previously serving as a core contributor to the Migrate module, co-maintaining several contributed modules, and actively participating in issue queues and documentation efforts. His leadership roles include membership in the Drupal Community Working Group and the Conflict Resolution Team, as well as organizing the Florida Drupal Users' Group and Florida DrupalCamp for over a decade. As the host of the long-running DrupalEasy Podcast, MIke provides insights into Drupal development, community news, and interviews with key contributors, fostering a sense of connection and ongoing learning within the community (DrupalEasy). His dedication to mentoring and community building has made him a respected and influential voice in the Drupal world. Rod Martin Rod has introduced more than 50,000 people to Drupal through his live and video training since 2011. He owns NavigateTomorrow and runs DrupalHelps - a site for site builders to get information and quick starts to using Drupal in their own businesses or non-profits. Guests Mike Anello - DupalEasy [https://www.DrupalEasy.com] ultimike [https://www.drupal.org/u/ultimike] Rod Martin - DrupalHelps.com [https://DrupalHelps.com] imrodmartin [https://www.drupal.org/u/imrodmartin] Resources The slow decline of beginner Drupal training [https://www.drupaleasy.com/blogs/ultimike/2026/04/slow-decline-beginner-drupal-training] The Site Builder Breakthrough - From Confusion to Confidence [https://drupalhelps.com/tip/site-builder-breakthrough-confusion-confidence] Drupal AI Initiative [https://www.drupal.org/project/ai_initiative] Promote Drupal [https://www.drupal.org/community/promote-drupal]

Talking Drupal #555 - AI Learners Club

Today we are talking about AI, How to stay up to date with it, and if it will really take our jobs with guests Angie Byron & Amber Matz. We'll also cover AI Best Practices for Drupal as our module of the week. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/555 [https://www.talkingDrupal.com/555] Topics * What Is AI Learners Club * Amber Defines the Club * Origin Story and DrupalCon * AI Debate and Community Tensions * Issue Queue Conduct and Moderation * Thread Tone vs Substance * AI Adoption Outside Drupal * Conflict Mediation Playbook * Maintainer Burnout and Flood * Safe Space Learners Club * How the Club Started * Picking Topics and Demos * AI Taking Our Jobs * Future of Learners Club Resources * Context Control Center [https://www.drupal.org/project/ai_context] * AI Learners Club * Initiative page [https://www.drupal.org/about/initiatives/ai/drupal-ai-learners-club] * Event calendar [https://luma.com/drupal-ai] * YouTube Playlist [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpeDXSh4nHjRHybTIn-8BQYg0hENB1fcY] * Session Recaps [https://www.drupal.org/docs/develop/development-tools/ai-coding-tools-for-drupal-development/drupal-ai-learners-club-sessions] * Next session (Claude Design) [https://luma.com/29kf9q41] * Slack: #ai-learners * Most wanted topics [https://drupal.slack.com/lists/T06GX3JTS/F0AT17XP0AY] * What Angie's working on these days [https://github.com/temporal-community/dependency-scout] Guests Amber Matz - tugboatqa.com [https://www.tugboatqa.com] amber-himes-matz [https://www.drupal.org/u/amber-himes-matz] Angie Byron - ai_best_practices [https://www.drupal.org/project/ai_best_practices] webchick [https://www.drupal.org/u/webchick] Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com [https://www.nLighteneddevelopment.com] nicxvan [https://www.drupal.org/u/nicxvan] John Picozzi - epam.com [https://www.epam.com] johnpicozzi [https://www.drupal.org/u/johnpicozzi] Scott Falconer - managing-ai.com [https://www.managing-ai.com] scott-falconer [https://www.drupal.org/u/scott-falconer] MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com [https://mandclu.com] mandclu [https://www.drupal.org/u/mandclu] * Brief description: * Do you want to start using AI tools for Drupal development, in the most efficient way possible? There's a composer plugin for that! * Module name/project name: * AI Best Practices for Drupal [https://www.drupal.org/project/ai_best_practices] * Brief history * How old: created in Mar 2026 by Angie Byron (webchick), one, of today's guests, a long-time Drupalist, one-time Acquian, and a fellow Canadian * Versions available: dev version only, which doesn't seem directly opinionated about what version of Drupal you're using, though it does have minimum versions of PHP and Symfony libraries that suggest Drupal 10 is functionally your minimum * Maintainership * It is officially seeking co-maintainers * Test coverage * Documentation - an in-depth README, or you can ask an AI model! (like I did for this segment) * 54 open "Work Items" on Gitlab, so lots of active discussion already * Module features and usage * AI Best Practices for Drupal aims to be the opinionated starter experience for AI-assisted Drupal development * You can think of it as a single Composer install that makes any AI coding agent "speak Drupal": following community standards, preferring contrib over custom code, and avoiding framework-naive mistakes. It replaces scattered, tool-specific CLAUDE.md [http://CLAUDE.md] files and Cursor rules that some Drupal developers currently maintain individually, with one canonical, community-governed package that works across Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, and more. With contributions by a variety of Drupal luminaries including Marcus Johansson, Christoph Briedert, and Scott Falconer, it's the Drupal equivalent of Laravel Boost: stop explaining Drupal to your AI every session and just get writing code. * After install or update, it will create an AGENTS.md [http://AGENTS.md] file from a provided template if there isn't one already, or it will update a specifically marked "ai-best-practices" section of an existing file * You will also have a directory of provided skills, and guidance for creating new Drupal agent skills * Also included is a set of evals, meant to automatically identify when AI models go off course and provide feedback * AI Best Practices for Drupal is meant to provide guidance that will be particularly useful for AI agents, so it's ideal for Drupal developers getting started with AI tools, or for AI developers who want to get started with Drupal

