With 2024 ending, we'd like to summarize the last twelve months at Droptica. It has been a year of dynamic changes, both in the Drupal ecosystem and our services. We're excited to share with you our achievements, innovations, and future plans that will allow us to support client projects even better. Find out what improvements we've made so far and how they can affect your operations. Also, discover what opportunities are opening up for us in the year ahead.
News in Drupal
The year 2024 brought Drupal numerous significant updates and new features, which significantly increased its functionality and usability. Let's look at the most important changes to this content management system.
Recipes - a revolution in automation
One of the key new features is Drupal Recipes, which enables automation of configuration in the system. Recipes are ready-made sets of functionality that allow you to implement improvements on a website without programming at any stage of its life.
At Droptica, we created many functional Drupal recipes
Thanks to recipes, we’ve built a new version of our Droopler distribution, designed to quickly launch company websites with excellent SEO. This change lays the foundation for further functionality development and raises customer service standards.
Efficient Workspaces
Another major change introduced in Drupal 11 is the stable release of the Workspaces module. This notable improvement enables Drupal to be used even more effectively as a CMS, allowing teams to work in different workspaces without disrupting the main version of the website. Workspaces also allow testing of new features and content outside the production environment, minimizing the risk of errors visible to users.
Modern admin interface in Drupal
Drupal has also made specific modifications to the appearance of the admin panel. The modern and clear interface makes Drupal look more aesthetically pleasing and much more convenient to use than many other CMS systems on the market.
Single Directory Components (SDC)
Single Directory Components (SDC) is an approach that simplifies the frontend development process in Drupal. It lowers development costs and increases project adaptability and scalability. SDC allows development teams to customize and develop user interfaces faster.
AI module - support for editors and site builders
The last but equally important new feature is the AI module. This advanced solution automates many routine tasks, saving users valuable time. The module can generate and optimize content, automatically translate it into other languages, and create images. Thanks to these AI features, editors can focus on strategic and creative aspects of their work, while site builders can manage the website structure more efficiently.
2024 was a year of dynamic changes and innovations for Drupal, which increased its capabilities and made it an even more attractive solution in the CMS market. The Droptica team sees excellent potential in Drupal's current and future capabilities, making it a popular system of choice for creating customized CMS solutions.
New additions to Droptica's range of services
The year 2024 was also a time of intense development for Droptica. We significantly expanded the scope of our services and introduced a number of innovative tools. These are designed to make us even more responsive to our clients’ needs and to streamline our content management processes. Below are the most important innovations we presented in the past year.
Recipe-based starters in Drupal
Introducing recipes allowed us to create so-called starters, which are pre-configured versions of Drupal tailored to the specific needs of different types of clients. These starters make it possible to get projects up and running quickly while ensuring the system's adaptability and scalability. They allow clients to better understand Drupal's potential early on in a project, which facilitates decision-making and forward planning. All starters are based on Drupal, so they are freely expandable, integrate with external systems, and grow with the business.
Droopler - a new concept
The first of our starters is Droopler, which will soon be released in a brand-new version that uses recipes. Here, we also have the design prepared in Figma and automation to convert templates from Figma to Drupal format. As a result, we’re able to deliver the base version of the website to the client in just a dozen (and in the future probably even a few) days, significantly speeding up the implementation process.
CMS system for publishers and news portals
The second startup is a CMS for publishers and news portals, based on the Thunder CMS distribution, which has been improved with additional enhancements and a dedicated frontend. In 2024, we launched one of the largest news websites in Poland on Drupal, which confirms our ability to implement advanced projects of this type. We’re expanding our range of services to better meet the needs of clients looking for tools for large news portals.
CMS for intranet systems
The third starter is a CMS for intranet systems that provides functionality related to internal communications, such as news, knowledge bases, documentation, and a contact book for all employees. This starter is ideal for companies that need an effective tool for managing internal information.
New security support package
We’ve also launched a new Drupal support package that includes only security updates for a fixed monthly fee. This way, our clients can rest assured that their Drupal system is secure, without having to worry about unpredictable costs associated with updates. The fixed subscription ensures the stability and security of the system.
Landing page with custom CMS solutions
In 2024, we also created a new landing page with a range of services, including content management solutions. In this way, we want to reach out to people who aren’t familiar with Drupal or don't want to delve into the technology but need a tailored CMS. This allows us to present our tools better and attract new clients.
New landing page with custom CMS solution service
For Droptica, 2024 has been a year of intense development and innovation in our services. The improvements we’re making allow us to better respond to the growing needs of our clients by offering more customized and advanced content management tools on the Drupal platform.
Educating and helping clients better understand Drupal
At Droptica, we realize that taking full advantage of Drupal's capabilities requires the right knowledge and support. That's why, in 2024, we’ve focused on educating and providing tools to help our clients better understand and effectively use this powerful CMS platform. Below are the most important initiatives we’ve undertaken in this regard.
