Drupal: flexibility at the service of publishers
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.
AMP in a nutshell
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.
