Drupal Developer Days Keynote

35
Debunking Myths to Drupal 8 Adoption Angie “webchick” Byron

Transcript of Drupal Developer Days Keynote

D e b u n k i n g M y t h s t o D r u p a l 8 A d o p t i o n

Angie “webchick” Byron

T H A N K S !

Who the heck are you?

Agenda

• Recap of Drupal 8 from release until now

• Barriers to adoption

• Myths: Debunked

• What next?

November 19, 2015:Drupal 8.0.0 ships

Over 3,300 contributors (now almost 4,000)

Hundreds of release parties worldwide!

Lots of great new features

…and new ones every 6 months!

Drupal 8.1.0(April 20, 2016)

Drupal 8.2.0(October 10, 2016)

•BigPipe module •UI for migrations •Better Composer support •JavaScript Testing

•Content Moderation •Improved admin UI

(SettingsTray+Place Block) • Improved REST API

Drupal 8.3.0(April 5, 2017)

•Field Layout module •Redesigned status page •WYSIWYG improvements •Drag and drop images (QuickEdit)

8.1.x supported release

May 2016

June July Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr

8.2.x supported release

8.3.x supported release

May June July Aug Sep Oct

RC

RC

RC

Beta

βα

α β

Development

Development

Development

https://www.drupal.org/core/experimental

Core innovation++

https://www.drupal.org/drupalorg/blog/goodbye-project-applications-hello-security-advisory-opt-in

Contrib innovation++

What’s not to love?

And yet…

Drupal 8.0.0

Barriers to adoption• Drupal is for more “ambitious” projects; 30,000+ cat blogs are now on

Tumblr; affects “quantity” (not “quality”) in graph.

• Several top contributed modules not yet ready (or not “seen” as ready)

• Drupal 8 now object-oriented, modern PHP; requires upgrade of skills for D7 developers

• Upgrade of skills required to port modules is blocked on customers asking for D8, which is blocked on unavailability of modules (chicken/egg).

• Migration path from D7 => D8 still incomplete (D6 => D8 is better), also largely blocked on customers asking for D8.

Myth #1: “No one” is using Drupal 8 yet

http://buytaert.net/drupal-8-turns-one

Myth #2: Drupal 8 is too hard to learn

http://redcrackle.com/blog/drupal-8/free-tutorials-list https://www.ostraining.com/blog/drupal/200-drupal-8-videos/

https://drupalize.me/drupal-8 https://www.appnovation.com/blog/top-resources-getting-started-drupal-8

…and hundreds of others

There are lots of resources (many of them free) to show you the Drupal 8 way!

https://www.drupal.org/docs/user_guide/en/index.html

NEW Drupal 8 User Guide (en Español, too!)

https://www.drupal.org/docs/user_guide/en/index.html

IMPROVED api.drupal.org

Partial Myth #3:Contrib isn’t ready yet.

* including a few D8-only modules that are either alternatives to obsolete D7 modules or newly required.

~40%

How “insiders” evaluate a module’s readiness

1.

1. Well-known maintainer? 2. Recent commit activity? 3. Good issue queue

activity? 4. Did I try it and did it

work on my site? 5. Does Berdir use it in

production? ;) 6. …

2.

3.

How literally everyone else evaluates module readiness

1. Does this module have a stable release?

1.

Why?• Alpha/Beta/RC not deemed as “production ready”

due to experience in literally all other software. :P

• Core leads the way here: goes very out of its way to explain alpha is unstable, beta is “hopefully” stable, etc. and not recommended for production.

• Stable releases not only denote “production ready” but also grant security team coverage. This is really important!

Which top 50 D7 modules are outstanding?

Of particular importance:

• “API” modules that block other modules from being stable (e.g. CTools)

• “Ecosystem” modules that others rely on (e.g. Rules, Media, Panels)

• Client-facing “Utility” modules in frequent use (e.g. SEO modules such as Redirect, Views Bulk Operations)

But wait, there’s more!

Other important “ecosystem” modules not yet stable:

• Drupal Commerce • Search API • OG/Group • Mapping • …

However, D8 is still surprisingly ready!

https://www.drupal.org/project/lightning https://www.drupal.org/project/thunder

https://www.drupal.org/project/df http://www.md-systems.ch/en/projects/portfolio/np8

Distributions can help shortcut your D8 journey

If you own a D8 contrib module, and it’s working fine for you…

…consider giving it the Shield of Awesomeness!

Not quite perfect? Take a cue from core:

There’s always the next release for future polishing!

If it still needs work… tell us how to help!

https://www.drupal.org/project/issues/contrib_tracker

Help fund development

Test the migration path!

If it’s not working, help with (verifying) bug reports/patches

Let’s get that “Development” number down by Baltimore!