It is always a little complicated to choose the most useful modules for Drupal 8 because it depends on the site you are going to create or administer. However, there are some handy modules that you can use in almost any situation. I will tell you about the modules I use almost all the time in my Drupal 8 projects, …
With a change in administration comes a new website, and after Joe Biden was sworn in on Wednesday, Jan. 20, the brand new White House website Whitehouse.gov made its debut. The previous administration switched from Drupal to WordPress in 2017, and the technologists working with the Biden administration decided to stick with the same CMS.
In keeping with the multilingual and accessibility features implemented on the Biden-Harris transition team’s website, whitehouse.gov was launched with buttons for contrast and font size, as well as a Spanish language selector. The relaunched site also includes an accessibility statement with a commitment from the administration to work toward compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1, Level AA.
Much of the content and design of the transition website has been preserved. The transition site now redirects to whitehouse.gov, while links to the former administration’s pages result in a 404 page with a link to archived presidential websites.
Astute observers may notice that the typography has been updated from the transition site, reversing the Mercury and Decimal fonts. Hoefler & Co, the font design firm that created these fonts for Biden’s 2020 campaign, tweeted about how “the Mercury serif looked more like the voice of the institution. Decimal sans-serif works more in a supporting role on the site.
Some Web professionals have noticed that the site has fairly decent scores on Lighthouse, an open source, automated tool for measuring Web page quality. It can be run on any web page, public or requiring authentication. Google Lighthouse checks the performance, accessibility and search engine optimization of web pages.
Under the hood, the curious noticed in the code an advertisement for the US Digital Service (USDS), the group of technologists that manages many of the federal government’s public digital services.
In addition to the USDS message, the site’s source code includes a link to the US government’s analytics program at analytics.usa.gov. Tim Lowden, who manages the federal government’s aggregated web analytics initiative, said the data is available for the first time since late 2017.
The analytics service records more than 2.5 billion page views on federal government websites each month. The data is publicly available, but it does not track individuals and anonymizes visitors’ IP addresses. The analytics service displays information about visitors’ devices, browsers, operating systems and location, broken down into cities and countries. Many of those visiting the site today are from countries other than the United States.
At the end of December 2020, the W3Techs Barometer reported that WordPress CMS usage continued to grow: the CMS was used on 39.5 percent of websites worldwide as of December 29, 2020.
W3Techs explores the top 10 million websites determined by Amazon’s Alexa rating service and seeks to determine what technologies they leverage. Detailed reports are sold on its findings. But W3Techs also offers public data on its findings. These are usually offered in the form of a chart that comes to show the percentages of websites using various content management systems.
Right off the bat, it says that on December 29, 2020, 38.4% of sites are not using a CMS. The information is interesting, because on January 1 of the same year, the percentage of sites not using a CMS was higher than the percentage of sites using WordPress (43.1% and 35.4% respectively).
Shopify, which was still in third place at the beginning of 2020, moved into second place with 3.2 percent usage share. Joomla dropped to third place with 2.2 percent usage share. Drupal, meanwhile, retained its fourth position with 1.5% usage share.
In most (all?) CMSs, it is possible to create sections in which the content will be placed. Drupal does not have this concept of “topic,” and the CMS will not automatically generate listings of content in a specific tree structure (like the possible views of folders in Plone, for example).
There are many possibilities to simulate the concept of topics with the core of Drupal :
Historically, the Community Panels module allowed complex pages to be formatted directly from the Drupal administration and was therefore often used as a utility module for “topic” page composition.
Since versions, 8.4 – 8.5 are included in the core Drupal layout management modules.
Always experimental (so their API is subject to possible changes in the future), they can more or less replace the Panels history by allowing a given type of content (for example, “Topic”) to have a fine-tuned layout that can be modified in the Drupal administration interface. To activate it, in the “Manage display” tab of the content type, you must activate the layout management.
Since we’re talking about views. Available in the “Structure” / “Views” menu, “views” are queries made directly on Drupal objects, formatted as you wish. Provided as a base with a display in the form of an HTML list, in the form of consecutive <DIV> or the form of a table (mostly for back-office views), it is possible to propose other displays (maps, slideshows…) by adding additional modules.
The views allow us to make more or less any request, so they allow us to create “section” pages with content by tag, by type of content.
The taxonomy (“Structure” / “Taxonomy” menu) has existed in Drupal since the very beginning of the CMS. It is a generic way of categorizing content (i.e., mainly by associating tags to it, but much more can be done).