The “Nowoczesny Drupal” YouTube channel
In order to spread knowledge about Drupal and its advanced capabilities, we’ve launched a YouTube channel - “Nowoczesny Drupal,” in Polish. There, we regularly publish educational materials, tutorials, and presentations on how Drupal can be used to build specialized content management systems. This series gives our clients and Drupal enthusiasts access to valuable resources that help them realize the full potential of this platform.
Example of an episode from the “Nowoczesny Drupal” series on YouTube, topic: AI in Drupal
DrupalCamp Poland 2024 Conference
Every year, we organize DrupalCamp Poland, an event that brings together the Drupal community from all over the country. During this conference, participants have the opportunity to gain new knowledge, share experiences, and make valuable professional contacts. In 2024, our DrupalCamp Poland in Warsaw attracted about 100 people. This occasion is a great opportunity to deepen your skills and get inspired to develop Drupal-based projects further.
Presence at events in Berlin and Katowice
Our presence at international and national conferences has been instrumental in promoting Drupal. At DrupalCamp in Berlin, Grzegorz Bartman, a co-CEO of Droptica, gave a talk on Drupal Recipes — Basic Information and Usage Examples, in which he presented our experience with recipes and discussed why this is an important element of Drupal that is attracting more companies and users.
Grzegorz Bartman's lecture at DrupalCamp Berlin (photo credit: Niklas Franke, source: flickr.com)
In Katowice, during Infoshare, one of the largest IT events in Poland, we were present as part of a joint Drupal.org.pl initiative with other Polish Drupal companies. There, we talked about Drupal's capabilities and applications in various industries.
Participation in both events helped raise awareness of Drupal and showed how our company uses the platform for advanced projects.
Case Studies and Resources
To demonstrate the practical applications of our tools, we’ve created a Case Studies section on our website. In it, we provide detailed descriptions of our recent implementations that explain how you can use Drupal in different business contexts. In addition, we’ve build a new landing page with tools and checklists that streamline the process of preparing for CMS changes or improvements.
Online training about Drupal
In 2024, we also conducted two online courses on Drupal basics in Polish, aimed primarily at organizations that want to build and develop their systems based on this technology. Through these courses, our clients were able to benefit from our experience and learn how to effectively manage Drupal websites, allowing them to complete projects better and faster. Currently, the training courses are available on an online platform, so you can absorb knowledge at any time and any pace.
Webinar on strategies for websites on Drupal 7
The end of support for Drupal 7, set for January 5, 2025, is approaching. To mark the occasion, we organized a webinar about Drupal 7 in several versions. Maciej Lukianski, co-CEO at Droptica, presented possible options for companies using this version of the system. We helped participants understand what steps they can take to make the smooth transition to newer versions of Drupal. The webinar was an excellent opportunity to discuss migration strategies and provide support in the process.
Extract from a webinar on strategies for a Drupal 7 website
2024 was a year for Droptica to share a huge amount of our knowledge and experience. This helps clients better understand Drupal's capabilities, which often leads to choosing this technology as a platform for building a system for a client.
Droptica's plans for 2025
The year 2025 promises to be extremely exciting for our company. Continuing our mission to provide advanced Drupal-based tools, we plan to introduce new initiatives and further develop our current services. Below are the key plans for the coming year, which aim to meet the needs of our clients further and strengthen Drupal's position in the CMS market.
New starters for specialized industries
In 2025, we plan to launch another starter for higher education institutions. This specialized CMS will be equipped with the functionality necessary to manage educational content, online courses, student databases, and other specific needs of academic institutions.
In addition, we’re working on several other starters for various industries, which will be launched soon. The final priorities will be determined based on market demand and feedback from our clients.
Continuous improvement of starters
Our starters are the foundation on which our clients’ projects are built. In 2025, we’ll continue to constantly improve them to provide an ever-increasing set of base functionalities. This will provide our customers with a more complete and ready-to-use version of the system right from the start, significantly reducing implementation time and allowing them to start working on their projects faster. We also plan to introduce new integrations and improvements that will make our starters even more personalized tools.
Focus on the growing CMS market and Drupal innovations
We’re seeing growth in the CMS market and continuous improvements being made to Drupal. In 2025, we want to focus on providing our clients with the best possible content management solutions using the latest Drupal technologies and functionalities. We aim to respond to current market needs, anticipate future trends, and prepare for them. We’ll invest in research and development so that our offerings are always at the forefront of innovation and our clients can benefit from the most advanced and effective tools available on the market.
Development of AI-based services
Continuing our work on AI integration, we plan to expand our artificial intelligence services in 2025. We’ll develop tools to support the processes of content creation, SEO optimization, and user experience personalization. With these improvements, our clients will be able to manage their websites even more efficiently, saving time and resources while raising the standard of their content and services.
The year 2024 and the upcoming 2025 - a summary
For Droptica, 2025 will be a year of continued growth, innovation, and intensive support for our clients. We’re determined to provide Drupal-based tools of the highest standard that help companies achieve their business goals and thrive. We look forward to more challenges and opportunities in the coming year. We’re confident that together, we’ll achieve even more success.
We want to thank our clients for being with us on this journey. We invite potential customers to join us and take advantage of our tools and expertise to create specialized content management systems.
