16 Critical Capabilities

In October 2015, just before the release of Drupal 8, some of the most prolific authoring-experience developers in Drupal gathered together for the Authoring Summit at BADCamp. The all-day session yielded 31 site-builder user-stories across 4 categories that would not be included in Drupal 8 core and were seen as critical to the authoring experience. 

Over 2016 the module developer community stepped up and were able to deliver 16 of these 31 stories. I will explain each of the delivered stories in brief and give practical demonstrations of the modules that implement them, including walkthroughs of advanced configurations and extended capabilities.

Layout

1. When I create a one-off page I want to be able to add blocks and position them for just that page so both the layout and the content are unique

2. When I edit a content type, I want to set a default layout that suits the fields in that type so my content type layouts vary in a way that makes them quickly identifiable.

3. When I create content I want to be able to choose a layout for just one post, so I can use layout to visually emphasize something unique about the content.

4. When I create a one-off page, I want to be able to choose a layout for just that page so that I'm not locked into a pre-defined template.

Media

1. When I edit content I want to upload media from my computer to use in the content I am creating now and also content I create later so that I don’t have to upload things over and over.

2. When I create content I want to be able to embed off-site media from places like Vimeo so I can add media and have it “just work” without having to worry about how it’s stored or displayed.

3. When I create a content type I want to be able to add media fields so later I can use the structure to do things like list content that contains a video displaying title and thumbnail.

4. When I create content I want to browse a library of media on my site and pick something to use in this post so that I don’t have to upload it again.

Preview

1. When I edit content I want to preview a different version of a page even if there is a published version so I can get a true picture of what is planned

2. When I edit content I want to preview how it will appear on a variety of devices to see if I need to make configuration or content changes.

3. When I am reviewing changes, I want to look at a saved alternate version of a collection of entities (saved workspace) so I can get an idea of what the entire site will look like on a future date.

Workflow

1. When I build a site I want to be able to create any number or type of workflow states so that the workflow process conforms to the real needs of the organization not a rigid pre-defined scheme.

2. When I create or edit content I want to flag it as needs review, needs translation etc. or save it as published, not published, etc. so that anyone involved knows what to do with it next.

3. When I edit content I want to visually compare revisions so I can easily make decisions about which version to use - for example, while reverting to an earlier version.

4. When I edit content I want to track revisions, and their meta-data, so if in the future I’m asked to produce records for compliance, I can easily do that.

5. When I edit content I want to schedule a group of articles to be published on a future date so I won’t have to publish each one individually and I can preview them together.