Talking Drupal #554 - Hey! Scott Tolinski!

Today we are talking about Web Education, Level up Tutorials, and life after Drupal with guest Scott Tolinski. We'll also cover Views Row SDC as our module of the week. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/554 [https://www.talkingDrupal.com/554] Topics * Scott Origin Story * Level Up Tutorials Era * Syntax Podcast Beginnings * Growing The Audience * Web Components Debate * Leaving Drupal Behind * What Drupal Still Nails * Agency Project Highlights * Booking Podcast Guests * Scott Work Week Setup * Running Syntax Team * Canvas HTML Experiments * Livestream Tools Challenges * Funding Via Sentry * Project Ideas Process * Conference Speaking Journey * Speaking Logistics Family * Content Focus Passion * Drupal Influence Today * Mad CSS Tournament * AI Coding Workflow * What Excites Him Now Resources * Scott Tolinski's Website [https://tolin.ski/] * Levelup tutorials [https://levelup.video] * 1000th episode [https://syntax.fm/show/1000/syntax-episode-1-000] * Web awesome [https://syntax.fm/show/758/web-awesome-with-konnor-rogers-cory-laviska] * Talk in Amsterdam - React summit * This component could have been a class * Sigraph conference site [https://www.siggraph.org/] * Too fast too furious learning things quickly [https://gitnation.com/contents/fast-and-furious-2025] * JSNation [https://jsnation.com/] * Scratch * Css tricks [https://css-tricks.com/] * MadCss Championship [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLnpHn493BHE6Wh1h9TViNozVRjjCOj3k] * State of ai survey * Jazz.tools [https://Jazz.tools] * 0sync [https://zero.rocicorp.dev] * Graffiti Guests Scott Tolinski - tolin.ski [https://tolin.ski] stolinski [https://www.drupal.org/u/stolinski] Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com [https://www.nLighteneddevelopment.com] nicxvan [https://www.drupal.org/u/nicxvan] John Picozzi - epam.com [https://www.epam.com] johnpicozzi [https://www.drupal.org/u/johnpicozzi] Bernardo Martinez - bernardm28 [https://www.drupal.org/u/bernardm28] MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com [https://mandclu.com] mandclu [https://www.drupal.org/u/mandclu] * Brief description: * Have you ever wanted to use a Single Directory Component to format the output of a view on your Drupal website? There's a module for that * Module name/project name: * Views Row SDC [https://www.drupal.org/project/views_row_sdc] * Brief history * How old: created in Apr 2026 by James Shields (lostcarpark), a friend of the podcast * Versions available: 1.0.0, which works with Drupal 11.3 and 12 * Maintainership * Actively maintained * Security coverage * Number of open issues: 9 open issues, 3 of which are bugs, though two are marked as fixed in the latest release * Usage stats: * 4 sites * Module features and usage * With this module installed, when you select "Show" in the Format modal for any views display, you'll see a new option for "Single Directory Component", in addition to standard options like "Content view mode" or "Fields" * You can then select which of the site's available SDCs you want to use to format each result, and then you can map fields defined in the view to the properties and slots defined for the selected component * You can also place a view using this format into a Drupal Canvas layout by having a block display * SDCs and Canvas are the new hotness in Drupal theming, so this module gives you some additional ways to incorporate theme into your own Drupal site

