Introduction To Drupal Starshot

Introduction

Starshot is a new initiative announced by Dries at DrupalCon Portland in May 2024. Right from the start, it will give Drupal a massive boost with new initiatives like Recipes and Project Browser.

The aim behind Starshot is to guide website builders. This will allow users to build great digital experiences even with limited technical knowledge.

Starshot will come with some of the best modules and themes. These integrations will help organizations get started with website building right away.

Dries Buytaert announced that the first releases of Starshot should be available before the end of 2024.

Drupal CMS is a fast-moving open source product that enables site builders without Drupal experience to easily create a new Drupal site and extend it with pre-packaged recipes, all using their browsers.

Mission statement | Drupal Startshot.

What Is Drupal Starshot?

Starshot is an initiative built on the fundamental principles of Drupal CMS. It will utilize the project browser and recipes to provide a seamless out-of-the-box experience. It will enable users with limited Drupal expertise to construct and enhance their sites easily with pre-packaged recipes.

Inside Starshot: Potential Key Features

Drupal Starshots is likely to come with the following features:

• It will use important modules like Pathauto, Token, Metatag, Scheduler, and Coffee
• Starshots will use the Gin admin theme, which is easy to use and accessible
• Drupal CMS (Starshot Initiative) and Drupal core will be separate. Drupal CMS will rely on Drupal core
• It will incorporate Recipes, a feature recently added to Drupal core (version 10.3) that manages dependencies, configurations, and content
• The user interface, themes, and experience with new modules like Navigation will be updated
• Drupal Starshots will utilize the elements from single directory components

The Need For Drupal Starshot

At this moment, Drupal is mostly used by big enterprises due to the complexity of building and maintaining websites. Startshot has been introduced to serve small and medium-sized businesses. It aims to cut down on the expenses and time needed for creating and managing websites. 

Starshot will make things easier and better for marketers and website builders. This simpler approach could bring in more small sites that usually choose WordPress over Drupal.

When Is Drupal Starshot Coming?

Drupal Starshot is set to launch by the end of 2024. It will combine Drupal's top features with better UI/UX. It's going to be the biggest update to Drupal since the switch to modern object-oriented PHP with Drupal 8. 

Drupal has two versions: Drupal CMS (Starshot Initiative) and Drupal Core. The Drupal Association has agreed to promote Drupal CMS over Drupal Core, but Drupal Core is not going away. The wireframe of the Drupal download page is shown below. 

Recipes With Drupal CMS

Drupal CMS will heavily utilize recipes to make the CMS easy to use. The project browser and recipes will be integrated with the installer. In the wireframe, the squares represent the recipes. People can select and enable the recipes when installing the CMS. In certain instances, the recipes might pull in contributed modules.

Page Building Experience With Drupal CMS

In Drupalcon Lille, a new initiative called Next Generation Page Builder was announced.  The idea was to improve the existing layout builder and improve the authoring experience. With this initiative, Layout Builder will change to Experience Builder.

Exploring The Experience Builder Initiative

At DrupalCon Lille, Lauri Timmanee and his team unveiled the "Next Generation Page Builder" initiative. This initiative has expanded its scope, incorporated basic theming capabilities, and renamed itself as the "Experience Builder." 

According to Lauri Timmanee, the Product Lead for the Experience Builder initiative, this project uses Drupal's strengths in structured data and content management. Experience Builder decouples data from design to enhance Drupal’s composability and allow more flexible and robust site architectures.

This will not only improve the page-building experience but will also introduce in-browser theming, use of single directory components, and allow users to design the layout without writing twig code. The goal is to make a tool that is user-friendly.

Experience Builder will enable site builders and junior developers without Drupal Experience to create digital experiences that match their brand all within their browsers.

Lauri Timmanee, Product Lead- Experience Builder initiative

Starshot Prototype

The Admin Toolbar Navigation has recently been added to the Starshot website. This experimental module in Drupal 10.3 offers a modern way to manage Drupal with in-depth navigation options and shortcuts. It also helps to reorder or replace the navigation blocks. The coffee module helps to quickly teleport to specific pages.

The Linkit module can easily link content. Linkit offers a user-friendly interface for internal and external linking within WYSIWYG editors. The Linkit module also integrates various content enhancements, such as pre-configured metatags, content scheduling, and automatic path aliases.

What’s Next?

Axelerant has committed four engineers to the Drupal Starshot Initiative. The team has already started working on the Experience Builder Initiative and has also offered support for design-specific involvements (UI/UX).

You can also reach out to Axelerant’s experts, who have been contributing to the Drupal community for over a decade, to know more about Drupal Starshots, the Experience Builder Initiative, and how you can give back to the community.