Click here to watch Plugin Haikus.

This session explains / Drupal plugins through haiku. / The complex made clear.

Many of the major Drupal 7 contrib modules like Views and Panels rely on plugins and other functionality from Chaos Tools suite. In Drupal 8, a refactored plugin system touches nearly every corner of core. Understanding plugin types and their implementation has become a prerequisite for efficient Drupal development.

Knowing CTools’ reach / unlocks flexibility / in your site-building.

Both site builders and developers can take advantage of the CTools’ capabilities. Using plugins you can easily extend the information and structures that Views displays, or provide new content types to Panels. We’ll see how other modules such as Entity Reference or Draggableviews leverage plugins.

And that’s just the start, we’re also covering access and relationship plugins, exportables, javascript. CTools has a wealth of form API helpers like modal windows and multi-step wizards that speed development and site building.

Then, the future. A number of plugin concepts from CTools have been added to Drupal 8 core. We’ll cover how their implementations differ from CTools and how they are changing site building and development.

This session targets site-builders and coders who want to know what CTools offers and how it can speed the development process. We’ll see a lot of ideas, some code and example uses. And haikus, of course. Our explanation of access plugins will begin with “Give it a context / and some configuration. / Get back TRUE or FALSE.”

Only those who come / will learn new Drupal powers. / First haiku is free.