DrupalJam 2024

Drupaljam is an annual event organized by the Dutch Drupal Association that focuses on the Drupal community. In 2024, was the 20th edition. Under the name Drupaljam :open up, the theme "open up" emphasized other open-source platforms.

keynote and opening of Drupaljam 2024 Open Up

Discussing the 'Past, Present, and Future of Drupal,' Dries Buytaert covered Drupal's journey from the start to where it is now, and what's coming next. As Drupal's Founder and Project Lead, Dries Buytaert shared how Drupal has grown, changed with new web technologies, and met user needs. He also explained why Drupal stands out and succeeds in today's market.

Dries Buytaert
Drupal founder and project lead, President Drupal Association, Acquia co-founder and CTO, Mollom co-founder

Baddy Sonja Breidert
CEO and Co-founder at 1xINTERNET | Past Chair @ Drupal Association

Drupaljam is an annual event organized by the Dutch Drupal Association that focuses on the Drupal community. In 2024, was the 20th edition. Under the name Drupaljam :open up, the theme "open up" emphasized other open-source platforms.

Rens van de Vorst combined a grounded understanding of the principles behind technology with fiery stand-up comedy, with one aim: to make us think about our relationship with technology. Did technology make our lives better? Did we even know what was better? And how did we get better technology? Rens came to Drupaljam 2024: Open Up to share his critical insights, entertain, and inspire.

Rens delivered multiple TEDx talks and written books such as Digitale Gremlins (2022) en ‘Waarom je altijd wilt winnen van je navigatiesysteem’ (2020). Rens combines deep insights into digital technology with engaging stand-up comedy.

We build on the opening keynote of Dries Buytaert, exploring the open source world: where we come from and what lies ahead. With SaaS and corporate software on one side and the opportunities (and threats) of the Open Source world, where are we heading?

Competition, Collaboration, and Allies
In the Open Source world, we have friends, competitors, and a lot of dependencies. How can we strengthen our collaboration? How can we learn from each other? How can we gain a competitive edge over closed source software? The value of contribution and sponsorship, along with many other subjects, will be explored.

DrupalCon Europe 2021 was dubbed the 'Con of Camps,' where together, we helped build DrupalCon Europe with country associations joining the virtual conference. After this, we established the Network of European Drupal Associations (NEDA) to further our collaboration, meeting subsequently at DrupalCon events in Prague and Lille. We Open Up to You to meet IRL in Utrecht.

Building Communities
We have united around the world through communities formed by like-minded people striving for a common goal, often organized by region or technique. We have united on Drupal.org and find each other at camps and conferences. What can we learn from each other? How can we help strengthen these communities and assist people in starting and growing them?

Right now, proprietary systems and vendors are winning pitches in government and elsewhere that should be no-brainers for Open Source solutions.

What comes next, and what do we have to do to make sure we can continue to make a positive difference with Open Source in the future?

Open Source technology, practices, and thinking have revolutionized how we innovate, collaborate, and do business. The impact goes beyond our daily work and paying our rent. Open source is everywhere; we won! But there's a downside.

We have been so busy with our success that we have forgotten to tell people what makes different. We must remember how radical and important Open Source is. It is extraordinary that we build international communities of experts sharing our best ideas, building businesses, and creating value.
Open Source—and we—have the potential to create more positive change in the world. And we need to tell the world ... again.

This session explores FOSS at different scales, from small but meaningful, to vast and vital to our future. What has open source made possible? What have we done with it in the last 24 years?

A look back at our origins, the changes and opportunities open source has enabled from small and personal to large. What could applying open source philosophy and practices — "thinking open source" — bring to society, the world, and the future beyond our daily work and business, from promoting peaceful and democratic societies to providing international development aid?

Mathias Bolt Lesniak
Project Ambassador, TYPO3

Get ready for this comprehensive session on maximizing Drupal performance! From server optimization to frontend tweaks, we'll cover every aspect to ensure your Drupal site flies.

Whether you're a seasoned developer or new to Drupal, this session will give you the tools and insights needed to supercharge your Drupal project and deliver a lightning-fast user experience.

