https://consensus.enterprises/tags/drupal-planet/ Recent content tagged 'Drupal Planet' on the Consensus Enterprises Blog. Hugo -- gohugo.io en-CA info@consensus.enterprises (The Consensus Team) tech@consensus.enterprises (Consensus Infrastructure) Copyright 2025 Consensus Enterprises International Inc. Wed, 11 Dec 2024 09:00:00 -0500 https://consensus.enterprises/images/consensus-blog-banner.png https://consensus.enterprises/tags/drupal-planet/ https://consensus.enterprises/blog/pure-ansible-aegir3/ Wed, 11 Dec 2024 09:00:00 -0500 make targets, Droplets, and Aegir, oh my! on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Wed, 11 Dec 2024 09:00:00 -0500 We’ve done it! Over the last 6 posts, we’ve reviewed in detail all the major components of our simplified Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) setup, and we’re ready to pull it all together to spin up an Aegir3 instance. With the pieces we have covered so far, we can run the following to get up the point of actually installing Aegir: pipenv shell # Activate venv source d # Bootstrap Drumkit make tools # Install Ansible and Galaxy dependencies make infra # Run playbooks/infra/00-up.yml This will get us a … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/starshot-moving-drupal-towards-a-product-platform/ Mon, 19 Aug 2024 15:25:00 -0400 Starshot: Moving Drupal Towards a Product Platform on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Mon, 19 Aug 2024 15:25:00 -0400 In the world of Drupal, the terms “product” and “framework” represent two different approaches to how the platform can be used and who it serves. A product in the Drupal sense refers to a ready-to-use solution that allows users to build and manage websites with minimal technical knowledge. It’s about offering a polished, user-friendly experience where the focus is on enabling non-developers — such as content editors or small organizations — to easily create and maintain a web presence without … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/drupal-10-on-aegir-3-a-step-by-step-guide/ Mon, 24 Jun 2024 09:00:00 -0400 Drupal 10 on Aegir 3: A Step-by-Step Guide on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Mon, 24 Jun 2024 09:00:00 -0400 For those in a hurry: Start with a fresh Ubuntu 22 VM. Clone this git repository and follow the instructions in the README file. Use the Aegir 3 site migration process to move your Drupal sites to your new setup. Happy migrating! For more detailed information, keep reading. At Consensus Enterprises, we’re dedicated to helping organizations transition smoothly from Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 on Aegir 3. While we’re developing the future of Drupal self-hosting with Aegir5, we continue to see a range … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/computed-token-field-intro/ Sat, 20 Apr 2024 09:00:00 -0400 Introducing Computed Token Field on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Sat, 20 Apr 2024 09:00:00 -0400 In a recent project for a federal government client, we needed to upgrade (rebuild, improve, and migrate content) an internal application from Drupal 7 to Drupal 10. One of the challenges we faced was to build reports that display a large set of data fields pulled from a complex data model. We found that using Views alone was insufficient to meet the performance and maintenance requirements for these reports. This led us to develop Computed Token Field as a way to streamline Views configuration … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/aegir5-stewardship/ Mon, 23 Oct 2023 08:00:00 -0400 Aegir5 Stewardship: Releasing Aegir back into the wild on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Mon, 23 Oct 2023 08:00:00 -0400 We are pleased to announce we’ve posted the first Aegir Dispatch on Aegir5 to relaunch the community site! As mentioned in the post, we have continued evolving our list of high-level User Stories describing the critical functionality required to plan a series of Releases. We are continuing to break down these stories into a series of Request For Comment (RFC) Release Epics. This is work in progress, but we are eager to hear any feedback you may have :) Our goal is to understand the relative … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/aegir5-roadmap-update/ Tue, 03 Oct 2023 08:00:00 -0400 Aegir5 Roadmap Update: Planning & Estimation on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Tue, 03 Oct 2023 08:00:00 -0400 Back in June, we submitted a Pitch-burgh pitch to seek funding to finally get Aegir 5 fully off the ground. Prior to that, we had been working to build a roadmap to push our prototype implementation up to feature parity and an initial release for broader community participation. In parallel to that, we’d been publishing this series of posts with the goal of culminating in a roadmap and action plan. Unfortunately, we didn’t get selected at Pitch-burgh, and then summer vacation came, things got … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/aegir5-building-the-future/ Tue, 27 Jun 2023 09:00:00 -0400 Building the Future of Drupal Hosting with Aegir5 on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Tue, 27 Jun 2023 09:00:00 -0400 Consensus Enterprises is not your average technology company. We are a collective of workers who are driven by optimism, equity, and a shared passion for open-source technologies. Our mission is to build a company that doesn’t just benefit a select few, but instead shares the rewards of our collective hard work. Having contributed to the Drupal community and others for over 20 years, open-source technology is deeply ingrained in our DNA. We maintain the widely-used Aegir hosting system, a … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/aegir5-feature-parity/ Tue, 06 Jun 2023 09:00:00 -0400 Aegir5: Feature parity between Aegir3 and Aegir5 on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Tue, 06 Jun 2023 09:00:00 -0400 In previous posts, we’ve covered our Kubernetes framework for an alternative back-end to Aegir5, as well as the front-end Tasks and Operations and Clusters, Projects, Releases, and Environments. We also discussed the Queue architecture that ties the front- and back-ends together. This time, let’s consider the planned feature parity between Aegir 3 and Aegir 5. In Aegir3, Servers only have a “verify” task. This ensures that the front end can connect to the server over SSH. The new model will … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/aegir5-pitchburgh/ Wed, 31 May 2023 09:00:00 -0300 Aegir5 + Pitch-burgh on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Wed, 31 May 2023 09:00:00 -0300 See our recent Aegir5 Roadmapping series for more background! Recently, Dries announced an exciting event at the upcoming DrupalCon Pittsburgh: Shark Tank meets Drupal: pitch your best innovation ideas/): Announcing “Pitch-burgh”, an innovation contest at DrupalCon Pittsburgh, where members of the Drupal community can pitch their ideas to receive funding. […] The entrepreneurs give short 2-3 minute presentations in the hopes of securing funding for their idea. Since we’re actively pursuing … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/aegir5-kubernetes-backend/ Tue, 16 May 2023 09:00:01 -0500 Aegir5: Kubernetes Backend integration on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Tue, 16 May 2023 09:00:01 -0500 In previous posts we covered how the Frontend and queue mechanisms can talk with the Backend. We also covered the stand-alone work we’ve been doing within Drumkit to support Drupal on Kubernetes. In this post, we’ll discuss how we plan to integrate this new Backend into the existing Aegir 5 architecture. To integrate the Kubernetes Backend into Aegir 5, we will need to build new top-level entities (see this earlier post about Clusters, Projects, Releases, and Environments) for the Frontend. … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/aegir5-queue-architecture/ Wed, 26 Apr 2023 09:00:00 -0500 Aegir5: Queue Architecture on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Wed, 26 Apr 2023 09:00:00 -0500 Previously in this series, we looked at the Aegir5 front-end interface architecture, as well as the lower level entities, Tasks and Operations that provide building blocks. As mentioned in the first part of the series, our most recent work on Aegir5 itself has been reworking the queue system. In this post, we explore this topic in more detail. The Aegir5 queue is implemented using Celery, which is a full-featured Python-based task queue, built atop RabbitMQ. Initially we built dispatcherd which … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/aegir5-frontend-ui/ Tue, 18 Apr 2023 09:00:00 -0500 Aegir5: Front-end UI architecture on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Tue, 18 Apr 2023 09:00:00 -0500 In our previous post, we looked at the Tasks and Operations which form the building blocks for the user interface in Aegir5. Here we’ll look at the additional entities required to support the Kubernetes-based backend framework. It is worth noting that Aegir has always had a tension between Developer and SysAdmin use-cases. We’ll cover this in more depth in a later post. For the moment, we’re focused on the Developer use-case. One thing to bear in mind is that Kubernetes operates quite … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/aegir5-frontend-low-level/ Thu, 06 Apr 2023 09:00:00 -0500 Aegir5: Front-end low-level architecture on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Thu, 06 Apr 2023 09:00:00 -0500 In our previous post, we talked about our recent client work building a Kubernetes-based system for hosting web applications. We’ve defined a general framework to support our development and production hosting workflows, and recognized this as a solid basis for an alternate backend to plug in to the existing Aegir5 front-end. Today we’ll take a look at the Drupal architecture underlying that front-end. In Aegir5, the building blocks consist of Task and Operation