UI Suite Monthly #18 - Major Reorganization and UI Patterns 2 Reaches 80% Completion

Overall Summary

Our June monthly meeting brought exciting transformational news for the UI Suite ecosystem. We're implementing a major reorganization strategy that will introduce a meta package while maintaining all existing modules as separate, optional components. This change aims to provide both flexibility for individual module users and convenience for those wanting the complete UI Suite experience through a single installation command.

The headline achievement this month is UI Patterns 2 reaching 80% feature completion with Alpha 2 release. Our summer camp in France proved highly productive, with our European team members collaborating intensively on five key subjects. We also welcomed Jean as our seventh team member, focusing on developer tools, and celebrated a significant milestone with our maintainer becoming a core Drupal maintainer for the SDC (Single Directory Components) subsystem.

Looking ahead, we're positioning ourselves strategically within three distinct approaches in the Drupal theming ecosystem: Legacy Drupal themes, pure SDC themes, and our comprehensive UI Suite approach that implements full design system artifacts beyond just components.

Key Topics Discussed

UI Suite Reorganization & Meta Package Strategy

We're restructuring our entire ecosystem around a new meta package concept. The approach maintains our five core modules - UI Patterns, UI Styles, UI Skins, the new Icon module, and UI Examples - as separate, optional installations. For users wanting everything at once, composer require ui-suite will provide the complete package. This reorganization enables proper versioning and sets the stage for what we're considering "UI Suite Generation 2" marketing.

The reorganization addresses seven design system artifacts: components and variants through UI Pattern 2, layouts and grids via the same module, utilities and helpers through UI Styles, CSS variables through UI Skins, icon sets via our new module, and example pages through our established UI Examples module. Importantly, this change maintains complete backward compatibility - existing projects will see no breaking changes, making the meta package entirely optional for current implementations.

UI Patterns 2 Development Milestone

Our Alpha 2 release represents a significant leap forward, achieving 80% feature completion. We've progressed from testing 20% of use cases to 80% of testable scenarios, covering both plugin usage and data source implementation. The ecosystem consolidation continues as we embed Drupal core functionality into UI Patterns 2, with Display Suite integration nearly complete and Field Groups integration beginning.

Jean's addition to our team brings specialized focus on developer tools, including component validators with Drush commands, pattern library annotations, regression testing tools, and administrative plugin overviews. These tools will benefit not just UI Suite users but the entire SDC community, making components cleaner and more efficient regardless of whether teams use our full ecosystem.

Technical Infrastructure & Compatibility Updates

Our technical foundations continue strengthening across modules. UI Styles received critical bug fixes, particularly resolving the fatal error issues that some sites experienced. We're actively working on style widgets - one of our main summer camp objectives - providing three default sources: select lists with previews, checkboxes, and toolbar icons, all automatically detected from component definitions.

The drilling behavior revamp in UI Styles represents significant under-the-hood improvements for targeting the best possible elements for style class application. While users won't notice these internal changes, the improvements will make bug resolution much easier going forward.

Key Action Points

Immediate Development Priorities

• Complete UI Patterns 2 Alpha 3 release targeting the same week as Drupal 11 and Drupal 10.3 launches
• Finalize style widgets implementation to replace the current "sad state" of multiple select lists with beautiful, preview-enabled forms
• Advance icon module development with custom handlers for various format code points beyond SVG compatibility
• Continue Layout Option transition planning as we prepare to move away from this module toward UI Patterns 2 for both components and layout grids

Our testing strategy remains crucial - we continue encouraging public and private project submissions for UI Patterns 2 compatibility testing. We'll respect privacy requirements and work under NDAs when necessary, but broader testing helps ensure smooth releases for everyone.

Strategic Positioning & Community Engagement

We're clearly defining our position within the Drupal ecosystem's three theming approaches. Legacy Drupal themes focus on template suggestions without design system implementation. Pure SDC themes implement only components using presenter templates and numerous template suggestions. Our UI Suite approach implements comprehensive design system artifacts - not just components but style utilities, CSS variables, icon sets, and more, with minimal reliance on presenter templates and template suggestions.

This positioning helps both clients and community members understand when our approach provides the most value versus alternative theming strategies.

Upcoming Deadlines / Releases

Note: Our July 4th meeting has been rescheduled to July 18th due to the US holiday, and we're spacing summer meetings slightly further apart, returning to monthly cadence in September.

The momentum continues building across our entire ecosystem, with multiple demos planned for our next meeting and significant milestones approaching throughout the summer. Our strategic reorganization positions us well for the next phase of UI Suite evolution while maintaining the stability and compatibility our community depends on.