Query your (internal) knowledge base like you would use ChatGPT (and automate this). This can save companies many man hours (per day!). Featuring live demo's of OpenAI modules, RAG implementation and Interpolation.

In this hands-on workshop, I will try to show you why accessibility is not just a set of rules and regulations we have to adhere to, but should be engrained into everything we do.

Legislation with regard to accessibility and usablilty for website is extended in the coming years. Drupal has not only the ambition to support WCAG 2.1 AA, but also quite a good reputation when it comes down to accessibility and usability. There is usability research done, form the community there is a specialised Accessibility-team, specific documentation about the subject is is published on the drupal.org-website and in the issue queue tags can be added for accessibility and WCAG issues, even per guideline. But how well does Drupal perform out-of-the-box with regard to accessibility and WCAG?

If you've ever navigated the intricate world of Drupal, chances are you're familiar with the Search API and Search API Solr modules. You may have effortlessly accessed the search_api fields page, deftly managing various fields and even applied boosts here and there, but have you ever paused to ponder what's truly unfolding behind the scenes?

Join us as we peel back the layers of abstraction and delve deep into the inner workings of Solr indexing and querying. Together, we'll unravel the mysteries of boosting and discover precisely what transpires within the Solr index when adjustments are made. Ever wondered about spellcheck and stemming? Prepare to have those questions answered as we demystify these crucial components of Solr's search prowess.

But wait, have you ever encountered the frustrating scenario where a seemingly straightforward search query, like 'H&M', yields perplexingly sparse results, despite knowing full well that relevant data exists? Fear not, for we'll equip you with the tools and techniques to troubleshoot such enigmatic search anomalies, ensuring that your Solr-powered search experience remains both seamless and satisfying.

So, grab your virtual surfboard and join us as we ride the waves of Solr exploration, navigating its GUI with finesse and uncovering invaluable insights along the way. Whether you're a seasoned Drupal developer or a curious newcomer, ""Surfing Solr"" promises to empower you with the knowledge and skills to master the art of smart searching and unlock the full potential of your Solr-powered endeavors. Dive in, and let the adventure begin!

There are quite a few options for the local development, from installing the server and the database locally to some of the virtualised solutions, mostly based on Docker. Three of them stands out, Docksal, Lando and DDEV. My research showed that although all are quite similar in the approach, DDEV has very agile pace of development, covers many use cases, offers a lot of integrations and had the flexibility to be customised and automated for your most efficient workflow. You'll see what else DDEV can do for you beside just spinning local website.

OK zoomer, today two dinosaurs will show you what it was like in the good ol’ days.

During this fun code-along Tom and Wouter will take you back to the previous century and will show you how websites used to be made.

And hey, there might even be a bit of a moral to this story!

The web has become far more open in many ways in those 25 years. We are talking about open web standards, but also about improved usability and digital accessibility. So, as you code along with us, you'll see that we've actually come a long way.

But there are more sides to it. While open standards have improved accessibility, the dominance of tech giants has introduced limitations. Looking back to the early days of the web teaches us the value of grassroots creativity, open collaboration and decentralized information sharing. It reminds us to cherish these qualities for a more inclusive and innovative digital future.

So dust off your tables and spacer gifs and get ready to witness Web 1.0!

Bridge the gap between two powerful platforms, Drupal and Mautic, within the context of an open Digital Experience Platform (DXP). This session focuses on the potential synergy of Drupal and Mautic in creating a robust foundation for a seamless DXP. It goes beyond technology, aiming to unite communities, developers, and marketers, fostering collaboration and shared goals.

The core message of this session revolves around the idea that by bringing these distinct worlds together, a new vision can emerge. It's a vision where both the Drupal and Mautic communities leverage their unique strengths to create more value for end-users than either platform alone. This session emphasizes not only the technical aspects but also the collaborative spirit required to make this vision a reality.

Attendees can expect a balanced mix of business insights and community-driven discussions.

I propose integrating Drupal and OpenAI in this session to enable new possibilities. I will demonstrate how to use some OpenAI models to generate images and text and complete tasks such as summarising or generating new content. The integration could be done using the OpenAI API, which allows developers to access the GPT model and make API calls from within a Drupal module or theme.