This system makes it possible to have a kind of heading since any taxonomy term created will, in turn, generate a page (of URL /taxonomy/term/[ID], modifiable by Drupal’s alias system (URL rewriting)) listing the contents associated with the taxonomy term (the tag).
But all this is only possible if the contents we are trying to display follow a particular rule: the same type of content, the same taxonomy term (= tag), or any other generic rule.
There is one last possibility: if we want to display the contents that are present in our tree structure, as “daughter pages” of the current topic, there is a community module that does exactly that: VIews Menu Node Children Filter.
Drupal 8 is now available in a stable version since last November. 2015 promises to be a decisive year for the entire Drupal community with this new version. To better understand this change with the arrival of this new version, you will find in this article a summary of the 8 good reasons why Drupal 8 looks very promising for the realization of your digital projects, by offering a complete user experience.
The combination of Drupal 8’s many user benefits – more user-friendly content creation, multilingual support, and a more fluid interface – makes it easier than ever to build sites with Drupal. The improvements in its back-office also make it more attractive to novice developers. All this should allow the construction of more advanced sites at more competitive costs than with the previous version.
Drupal 8 version provides a significant improvement in multilingual management, making it easier to internationalize your sites. Improvements have been made in language management, label translation, and configuration customization.
Drupal 8 natively integrates a WYSIWYG editor into its core, making it more user-friendly and facilitating the process of creating and formatting content. The customization of content is improved by using drag and drop buttons, for example, for images. The editor toolbar is also customizable, allowing content authors to add or remove edit buttons based on what they use most.
Although being the most sophisticated CMS on the market in recent years, Drupal has never been able to compete with WordPress in terms of the number of sites. Indeed, less evolved, WordPress is intended for a wider audience and draws its main strength from its simplicity of use and handling to implement a website.
As presented above, Drupal 8 includes new features that should reduce the learning curve for developers, such as Symfony2 and Twig, and should allow the number of Drupal developers to grow, without sacrificing its core capabilities, but will remain a powerful tool for an informed audience.
Drupal 8 standardizes the way it was designed by moving towards object-oriented programming, using Symfony, a prevalent PHP framework with a huge community. Thanks to him, Drupal inherits a variety of standard components used by Symfony, making it easier to learn and use for new developers who want to learn Drupal and start developing modules in a minimum of time.
Drupal 8 now includes the use of Twig, an agile and secure PHP template engine. Twig provides a greater separation between the business part and display management. Like Symfony2, Twig makes it easier for new Front-end developers to learn Drupal by adopting a more familiar syntax.
Unlike the previous version, Drupal 8 natively manages mobility issues. The administration themes are responsive, making administration easier on a mobile device.
Small revolution: Drupal 8 now uses a configuration management system based on the file system (and not in the database), which significantly facilitates the deployment of new configurations to another environment (creation of new types of content, fields, views, taxonomies…). This significant evolution improves the use of version managers like Git, by allowing the configuration to be versioned, which is now well separated from the production content stored in the database.
There are many aspects that you will need to take into account while improving the online visibility of your e-commerce site.
In this article, I bring you proven SEO techniques that will make your online store more SEO-friendly and well optimized. So, if you own an e-commerce store that you want to rank number one for a specific term, it’s time to be careful!
The best long tail keyword should have at least three words – the more, the better. The more unique you are, the higher your page will be because you restrict the scope of the competition. Effective long tail keywords are part of advanced SEO strategies.
By finding the right keywords, analysis, and targeting, you also benefit from increased traffic and revenue.
A site whose pages load slowly can harm the ranking. According to Google, the speed of the page would have an impact on the ranking of your website. It refers to the time the visitor has to wait until your page is fully loaded. On average, a page load for an e-commerce site takes 7 seconds, while the ideal loading time is about 3 seconds or less.
So, having a super fast site that loads at least 3 seconds makes a significant contribution to improving Google ranking.
Trust in a website is an essential part of its value and, therefore, SEO takes into account the security of a website. Securing your website has become a crucial aspect of good SEO.
Thus, the installation of an SSL certificate secures your website and allows you to gain the trust of your customers, and on the other hand, it improves your referencing and allows you to have a better position on search engines.
More than ever, more and more people are accessing the Internet from their smartphones. A mobile compatible website is imperative to attract this audience.
