Walks through the top 8 improvements coming to Drupal 8, including videos and code samples to demonstrate "before vs. after." Given to the @DrupalNS meet up in Bedford, Nova Scotia on July 28, 2014.

1. The Top 8 Improvements
Coming To Drupal 8
Angie "webchick" Byron
Nova Scotia Drupal Meetup
July 28, 2014

2. About me

3. What are we doing here
tonight?
• Go through top 8 changes for Drupal 8, in order of
meekness. ;)
• Walk through some of the bigger API changes in D8
for module developers
• Talk about when D8 is coming and how you can
help

4. 1. Improved Authoring
Experience

5. Drupal 7

6. Drupal 8

7. Drupal 7

8. Drupal 8

9. 2. Mobile First

10. Drupal 7

11. Drupal 8

12. Drupal 8

13. 3. Site Builder
Improvements

14. Views in Core!

15. Better Blocks

16. New Field Types

17. 4. Multilingual++

18. Drupal 8

19. Translatable Everything!
• Content
• Blocks
• Menus
• User Profiles
• Taxonomy
• Views
• Image styles
• Text formats
• Comments
• Feeds
• …and more!
• No contrib modules
needed!

20. 5. Configuration
Management

21. One core system to solve
this mess
variable_set()/variable_get()
ctools_export_object()/ctool
s_export_load_object()
db_select()/db_update()/d
b_delete()
$conf[...];
hook_update_N()
drush fu

25. 6. Twig & HTML5

26. PHPTemplate is now
Twig7.x: page.tpl.php 8.x: page.html.twig
<div id="page-wrapper">
<div id="page">
<div id="header">
<div class="section clearfix">
<?php if ($logo): ?>
<a href="<?php print $front_page; ?>"
title="<?php print t('Home'); ?>"
rel="home" id="logo">
<img src="<?php print $logo; ?>"
alt="<?php print t('Home'); ?>"
/>
</a>
<?php endif; ?>
<div class="layout-container">
<header role="banner">
{% if logo %}
<a href="{{ front_page }}"
title="{{ 'Home'|t }}"
rel="home">
<img src="{{ logo }}"
alt="{{ 'Home'|t }}"/>
</a>
{% endif %}
• Friendlier syntax for designers
• Variables auto-escaped for better security
• Semantic, HTML5 markup
http://twig.sensiolabs.org

27. HTML5 Forms

28. No more support for
IE 6, 7, & 8

29. 7. Web Services

31. 8. Modern, OO Code

32. Warning:
Things are about to
get... geeky.

33. "Getting off the Island"

34. Modern PHP Best Practices
• PHP 5.4+
• Classes/Interfaces
• Namespaces
• Traits
• Dependency Injection
• Most PSR-* standards

35. Powered by Symfony2
Tutorial: http://fabien.potencier.org/article/50/create-your-own-
framework-on-top-of-the-symfony2-components-part-1

36. …and dozens of other
external libraries

37. …and dozens of other
libraries
A peek under the hood

38. YAML, YAML
everywhere
7.x: example.info 8.x: example.info.yml
name = Example
description = "Example module"
core = 7.x
files[] = example.test
config = admin/config/example
dependencies[] = node
name: Example
type: module
description: "Example module"
core: 8.x
config: admin.example
dependencies:
- node
• New required "type" property
• No more files[] (we'll get to that later)
• Paths now have machine names
(we'll get to that later, too)
Drupalism: Kinda-
Sorta-INI-Like
"Proudly Invented
Elsewhere": YAML

39. Classes, classes everywhere
sites/all/modules
example
▼
▼
example.test
7.x
modules
example
▼
▼
8.x
src▼
ExampleForm.php
ExampleInterface.php
ExampleController.php
…
Pages, forms, blocks, etc. are now all object-oriented.

40. Defining a page: 7.x
function example_menu() {
$items['hello'] = array(
'title' => 'Hello world',
'page callback' => '_example_page',
'access callback' => 'user_access',
'access arguments' => 'access content',
);
return $items;
}
function _example_page() {
return t('Hello world.');
}
example.module
Drupalism:
"ArrayPIs" ;)

41. Defining a page: 8.x
example.hello:
path: '/hello'
defaults:
_content: 'DrupalexampleExampleController::hello'
requirements:
_permission: 'access content'
example.routing.yml
example.links.menu.yml
example.hello:
title: 'Hello world'
route_name: example.hello
"Proudly Invented
Elsewhere":
- SF2 Routing
Component
- MVC pattern

42. Defining a page: 8.x
<?php
namespace Drupalexample;
use DrupalCoreControllerControllerBase;
/**
* Returns responses for Example module routes.
*/
class ExampleController extends ControllerBase {
public function hello() {
return array('#markup' => $this->t('Hello world.'));
}
}
src/ExampleController.php
"Proudly Invented
Elsewhere":
- PSR-4 Class
Autoloader
- OO code