Talking Drupal #553 - Saving The Open Web

Today we are talking about The Open Web, What it means, and Why it's important with guest Alex Moreno. We'll also cover AI Schema.org [http://Schema.org] JSON-LD as our module of the week. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/553 [https://www.talkingDrupal.com/553] Topics * Defining the Open Web * Drupal in a Bubble * Marketing and PR Challenges * AI Bias Against Drupal * Why AI Won't Recommend Drupal * Is Drupal AI Native * Marketing Against Giants * Local Evangelism Push * Funding Outreach Trips * Drupal CMS PR Gap * Templates Lower Barriers * Need a Drupal Onramp * Speaking Beyond Drupal * Web Summit Lessons * Sell Problems Not Drupal * Rethinking DrupalCon * Camps and New Audiences * Marketplace Ecosystem Idea * Wrap Up and Contacts Resources * Drupalcamp Grenoble 2026 - Bursting the bubble [https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ITzovsMDZIsZrck2FdHjwcAhiulbGtyL_KpAsCEtbN8/edit?slide=id.g3c87395735b_0_190#slide=id.g3c87395735b_0_190] * Drupal Iberia keynote [https://www.thedroptimes.com/67254/drupal-iberia-keynotes-ai-inclusion] * Schema dot org [https://talkingdrupal.com/366] * Drupal is Great! Its Perception Might Not be [https://picozzi.com/notebook/2025/jan/drupal-great-its-perception-might-not-be] * TD Cafe - Caching [https://talkingdrupal.com/cafe016] * Guests Alex Moreno - alexmoreno [https://www.drupal.org/u/alexmoreno] Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com [https://www.nLighteneddevelopment.com] nicxvan [https://www.drupal.org/u/nicxvan] John Picozzi - epam.com [https://www.epam.com] johnpicozzi [https://www.drupal.org/u/johnpicozzi] Bernardo Martinez - bernardm28 [https://www.drupal.org/u/bernardm28] MOTW Correspondent Jacob Rockowitz - jrockowitz.com [https://jrockowitz.com] jrockowitz [https://www.drupal.org/u/jrockowitz] * Brief description: * The AI Schema.org [http://Schema.org] JSON-LD module provides a straightforward way to send a prompt — including a webpage's content and data, along with instructions and requirements — to an AI provider and receive a response containing valid Schema.org [http://Schema.org] JSON-LD for saving and embedding in a webpage. It's a "glue module" that combines AI Automators, Field Widget Actions, and JSON Field to create an AI-powered Schema.org [http://Schema.org] JSON-LD field for content entities. * Module name/project name: * AI Schema.org JSON-LD [https://www.drupal.org/project/ai_schemadotorg_jsonld] * Brief history * How old: Created in April 2026 by jrockowitz (Jacob Rockowitz) of The Big Blue House * Versions available: 1.0.0-alpha1 (requires Drupal ^11.3); 1.0.x-dev branch also available * Maintainership * Actively maintained Yes — updated as recently as April 30, 2026 * Security coverage No — not currently covered by Drupal's security advisory policy; use at your own risk * Test coverage The module notes that all contributed code must include test coverage, though it is early alpha * Documentation Yes — the project page includes setup instructions, implementation guidance, philosophy, and a 2-minute demo video on YouTube * Number of open issues: 0 open issues, 0 of which are bugs against the current branch * Usage stats: * 1 site currently reporting use of this module * Module features and usage * Adds a native JSON "Schema.org [http://Schema.org] JSON-LD" field to content entities (nodes, media, taxonomy terms) * Field is populated via an AI automator triggered by a Field Widget Action, keeping a human in the review loop before saving * Stores Schema.org [http://Schema.org] JSON-LD as native JSON data, creating a fully queryable knowledge graph for the site * Works with complex nested content structures (paragraphs, components) by having AI parse and generate the structured data * Includes an optional sub-module for logging prompts and AI responses for human and AI review and iterative improvement * Configurable per entity type/bundle via UI, Drush, or Drupal recipe * Philosophy: "Use AI to build a tool that helps AI understand your website while always keeping a human in the loop" * Built using AI coding agents (Claude and Codex), with community contributions encouraged — especially around crafting and sharing optimal prompts