Mobile compatibility is a factor taken into account for mobile SEO on Google. A compatible page is always favored in the results.
The best solution is to have a responsive e-commerce website that automatically adapts to different devices and browsers.
Google also gives importance to social network profile pages for companies in search results. If you are looking for a company, these profile pages from social networks like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are likely to be among the best links you see on the first page. Social networks may not be a ranking factor for Google, but they can amplify the ranking factors that Google considers. Your presence on social networks is the guarantee of the maximum SEO benefits from your presence on social networks.
It is always a little complicated to choose the most useful modules for Drupal 8 because it depends on the site you are going to create or administer. However, there are some handy modules that you can use in almost any situation.
I will tell you about the modules I use almost all the time in my Drupal 8 projects, they do not link to a particular type of site, but they are still used both in development and production.
The available modules’ page can become quite long and difficult to read when you have to manage large sites. To simplify the administration of the modules, you can install the Module Filter module. This module provides you with tabs for each package, giving you a new alternative to find and configure your modules faster.
This module will help you protect your development or staging site with HTTP authentication. Anonymous visitors and search engines will not be able to access your development site. But you and your customers can do it.
This module will allow you not to go crazy when working on several environments at once (dev, staging, prod) by adding a different (configurable) color to the main bar of each environment.
It’s handy when you have several environments, and you quickly forget which version you’re working on at a particular time. In general, I choose blue for the dev, green for staging and red for production.
I always install this module locally and very often in development with the Devel Generate sub-module! The Delete All module allows you to remove all content or users from a site with a single click. You can also remove the content of a specific type of node.
This module is particularly useful on a test site that the client has used for a while and that we need to clean up before using real data or when we test the import of thousands of nodes. It is handy.
The Admin Toolbar module will save you a lot of time. By having a drop-down menu and expanding the original Drupal menu, it will allow you to perform different tasks faster and easier.
This module works on the default toolbar module of the Drupal core, so it is a very light module, and it keeps all the features of the original module (shortcuts / responsive media).
This module comes with a sub-module called “Admin Toolbar Extra Tools” that adds additional links as did the Admin Menu module under Drupal 7 (flush caches, run cron, etc…).
Drupal’s most significant advantage is its flexibility. Producing HTML AMP code from it is possible. Your PHP library accompanies the AMP module and an AMP theme to do this. Once you finish installing the module, all AMP pages can adapt to any content. In the basic configuration, only the URLs of the nodes benefit from an AMP version configured in the back office.
A very specific tagging is proposed by the AMP theme, which complies with the standards required by the HTML AMP. The triggering is automatic for any node delivered in a path. Of course, it is possible to extend the AMP theme with subtopics, as in the case of a classic Drupal theme, which will allow greater flexibility in the display of AMP pages. There are also slots for ads with the Drupal block system.
An analysis of the HTML code inserted by users is performed by the PHP library that writes reports if the code is in contradiction with the AMP standard. It attempts to correct HTML and also automatically converts images into their HTML AMP equivalent. This automatic conversion is not recurrent but will be soon. PHP projects can use this PHP library without Drupal as well as by those with Drupal 8 and soon Drupal 7.
Improving web performance on mobile phones is one of the main concerns of developers, and the AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) project is proof of this.
This project was the subject of an open source initiative and was jointly developed by Google and Lullabot in January 2016. It is possible, in the beta version of the Drupal 8 module, to integrate the support of AMP pages. It is not the case of Drupal version 7, but the module is being finalized, suggesting a rapid availability.
Media are no longer consumed only on computers or paper, smartphones have changed this hierarchy. However, the web in mobile phones is not up to the expectations of users, which justifies the launch of the AMP project. It is about providing optimized content and quickly available from anywhere. In general, the aim is to create an ecosystem adapted to mobile phones, involving the different actors (developers, platform and, above all, users).The load planned by AMP is ultra-fast, and open sources like some Facebook or Apple applications.
At the moment, the module is not complete although it supports HTML AMP tags such as amp-img, amp-pixel, amp-ad, amp-video, amp-iframe, and amp-analytics. Only pages with nodes support conversion to HTML AMP. Once again, the list of supported components will expand shortly.
The arrival of this module allows to democratize the use of AMP; anyone can publish it with a Drupal 8 site.