Additionally, I will show how to store our content and PDF files as Embeddings into a vector database to provide a chatGPT-like search experience for the user. This technique, called RAG, is used as an alternative to fine-tuning.

Understanding how the OpenAI model works and integrates with Drupal
Generate content and images
Store content in a Vector Database
Enable a chatGPT-like search experience for the user

This integration of Drupal and ChatGPT has the potential to revolutionise user interaction with websites and web applications by providing a more natural and intuitive experience.

Len is a long time contributor to Drupal core. He will talk a little about how he started to get involved and how he sustains his involvement in the development of Drupal core.

Along the way you will learn about Drupal Community initiatives. What are they? How are they different from the Strategic initiatives? Why are they done? Len will showcase the Bugsmash Initiative, which is a community initiative, and use this as an example of how to set up and join community initiatives. He will share some of the impact this Initiative has had and also some of the things that he learned about what it takes to make a Community Initiative work.

Finally he will talk you through how YOU can get involved in Drupal core development and tell you why you would want to do this.

Len Swaneveld
Drupal Developer, iO

With Metrics Driven Design we can identify and measure the effects of our actions, as well as making informed decisions on where further improvement is necessary. In this talk, we will go over different types of evaluations, including both Supervised and Unsupervised metrics, and how these can be used to improve our AI models, and thus our products.

Bart van As
Artificial Intelligence Developer, SWIS

Join Yustin and David van ’t Westende in an exhilarating journey through the realms of Creative Development Valhalla, where Drupal (Paragraphs) meets Next.js in a harmonious fusion of power and versatility. In this talk at Drupal Jam, we'll dive deep into the innovative approaches that blend the robust content management capabilities of Drupal with the lightning-fast performance and dynamic rendering of Next.js.

Discover how this dynamic setup empowers developers and content creators to craft immersive digital experiences with unparalleled flexibility and efficiency. We'll explore practical examples and case studies that showcase the seamless integration of Drupal's Paragraphs module with the cutting-edge capabilities of Next.js, enabling teams to unleash their creativity without limitations.

Whether you're a seasoned Drupal developer looking to push the boundaries of frontend development or a Next.js enthusiast eager to harness the power of a versatile CMS, this talk offers insights, tips, and inspiration to elevate your projects to new heights. Don't miss this opportunity to embark on an epic adventure into the realm of Creative Development Valhalla with Drupal and Next.js.

Last year you learned about the road to Drupal 11 and the challenges we were facing to get there. We learned how the Project Update Bot helped in the transition to Drupal 10 and what we need to do better.

In this session we look at how you can get your site ready for Drupal 11. How Project Update Bot helping contrib and how you can write backwards compatible code for your modules.

Björn Brala
CTO, SWIS | Core maintainer JSON:API | Board member, Dutch Drupal Association

Carousels, Accordions & Pop-ups: Ingredients for a delicious website or a recipe for disaster?

Carousels, Accordions & Pop-ups are the popular ingredients to spice up our websites: they are easy to implement but easy to break and are guaranteed to create tons of accessibility, SEO and performance problems. They are hated, mocked and doomed by UX and Accessibility experts. They are loved, cherished and embraced by the rest of the world.

Even if we would like to erase them from our cookbooks, they remain popular with our colleagues, marketeers, managers, customers and CEOs. And sometimes rightfully so: there are reasons why you should keep using them.

In this presentation I discuss when and when not to use Carousels, Accordions & Pop-ups and what their usability and accessibility problems are. I show you how to make them accessible so next time you put these ingredients in your website, you know how to season them.

Boris Doesborg
Drupal developer, Finalist

Today, AI is taking on a more significant role in our lives. Many open-source projects, like Drupal, are already embracing and integrating AI technologies to simplify our tasks and increase productivity. The aim of this presentation is, by implementing the OpenAI API and by using the OpenAI module, to showcase how easy an AI integration can be. With this module, any text field within a content type can be configured to include a button, which, when clicked, will generate on the fly a summary of the entire content node based on a predefined prompt. The module is also highly adaptable and easily configurable. Join us to discover the practical applications and benefits of intelligent automation in content management.