entities. Tasks represent … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/aegir5-kubernetes/ Mon, 20 Mar 2023 09:00:01 -0500 Kubernetes backend for Aegir5 on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Mon, 20 Mar 2023 09:00:01 -0500 Lately we’ve been working with clients ranging from large Canadian government departments to small commercial SaaS companies, who have asked us to deploy CMS apps to Kubernetes (K8S) clusters running on Openstack. In spite of our continued feeling that most of the time Kubernetes Won’t Save You, we’ve found it to be surprisingly useful in certain contexts. In fact, we’ve started to think that K8S will prove an extremely valuable backend to plug in to our existing Aegir5 front-end and queue … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/aegir5-is-happening/ Sat, 25 Feb 2023 09:00:00 -0500 Aegir5 Development is Happening! on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Sat, 25 Feb 2023 09:00:00 -0500 Aegir5 development is happening! We (Consensus) have been making steady progress on it over the last few years and are looking to kick off a new burst of focused development. Here’s a summary of progress that has been made so far and how you can contribute. First off, as you’re probably aware, Aegir5 is a complete re-write of Aegir. We are intending to build on all the great aspects of Aegir, while freeing ourselves from a codebase that is rooted in PHP 4. We’re using D9+ alongside modern … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/tuf_for_humans/ Tue, 10 May 2022 09:00:00 -0400 TUF for Humans: Explaining software update security on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Tue, 10 May 2022 09:00:00 -0400 For the past few months, we’ve been working with the Drupal Association on a project to enhance the security of the Drupal.org software repository. The most succinct way of describing this project is: Securing automated software deployments from supply chain attacks. Recently, on a long drive with my mother, I tried to explain this project to her. She is probably the least technical person I know. This may sound like the common tech trope, but it’s not. This has nothing to do with her age or … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/migrations-6-custom-table/ Tue, 14 Sep 2021 09:00:00 +0000 Easy commit credits with migrations, part 6: Migrating data from a custom table on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Tue, 14 Sep 2021 09:00:00 +0000 This is the sixth in a series of blog posts on writing migrations for contrib modules: In part 1, we set up a simple core migration. In part 2, I covered how to review and manually tested patches. In part 3, I demonstrated how to write automated migration tests In part 4, I demonstrated how to migrate simple configuration variables In part 5, I explained how to declare a module’s migration status to the migrate wizard In this part, I will show you how to migrate data from a custom database … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/migrations-5-migration-status/ Tue, 07 Sep 2021 09:00:00 +0000 Easy commit credits with migrations, part 5: Declaring a module's migration status on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Tue, 07 Sep 2021 09:00:00 +0000 This is the fifth in a series of blog posts on writing migrations for contrib modules: In part 1, we set up a simple core migration. In part 2, I covered how to review and manually tested patches. In part 3, I demonstrated how to write automated migration tests In part 4, I demonstrated how to migrate simple configuration variables In this part, I’ll show you how to declare a contrib module’s migration status, i.e.: to indicate whether you’ve written all the migrations that you intended to … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/migrations-4-simple-config/ Tue, 31 Aug 2021 09:00:00 +0000 Easy commit credits with migrations, part 4: Migrating D7 variables on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Tue, 31 Aug 2021 09:00:00 +0000 This is the fourth in a series of blog posts on writing migrations for contrib modules: In part 1, we set up a simple core migration. In part 2, I covered how to review and manually tested patches. In part 3, I demonstrated how to write automated migration tests In this part, I’ll demonstrate how to migrate simple configuration (“variables” in D6 and D7 parlance). In part 5, I explain how to declare a module’s migration status to the migrate wizard. In part 6, I show how to migrate data from a … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/migrations-3-automated-testing/ Tue, 24 Aug 2021 09:00:00 +0000 Easy commit credits with migrations, part 3: Automated tests on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Tue, 24 Aug 2021 09:00:00 +0000 This is the third in a series of blog posts on writing migrations for contrib modules: In part 1, we set up a simple core migration. In part 2, I covered how to review and manually test patches. In this part, I’ll demonstrate