The readability of the process in Google’s organic search results is difficult to measure at this time. You can find a green pictogram indicating that content is available in AMP format on reference sites. Far from being a revolution, the AMP format reduces the loading time of rich content. It is its practicality that allows it to stand out by performing a critical performance optimization process. Let’s wait for the users’ opinions to formulate a more precise opinion.
The reseller hosting market has experienced a lot of growth over the last decade. Reseller hosting can be used to make money in some ways; for instance, as a web developer, you can sell it as an extra service to your existing clients. It can also be offered to clients as a dedicated service.
Even though getting started in reseller web hosting is quite simple, it’s essential to have some essential tips in mind to ensure that you get started on the right footing.
If you want to learn more about how to best set up your revendeur hébergement web business for success, then you have come to the right place. Use these tips to guide the initial steps of setting up your business.
Web hosting involves the provision of a variety of limited resources to clients who are in need. Although it’s easy for you to get swept into the unlimited resources offer frenzy in the market right now, it’s important to avoid this at this early point; instead try to come up with a structure of how you intend to assign limited resources, such as disk space and bandwidth, to clients.
After you come up with a given structure of how resources are to be apportioned among clients, you can offer additional resources at a fee to earn extra cash.
As you grow your business and attract more clients, you will find that it’s easy for some clients to abuse their rights/privileges. To avoid such encounters, it’s recommended that you set up the right legal framework as early as possible. Terms of service and user policy documents should be drafted at the earliest possible point when setting up the business. A qualified lawyer should prepare these.
To give your reseller business the best chance of success, you will have to free up as much time as possible; and then use it to assist clients whenever necessary. Automation is one of the best ways for you to free up your time. Automate all the processes that don’t require your dedicated attention at all times. Some of the operations that can be considered for automation include payment processing and account creation among others.
It’s important to note that the more you automate, the higher the amount of time you can free up.
Once a client signs up for your reseller hosting service, it’s worth noting that there’s a lot more you can sell them. Different clients experience various changes in their web hosting needs over time; you can take advantage of this and offer additional services designed to solve these emerging needs. This ensures that you earn more from existing clients without having to work too hard.
The success of a new web hosting business depends on how it’s set up from the start. Since you are starting, you have the opportunity to tailor your service to current client needs. You can use this high level of flexibility to offer clients what established hosting providers may be unable to, and with it create an unbeatable value proposition.
Websites, blogs, contact pages, and other sites are created every day on the web. That’s when the CMS comes into play.
A CMS is an online content management system that has the advantage of not going through HTML programming. Being installed on a hosting server, it allows you to create articles and pages that are visible through a browser.
There are many like WordPress, Joomla, PrestaShop. However, we will mainly talk about Drupal in this article. What is the particularity of this CMS? What are the topics you propose?
According to a study by W3Techs (World Wide Web Technology Surveys), Drupal ranks 3rd in the CMS market with almost 5%, behind Joomla (6%) and WordPress (30%).
It facilitates the creation of websites. Besides, it is suitable for both beginners and experts in the field. This open source CMS has the particularity of being composed of modules that guarantee stability flexibility, and a website made to measure.
Thus, you can create any type of site: institutional, community, commercial, blog, directory or intranet. Also, many of the themes it hosts are free. It has almost 2000 themes. We have selected 5 of them that are the most used, allowing your site to respond according to the format used by Internet users.
Five free Drupal themes for the creation of a website
The name of the MAYO theme comes from a phrase “MAke It Yours.”
As the name suggests, this theme offers users an easy way to customize and create a theme they like. Nevertheless, it takes full advantage of Drupal 7’s color module and advanced theme settings. MAYO is simple but flexible. You can quickly customize the feel of the theme from the theme settings page. It is not necessary to have good knowledge of CSS, HTML, and PHP.
The Nexus theme is an elegant and modern Drupal theme, designed by Devsaran.
This theme could easily fit a blog, a small business, a portfolio or a variety of other websites. The theme has been designed using elements such as sidebars such as the header or navigation bar.
The Clean Corporate theme is a simple, multi-purpose theme designed by ADCI Solutions.
It can adapt to professional and corporate websites, portfolios or service promotions. The subject is responsive from any device. Corporate Clean includes different designs such as a full-screen page, 1 or 2 side pages, a portfolio page and a blog with the “Comments” option.
FontFolio is a reactive theme for designers, artists, and craftsmen.
It has a full-screen grid for the cover pages and category pages, and two columns for the inside pages.
