The year is coming to a close and activity is already ramping down as we approach the Christmas festivities, so this month my PitchBurgh update will cover November and December.
But, before I jump into those updates, and as we are reaching important milestones and PitchBurgh is proving its value to Drupal and the community, let me highlight the importance of the companies that have made PitchBurgh possible with their funding, without whom anything of this would have been possible. Those companies are:
As I mentioned, PitchBurgh projects are crossing some important milestones, reaching midpoint and important milestones, and some are even getting to the end of the projects themselves. Let’s cover some important updates from the past weeks:
Access Policy (Kristiaan Van den Eynde / Factorial)
Original goal: Convert the Flexible Permissions module into core code. This will allow for any access policy to be translated into a set of permissions so that access checks can run
Kristiaan’s work on Access Policy API got merged https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal/issues/3376843
This was a relatively complex project, not just because of the technical side, but also because of what it did imply, in terms of communication and coordination with the different people involved, and the fact that it needed approval from the core team to get this work committed into Core.
The big concern with this PitchBurgh project, as well as the JSON API one, was preventing the work from getting stuck waiting for approvals and merges for months, having the investment and all the work done and sitting there for those long months.
So, seeing how this project is the first to cross the line and get merged to core, is not just a relief, but proof that we can get complex things done as a community. It just takes a little bit of organization and communication between all parties involved, in this case the Drupal Association was the one ensuring that this communication and updates were happening often.
This project was finally committed on 17 November 2023 and will be in Drupal 10.3. You can watch a video/demo of the project here. We are now working to ensure that Drupal core itself also implements the new API by the time 10.3 is released.
Decoupled Layout Builder (PreviousNext)
Original goal: By rewriting [Layout Builder] using React. We’ll design an API that describes the future state of how a Decoupled Layout Builder could work, dramatically enhancing the content editor experience and in turn, bringing Drupal into the modern era of Web UX
Decoupled LB reached project mid point, so right now the work is being reviewed before the funds get released for this part of the project.
You can read all the updates and the rest of the information of the project on their Drupal.org issue: https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal/issues/3375422
You can also read the project wrap up here.
Drupal API (Brian Perry / Pantheon)
Original goal: [...] combine the best of existing Drupal API clients into a set of utilities that can both address common use cases with little configuration, and also be extended to support the needs of a diverse JavaScript ecosystem
It has been an eventful month for the Drupal API Client.
Reaching a big milestone for the project, we’ve published a 0.1.0 release on npm which represents our Vertical Slice POC. Now that we have a small sample of the client out in the real world, we’ve created an issue for soliciting feedback from the community. Any feedback small or large would be extremely helpful for the project. We’ve also been spreading the word through an ‘Update on the Drupal API Client’ blog post and a session at New England Drupal Camp.
We are also happy to announce that coby.sher and pratik_kamble have joined the project as maintainers. They both played a critical role in making our POC a reality and we’re excited to have their leadership going forward.
As we gather feedback, we’ll continue work on the JSON:API Client 1.0 release meta issue. We could still use contributors. If you’d like to participate, join us in the #api-client channel in Drupal Slack.
Gutenberg in Drupal (Frontkom)
Original goal: Streamline the implementation of core Gutenberg library in Drupal Gutenberg to allow more frequent and easy updates. Improve Integration with Drupal
Gutenberg project is progressing well. After the different conversations and alignments with the team in Automattic, there is a date for the workshop and a provisional agenda. Here is a sneak peak at said agenda:
- In depth go-through of how we built Drupal Gutenberg
- The Wordpress build scripts
- Handling permissions within Gutenberg
- Short term structured data with JSON field
- Possible long term structured Gutenberg
- Gutenberg for single field editing
- Collaborative editing
Mentor the Mentor
The first-time contributor workshop is scripted, templated, and ready for another round of testing. As new initiatives arise, they have been added to the template in the Drupal Initiatives section.
AmyJune has recruited a mentor to deliver the 2-hour training version at Florida DrupalCamp in February. They will test the script for timing and determine how much room should be set aside for demos.
In the last Event Organizer's Working Group Slack meetings, several camps expressed interest in using the workshop slides during their contribution events. The goal is to have documentation that explains how to tailor the slides for a specific event.
PitchBurgh so far in numbers
Across each of our projects we've paid out a total of 38,037.75 for milestones achieved, with 2 projects already finished, one that has crossed midpoint, and the rest advancing at a good pace.