how to write automated migration tests. In part 4, I discuss migrating simple configuration. In part 5, I explain how to declare a module’s migration status to the migrate wizard. In part 6, I show how to migrate data from a custom database table. Stay tuned for more in … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/migrations-2-rtbc/ Tue, 17 Aug 2021 09:00:00 +0000 Easy commit credits with migrations, part 2: Can we get an RTBC? on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Tue, 17 Aug 2021 09:00:00 +0000 This is the second in a series of blog posts on writing migrations for contrib modules: In part 1, we set up a simple core migration. In this part, I’ll cover how to review and manually test patches. In part 3, I demonstrate how to write automated migration tests. In part 4, I discuss migrating simple configuration. In part 5, I explain how to declare a module’s migration status to the migrate wizard. In part 6, I show how to migrate data from a custom database table. Stay tuned for more in … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/migrations-1-migrate-core/ Tue, 10 Aug 2021 09:00:00 +0000 Easy commit credits with migrations, part 1: Migrating Drupal Core on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Tue, 10 Aug 2021 09:00:00 +0000 This is the first in a series of blog posts on writing migrations for contrib modules: In this part, we set up a simple core migration. In part 2, I cover how to review and manually test patches. In part 3, I demonstrate how to write automated migration tests. In part 4, I discuss migrating simple configuration. In part 5, I explain how to declare a module’s migration status to the migrate wizard. In part 6, I show how to migrate data from a custom database table. Stay tuned for more in this … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/introducing-config-enforce/ Wed, 21 Apr 2021 11:40:00 -0400 Introducing Config Enforce on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Wed, 21 Apr 2021 11:40:00 -0400 Over the last few years we’ve built lots of Drupal 8 sites, and some Drupal 9 ones too, both for our clients and for ourselves. As such, we’ve taken a keen interest in (read: faced many challenges with) the Configuration Management subsystem. This was a major new component in Drupal 8, and so, while it’s functional, it isn’t yet mature. Of course, the vibrant Drupal developer community jumped in to smooth the rough edges and fill the gaps, in what has since become known as CMI 2.0. At … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/kubernetes-wont-save-you/ Wed, 27 Jan 2021 08:06:00 +0000 Kubernetes Won't Save You on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Wed, 27 Jan 2021 08:06:00 +0000 A lot of potential clients come to us with straightforward and small projects and ask, “Well, can you do Kubernetes?” And we say, “Well, we can, but you don’t need it.” But they’re afraid that they’ll be missing out on something if we don’t add Kubernetes to the stack. So this is a post to tell you why we probably won’t be recommending Kubernetes. This post is going to look at three perspectives on this question… First, I’ll consider the technical aspects, specifically what problems Kubernetes … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/drupal-hosting-company-lacking-composer-support/ Thu, 12 Mar 2020 15:33:00 -0400 Does your Drupal hosting company lack native Composer support? on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Thu, 12 Mar 2020 15:33:00 -0400 Best practices for building Web sites in the Drupal framework (for major versions 8 and above) dictate that codebases should be built with the Composer package manager for PHP. That is, the code repository for any sites relying on it should not contain any upstream code; it should only contain a makefile with instructions for assembing it. However, there are some prominent Drupal hosting companies that don’t support Composer natively. That is, after receiving updates to Composer-controlled Git … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/aegir5-is-coming/ Tue, 10 Mar 2020 13:45:00 -0400 Aegir 5 is coming, and not just for Drupal! on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Tue, 10 Mar 2020 13:45:00 -0400 Aegir is the one-and-only FLOSS hosting system for Drupal sites that’s been around for over 10 years, a rock in the community. While Drupal hosting companies have come and gone, Aegir’s always been there for folks who want to host Drupal sites themselves. According to recent data at the time of this writing, there are 567 instances (that we know about). It’s used by organizations worldwide such as the US National Democratic Institute, NASA, and the European Commission. While Aegir 3 is the … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/drupal-saas-building-software-as-a-service-on-drupal/ Fri, 15 Nov 2019 15:35:00 -0500 Drupal North 2019: Drupal SaaS: Building software as a service on Drupal on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Fri, 15 