43. Defining a block: 7.x
example.module
<?php
function example_block_info() {
$blocks['example'] = array(
'info' => t('Example block'),
);
return $blocks;
}
function example_block_view($delta = '') {
$block = array();
switch ($delta) {
case 'example':
$block['subject'] = t('Example block');
$block['content'] = array(
'hello' => array(
'#markup' => t('Hello world'),
),
);
break;
}
return $block;
Drupalism: "Mystery
Meat" APIs based on
naming conventions

44. Defining a block: 8.x
<?php
namespace DrupalexamplePluginBlock;
use DrupalblockBlockBase;
/**
* Provides the Example block.
*
* @Block(
* id = "example",
* admin_label = @Translation("Example block"),
* category = @Translation("Example")
* )
*/
class ExampleBlock extends BlockBase {
public function build() {
return array('hello' => array(
'#markup' => $this->t('Hello world.')
));
}
}
src/Plugin/Block/ExampleBlock.php
"Proudly Invented
Elsewhere":
- Annotations
- APIs defined by
Interfaces

45. Choose Your Own Data
Adventure
• While you can do it, it's now considered unusual to store data
directly in the database; choose one of the following:
• Content Entities: Use for 1000s+ of records; fieldable.
Ex: Nodes, Users, Comments, Feeds, Terms
• Config Entities: Use for 10s of records; create in UI, deploy.
Ex: Views, Text Formats, Image Styles, Vocabularies
• Config API: Use for 1s of records; things you want deployed.
Ex: most admin/config/foo forms
• Settings API: Use for 1s of records; things specific to an
environment; not deployed. Ex: timestamps, hashes, keys

46. Read more about it!
Plaster these URLs to your face:
https://api.drupal.org/api/drupal/8
https://www.drupal.org/documentation/developer/api

47. Every API change in Drupal 8
Plaster this URL to your cat's face:
https://www.drupal.org/list-changes

48. Rocket fuel to get started
Plaster this URL to your dog's face:
https://www.drupal.org/project/drupalmoduleupgrader

49. 8 sounds great!
So where's it at, anyway?

50. Current Release Status
• There are ~100 “critical” issues
left to solve that block release.
• Of these, ~5 are “beta blockers”
that block the beta release.
• “Beta” marks the time at which
module developers can start re-
writing their code on top of
Drupal 8.
• Without lots of modules being
ready, Drupal 8 will not have a
successful launch, so we are
trying to get beta right.
alpha
releases
bet
a RC1
we are here!
x
“WHEN IT’S
READY”
(~Q2 2015)
https://groups.drupal.org/core/updates

51. When should I start using it?
• Module/Theme developer?
• Right now!
• Provide early API feedback while things can still be changed.
• Early Adopter?
• Start building test sites during beta/RC
• Be prepared to "BYOBF" (bring your own bug fixes)
• Late Adopter?
• 6+ months after Drupal 8.0.0
• Wait for enough contrib modules to be ported

52. What about upgrades?
• No more upgrade path; now, migration path.
• Build out your Drupal 8 site as a new site, then
migrate content, users, etc. over.
• Drupal 6 => Drupal 8 migrations already in!
• Drupal 7 => Drupal 8 migrations in progress.
https://www.drupal.org/upgrade/migrate

53. What if I'm stuck on D7 for
the foreseeable future?
Drupal 8 Core Feature Drupal 7 Contrib Equivalent
WYSIWYG CKEditor: https://drupal.org/project/ckeditor
In-Place Editing Quick Edit: https://drupal.org/project/quickedit
Responsive Toolbar
“Mobile Friendly Navigation Toolbar"
https://drupal.org/project/navbar
Responsive Front-End
Theme
Omega, Zen, Adaptive, etc. base themes
Responsive Admin
Theme
Ember: https://drupal.org/project/ember
Responsive Images Picture: https://drupal.org/project/picture
Responsive Tables Responsive Tables: https://drupal.org/project/responsive_tables
Simplified Overlay Escape Admin: https://drupal.org/project/escape_admin
Multilingual
Internationalization: https://www.drupal.org/project/i18n
Entity Translation: https://www.drupal.org/project/entity_translation
Better Blocks Bean: https://www.drupal.org/project/bean

54. How can I help?
• Start porting your modules/themes!
• Give "developer experience" feedback while we can still fix
things
• Help us find/fix holes in documentation
• Build a practice site or two
• Test out the D6 => D8 migration path!
• Find/File bug reports (with patches if you can!)
• Help kill critical core issues! :D

55. Want the full scoop?
https://www.drupal.org/drupal-8.0
https://www.acquia.com/tags/ultimate-guide-drupal-8

56. Thanks! :)
Questions?