UI Suite Monthly #23 - Wrapping Up a Milestone Year and Building Toward UI Suite 2.0

Overall Summary

Our final monthly meeting of 2024 marked the end of what can only be described as a transformative year for the UI Suite initiative. We've reached significant milestones across all five modules that comprise our complete design system implementation for Drupal, with UI Patterns 2.0 approaching its stable release and the entire ecosystem evolving toward a more mature, component-based architecture.

This month's meeting highlighted our progression from the original UI Suite 1 architecture to the new UI Suite 2 framework, which leverages Single Directory Components (SDC) and the new Icon API that was recently merged into Drupal 11.1. The community has grown substantially, with nearly 6,000 installs of UI Patterns and UI Skins reaching 200 installations. Our ecosystem now includes 11 public implementations of design systems, with seven of them already converted to SDC and UI Pattern 2.0.

Key Topics Discussed

UI Patterns 2.0 Release Progress: Mikael presented the current state of UI Pattern 2.0, which has reached Beta 6 with significant improvements in data normalization and component handling. The team has worked extensively to address real-world usage patterns where users inject various data types through Twig, requiring robust normalization of props and slots. The transition from the custom component Twig function to Twig's native include function represents a major architectural shift that simplifies component usage while maintaining functionality.

Core Integration Strategy: We're actively working to move substantial portions of our codebase into Drupal core, building on the success of the Icon API integration in Drupal 11.1. This includes proposing a Style API and Plugin Formatter improvements that would enable us to rebuild UI Styles 2.0 based on core functionality. Our goal is to minimize custom code while maximizing the artifacts available through standard Drupal mechanisms.

Documentation Overhaul: The team is preparing comprehensive new documentation for UI Pattern 2.0 that will use the modern Markdown pipeline system rather than the legacy CMS-style documentation. Pierre is leading this effort with a focus on reorganizing content, updating examples, and ensuring clear guidance for both new and existing users transitioning between versions.

Drupal CMS Integration: Although our proposal came too late for the January 15 Drupal CMS release, we believe UI Suite's component-based approach is crucial for preparing the ecosystem for modern page building tools. The education around proper component architecture and SDC usage will be essential when Drupal CMS eventually adopts more advanced display builders like Experience Builder.

Bootstrap 5.1 and Icon Integration: Florent demonstrated the extensive icon integration work in UI Suite Bootstrap 5.1, showing how the new Icon API enables automatic iconification of submit buttons, form elements, and navigation components. The integration with Layout Builder's off-canvas functionality and the conversion to Bootstrap modal components represents a significant improvement in user experience and visual consistency.

Theme Ecosystem Growth: Our design system implementations continue to expand, with new additions including Bulma (led by Michaël Fanini), Patternfly (implementing Red Hat's design system), and Netherlands Design System (implementing the Netherlands public design system). While some older themes like Protocol, Olivero, Foundation, and others need maintenance attention, the overall ecosystem is healthy with dedicated maintainers for most implementations.

Key Action Points

Immediate Release Preparations: The UI Patterns 2.0 RC1 will be released within days, followed by a two-week testing cycle to identify any remaining bugs before the stable 2.0 release targeted for early January. Our release process includes careful issue triage to determine what stays in 2.0 scope versus future 2.1 releases, ensuring we deliver a stable foundation while planning for continued innovation.

Documentation Sprint: Complete the new UI Patterns 2.0 documentation by January 5th to coincide with either the stable release or RC2, ensuring users have comprehensive guidance for the new architecture. This includes both technical documentation and migration guides for users transitioning from UI Patterns 1.x implementations.

Drupal CMS Preparation: Add proper tagging, logos, and descriptions to our modules during the holiday period so they present well when developers discover them through the Drupal CMS interface. This preparation work will help new users understand the value proposition of our component-based approach.

Community Engagement: Continue expanding our Slack channel community, which has grown by 24 people this month, and prepare for increased adoption as UI Patterns 2.0 reaches stability. Focus on supporting theme maintainers as they transition their implementations to the new architecture.

Core Contribution Planning: Prepare proposals for Style API and Plugin Formatter improvements for submission to Drupal core in early 2025, building on our successful Icon API integration. This work will lay the foundation for UI Styles 2.0 and further reduce our dependency on custom contrib code.

Upcoming Deadlines / Releases

The transition to 2025 represents more than just a calendar change for our initiative – it marks our evolution into a mature design system platform that's increasingly integrated with Drupal core while maintaining the flexibility and power that has driven our community growth throughout this remarkable year.