Drupal Recipes
Want to easily add new features to your Drupal website (like a registration form or SEO enhancement), even if you've been running it for months or years? Learn about recipes, which are configurations and features you can quickly implement without writing code or having in-depth knowledge of Drupal.
What are Drupal recipes?
Drupal recipes are pre-built kits of configuration and functionality. You can install them at any point in the lifecycle of an application or website on Drupal to add a specific enhancement. Their name is no accident. They work like cooking recipes - someone (or you) prepares the instructions and provides the "ingredients", and you implement them into the system immediately. In this way, you can achieve a specific effect (e.g., Password Policy configuration) without tinkering with the code.
Recipes were introduced at DrupalCon 2022 in Portland. In his opening keynote, Drupal creator Dries Buytaert outlined Drupal's new development strategy for aspiring site builders. It marked Drupal's shift to a no-code/low-code platform, a tool that allows users to build websites and web applications with no or minimal coding. Currently, this direction is being further developed in the form of the Drupal Starshot / Drupal CMS initiative, in which recipes play a large role.
How do recipes work?
Drupal recipes are declarative, not functional. This means that they focus on the result and describe in simple terms what to do, not how to do something in Drupal. Some recipes may require additional modules to work properly.
Recipes can also be based on other recipes, creating complex solutions. For example, a recipe called "SEO" may have a Meta Tag, Path Auto, Site Mod, or XML configuration in it. So you can build small recipes first and then build a big one based on dependencies. The SEO recipe may end up being part of an even larger "For Company Site" recipe (composed of SEO and Security, for example).
Recipes on Drupal.org
If you want details on how to build your recipe or implement a ready-made one in Drupal, check out the tips at Drupal.org:
Drupal recipes we created at Droptica
Admin section and editor improvements
- Watchdog - this recipe includes improvements for the Watchdog (dblog) module and adds views that make browsing system logs more convenient.
Security
- Security - this repository contains all security-related recipes. You can use this and download all recipes or download them separately.
Security Recipes (sub-recipes):
- Security Password Policy - adds security password policy.
- Security Email Notifications - adds email notifications for email changes.
- Security Email Notifications - Password Changed - adds email notifications for password changes.
- Security Email Notifications - Role Changed - adds email notifications for role changes.
- Security Automated Logout - adds automated logout functionality.
- Security Session Limit - adds session limit functionality.
- Security Login - adds security login functionality.
- Security Seckit - adds security seckit module and functionality.
- Security Captcha - adds captcha functionality.
You can find the entire list and plans for the new recipes on our GitHub profile.
Who are the Drupal recipes for?
- Site builders - people who build sites in a no-code/low-code model can quickly implement features without programming.
- Programmers and companies developing distributions - recipes simplify the creation of ready-made configurations and sample content.
- Software development companies - automating repetitive configurations allows them to create websites for clients faster, cheaper, and more efficiently.
- Organizations managing multiple sites - easy configuration portability streamlines the management and maintenance of complex sites for organizations such as universities.
What problems do recipes in Drupal solve?
The recipes are intended to make it easier to get started with Drupal and develop an existing website on Drupal. First of all, thanks to the fact that they’re appliqueable, not installable. Unlike distributions or installation profiles, they can be "injected" at any time - when installing a website, as well as after several months or years of operation.
Drupal recipes allow:
automatically perform identical configurations for dozens of pages within the site,
quickly deploy new sites with the same features, reducing manual setup time,
implement new functionality for an existing website (e.g., a simple CRM, blog, or payment gateway).