Google has decided to let the general public test its virtual assistant, able to make phone calls and have a conversation with the same ease as a human. A new demonstration makes it possible to discover the astonishing fluidity of the system and how it removes any ambiguity on the nature of the interlocutor.
Last May at its annual conference, Google unveiled a new artificial intelligence called Duplex, capable of making phone calls on your behalf with an almost human voice to book a restaurant or make an appointment at the hairdresser. The technology had impressed, but it had also raised concerns and questions about the possible drifts of an AI posing as a human.
Google has therefore launched a communication campaign to explain how it works and the precautions are taken. In the coming weeks, some carefully selected testers and companies in the United States will be able to use Duplex. Initially, the software will only be able to make calls to confirm opening hours, especially for the national holiday of 4 July. During a second phase which will open during the summer, these testers will be able to ask the assistant to book restaurants or hair salons.
This announcement is accompanied by a new demonstration of how Google Duplex works. Once again, we can see the fluidity and the natural tone of the synthetic voice which are much superior to what we know with Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant. During the conversation, we see how the software manages the pause times between responses, plays on intonations and even punctuates its lines with onomatopoeias. Realism is disturbing.
To remove any ambiguity, Google has set up a straightforward device. At the beginning of each call, after greeting the caller, the AI introduces itself by indicating that it is the Google Duplex calling to book and that the automated call will be recorded. In case of difficulty, human operators may take over to end the conversation. Google has not yet set a precise when this new thrilling tool will be available.
Much more than a simple gadget, Cloud technology allows data, staff, and skills to be centralized on the internet. At a time when renting space and recruiting employees is becoming more and more expensive for small businesses, the Cloud is making life easier for professionals.
It is now possible for both public and private organizations to back up all their documents without fear of a hard drive imploding or a USB key being lost. With the Cloud, all machines, networks, and software are grouped together via a single medium that can be consulted by all authorized persons. The simplified diagram of this organization then takes the form of a cloud. By further explaining the strengths of the Cloud for businesses, it becomes mandatory to discuss the benefits of its contact centres.
Email reception, telephone calls and other heavy and repetitive tasks are now taken in charge by contact centres located in the Cloud. The total flexibility of these invisible structures allows you never to wonder about a forgotten extension or feature. If your contacts multiply in record time or if you need your employees to be close to you 24 hours a day, the Cloud infrastructures will allow you to adapt very quickly.
The main point of this is the chance for companies to save money through dematerialization. In fact, only the services requested are invoiced and requests can be highly personalized. Cloud contact centres do not limit themselves to basic tasks and use their exponential power to offer new contributions such as call tracking which will make it possible to offer a follow-up of all incoming telephone calls, coming from offline and online sources.
The Cloud contact centre solution will, therefore, become the monopoly in this field considering all the skills that can be gathered in this cloud. By allowing you to increase or reduce the sail area according to your needs in real time, Cloud contact centres are more than just a new offer since they represent the only solution of the future for all kind of professionals.
The need to have secure and safe web browsing is more than a mere luxury. Nevertheless, there are still people who think that it is the not the best thing to do for their businesses and online users. Google has decided to start penalizing websites that are not interested in providing their users with a safe online experience.
Over the last few months, the number of websites that are going HTTPS or secure has significantly grown. However, there are still some websites that don’t see secure browsing as an absolute necessity. Their reason might be that it takes a lot of time or that they actually don’t need it.
HTTPS has come a long way. The old days where it would slow down the performance of your website or where it was difficult to deploy are long gone. Today, you are socially and legally responsible for securing the data of the people who are visiting your website. Moreover, using HTTPS will boost your SEO performance and help you access new features that will improve the overall performance of your website. If you are still not convinced, then the penalties will help change your mind. It is time to take an action.
Web hosting services are versatile and adaptable. You can choose the adequate disk space and bandwidth depending on the type of the business, the size of the business and your budget. There are too many choices that can help you pick the right plan for you.
But when do you need to reconsider your web hosting plan? Here are some features to take into consideration:
Your load times: A page that loads faster gives users a better experience. If your pages are taking too much time to load, then you need to invest in a different type of hosting.In all cases, you should weigh the costs versus the benefits to see if it is time to upgrade your web hosting plan or not.
My name is Jack Jefferson. I used to work for a big web hosting company then I decided to start my own a couple of years ago. I love how web hosting companies can provide versatile services to big and small online companies.
