A Handpicked Collection of DrupalCon 2023 Sessions for Developers

From June 5 to June 8, 2023, Pittsburgh will be a hub for Drupal developers while it hosts DrupalCon — the Drupal community’s number one meetup. There, devs have the opportunity to gain plenty of invaluable insights irrespective of their skill level.

Seasoned speakers will be sharing their experiences and ideas with all attendees. Newer developers can absorb Drupal knowledge from top experts and opt to spread their wings in making their first contributions. 

Among the diverse DrupalCon audience that includes attendees of various professions, developers are fundamental in keeping Drupal’s wheels turning. So this year’s DrupalCon program is filled with exciting content for them. Here at ImageX, our team has curated some great sessions that Drupal developers may find intriguing.

Top session picks for developers at DrupalCon Pittsburgh 2023

Introducing Automatic Updates in Drupal core — by Adam Globus-Hoenich (phenaproxima) and Ted Bowman (tedbow)

Drupal is approaching a significant milestone in its entire history. The most long-awaited feature, Drupal Automatic Updates, will finally become available in the Drupal core. Specifically, by the time DrupalCon 2023 attendees arrive in Pittsburgh, the initial version of this functionality is expected to “arrive” in the Drupal 10.1 beta release.

Automatic Updates are going to make Drupal website updates much more hassle-free — they will be possible with just a couple of clicks or even in an unattended mode. The Drupal team has been working carefully on the Automatic Updates to ensure that the update process is convenient, clean, and safe.

Who better to learn more about an amazing feature than from the people who built it? You’ll have this opportunity at DrupalCon 2023’s session by Adam Globus-Hoenich and Ted Bowman! They’ll share what Automatic Updates do, give a high-level explanation of how they work, discuss the FYIs and the known pitfalls, as well as show developers how their code can customize or extend the out-of-the-box functionality. In addition to discussing the Drupal core updates, the speakers will show how to update extensions using the contributed Automatic Updates Extensions module. 

Performance Audits: The Top 8 Problems We Find & How To Fix Them — by Janez Urevc (slashrsm)

Many developers know that feeling when they cross their fingers expecting the highest scores from website performance-checking tools. Indeed, website performance is incredibly important, and there are plenty of potential stumbling blocks that might slow a website down.

Luckily, all issues can be discovered and eventually resolved thanks to a thorough performance audit, and that’s what DrupalCon’s session by Janez Urevc is all about. Janez will review the most common problems found during this type of audit. Some of them have quick fixes that only take a few hours, while others lie much deeper and are related to the architecture of the project. 

The session could be especially useful for developers because Janez’s team has been involved in creating some of the greatest Drupal performance-enhancing capabilities such as BigPipe, Dynamic Page Cache, Memcached, and more. Attendees will also have a chance to hear about the work that is currently being done with Google to improve Drupal’s Core Web Vitals — a set of standardized metrics that assess website speed, responsiveness, and visual stability.

Advanced Drupal Front-end Development — by Andrew Blum (andy-blum)

The efforts of theme developers are invaluable when it comes to crafting visually appealing, interactive, user-friendly, and accessible website pages. Drupal empowers them to control every slightest detail in the website’s markup, styles, animation, and so on. Attendees of Andrew Blum’s DrupalCon session will have an opportunity to explore the infinite abilities of Drupal front-end developers. 

Based on real-life examples, Andrew will explain how to create custom Drupal theme settings, how to use PHP and the Drupal core APIs, as well as how to work with JavaScript and Drupal’s behaviors system. Another important skill for a front-end developer is to debug and troubleshoot issues when they arise, and it is going to receive due attention at the session as well.

The “advanced” word in the session’s title shouldn’t scare away beginner developers. While covering advanced techniques, Andrew will be presenting them from a low-level starting point. So if you have at least basic familiarity with such languages and tools as PHP, HTML, Twig, CSS, JS, and YAML, don’t hesitate to embark on this exciting front-end journey.

First-time Contributors Workshop

Since we’ve mentioned contributions, it’s worth emphasizing, again and again, their importance for Drupal’s growth and development. The power of our open-source community lies in our collective effort and desire to build Drupal together.

Even prominent contributors who built noteworthy features for the Drupal core were making their first steps one day as first-time contributors. So if you’re reading this and that day has not yet come for you, grab your laptop and join the First-time Contributors Workshop 1 or First-time Contributors Workshop 2 at DrupalCon Pittsburgh 2023. Those workshops will take place on Contribution Day which is full of various contribution opportunities. 

Driesnote and Driesnote Q & A — by Dries Buytaert (dries) and Joi Garrett (JoiGarrett)

One distant day in 2000, in a dorm at the University of Antwerp, a student named Dries Buytaert, together with his friend Hans Snijder, created a web board that later grew into the Drupal CMS. That’s where the long and exciting Drupal journey began.

Hearing from the person who founded Drupal is one of the most interesting and useful experiences for Drupal developers. Dries Buytaert is not only the founder but the project lead of Drupal, and he knows all the secrets of its development. That’s why the central DrupalCon keynote, known as Driesnote, is an exceptional chance to discover the coolest innovations that are coming in Drupal..

The Drupal community is always open to communication. So in addition to Driesnote, DrupalCon Pittsburgh 2023 will host a Driesnote Q & A session with Dries and Joi Garrett where anyone will have a chance to ask Drupal’s creator a question.

The ImageX booth at DrupalCon 2023 welcomes you

As you can see, the DrupalCon program offers an array of sessions for devs. And between all these insightful sessions, there are plenty of opportunities to check out expo hall and the sponsor booths. After all, having a chat about Drupal with like-minded folks, entering for your chance to win some prizes, and collecting some nice swag from sponsors is a can’t-miss part of any DrupalCon!

As a Champion Sponsor of DrupalCon Pittsburgh, we’re looking forward to seeing you at our booth from June 5th to 8th. Make sure to stop by and say hello!