Nov 2019 15:35:00 -0500 On Friday, June 14th, I presented this session at Drupal North 2019. That’s the annual gathering of the Drupal community in Ontario and Quebec, in Canada. As I realized I hadn’t yet posted this information yet, I’m doing so now. Session information: Are you (considering) building a SaaS product on Drupal or running a Drupal hosting company? Have you done it already? Come share your experiences and learn from others. Among other things, we’ll be discussing: Project vs. product business … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/lando-drumkit-setup/ Thu, 07 Nov 2019 23:06:00 +0000 Lando and Drumkit for Drupal 8 Localdev on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Thu, 07 Nov 2019 23:06:00 +0000 Over the last 2 or 3 years, the Drupal community has been converging around a solid set of Docker-based workflows to manage local development environments, and there are a number of worthy tools that make life easier. My personal favourite is Lando, not only because of the Star Wars geekery, but also because it makes easy things easy and hard things possible (a lot like Drupal). I appreciate that a “standard” Lando config file is only a few lines long, but that it’s relatively easy to configure … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/drupalcamp-ottawa-2019-automate-all-the-things/ Thu, 24 Oct 2019 22:55:00 -0400 DrupalCamp Ottawa 2019: Automate All the Things on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Thu, 24 Oct 2019 22:55:00 -0400 On Friday, October 18th, I presented at DrupalCamp Ottawa 2019. That’s the annual gathering of the Drupal community in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Session information: Ever heard of infrastructure-as-code? The idea is basically to use tools like Ansible or Terraform to manage the composition and operation of your cloud systems. This allows infrastructure to be treated just like any other software system. The code can be committed into Git which allows auditability, and reproducibility. It can … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/exposing-drupal-taxonomy-data-sematic-web/ Thu, 24 Oct 2019 22:22:00 -0400 Exposing Drupal's Taxonomy Data on the Semantic Web on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Thu, 24 Oct 2019 22:22:00 -0400 As a content management framework, Drupal provides strong support for its taxonomical subsystem for classifying data. It would be great if such data could be exposed via the Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) standard for publishing vocabularies as linked data. As Drupal becomes used more and more as a back-end data store (due to features such as built-in support for JSON:API), presenting this data in standard ways becomes especially important. So is this actually possible now? If not, … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/drupal8-hook-update-tricks/ Tue, 08 Oct 2019 11:00:00 +0000 Drupal 8 hook_update() Tricks on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Tue, 08 Oct 2019 11:00:00 +0000 In Drupal 7, hook_update()/hook_install() were well-established mechanisms for manipulating the database when installing a new site or updating an existing one. Most of these routines ended up directly running SQL against the database, where all kinds of state, configuration, and content data lived. This worked reasonably well if you were careful and had a good knowledge of how the database schema fit together, but things tended to get complicated. With the maturing of Features module, we were … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/aegir-devops-deployment-workflows-drupal-sites/ Tue, 24 Sep 2019 08:20:07 -0400 Aegir DevOps: Deployment Workflows for Drupal Sites on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Tue, 24 Sep 2019 08:20:07 -0400 Aegir is often seen as a stand-alone application lifecycle management (ALM) system for hosting and managing Drupal sites. In the enterprise context, however, it’s necessary to provide mutiple deployment environments for quality assurance (QA), development or other purposes. Aegir trivializes this process by allowing sites to easily be copied from one environment to another in a point-and-click fashion from the Web front-end, eliminating the need for command-line DevOps tasks, which it was … https://consensus.enterprises/blog/try-aegir-now-with-the-new-dev-vm/ Mon, 09 Sep 2019 00:00:01 -0400 Try Aegir now with the new Dev VM on Consensus Enterprises Blog published Mon, 09 Sep 2019 00:00:01 -0400 Have you been looking for a self-hosted solution for hosting and managing Drupal sites? Would you like be able able to upgrade all of your sites at once with a single button click? Are you tired of dealing with all of the proprietary Drupal hosting providers that won’t let you customize your set-up? Wouldn’t it be nice if all of your sites had free automatically-updating HTTPS certificates? You probably know that Aegir can do all of this, but it’s now trivial to set up a temporary trial instance …