Drupal | Picozzi.com

Easy Email: The Fast Path to Better Drupal Emails

Laptop and phone displaying an email icon on a table with a plant and mug.

While upgrading my site to Drupal 11 and migrating forms to Webform, I discovered that my emails were still being sent as plain text. Looking for a quick solution, I turned to the Easy Email Express recipe, which made it simple to install and configure Easy Email and start sending branded HTML emails in minutes. In this post, I share my experience using the recipe, a small Mailgun configuration tweak I needed to make, and an iOS rendering issue I uncovered along the way.

Drupal 11: The Upgrade Experience I've Been Waiting For

Laptop showing upgrade to Drupal 11, coffee mug on desk.

Recently I upgraded this site from Drupal 10 to Drupal 11. While I've been through my share of Drupal upgrades over the years, this one stood out for a different reason: it was surprisingly straightforward.

Like many Drupal site owners, I started with the Upgrade Status module. Before touching core, I wanted a clear picture of what needed attention. Upgrade Status did exactly what it was designed to do, identifying deprecated code and highlighting modules that weren't quite ready for Drupal 11.

Drupal Configuration Management & Config Split: Still a Winning Combination

Recently, I decided to revisit the topic of Drupal configuration management, with a special focus on the Config Split module. Configuration management, first introduced in Drupal 8, was a fantastic addition to the platform and has paved the way for major improvements in CI/CD workflows over the years.

2025: A Year In Review

A 2025 year in review blog post image with 2025 and abstract design.

As I sit here in 2026 getting ready to head back to work tomorrow (Monday), I thought I’d take a moment to reflect on the year that was 2025. It was a busy year—and one that somehow went by incredibly fast. Between the increasing use of AI and the rapid innovation happening across the Drupal ecosystem, there was a lot to experience, contribute to, and learn from. Looking back, 2025 felt like a year when many long-term ideas became real, usable tools for the community.

Recap: My Return to Drupal GovCon 2025!

After more than five years away, I was happy to return to Drupal GovCon, hosted on the beautiful campus of the University of Maryland in College Park. The event brought together an incredible mix of government technologists, open source enthusiasts, and Drupal community members—all with plenty of hot topics (especially AI) to dig into.

Drupal + Mailgun: A Simple Setup for Transactional Email

Cartoon man using a computer, smiling with email icons around.

I’ve been using SendGrid as the transactional email provider for my site for a while. Since I only send about three emails a week—mostly simple contact form submissions—the free tier was perfect for my needs. It let me test things out, integrated easily with Drupal, and just worked.

Creating a Simple Donation form with Drupal, Stripe, and Webforms

Cartoon Drawing of Webform with Credit Card Field and Submit Button

If you're looking to accept donations on your Drupal site, the combination of the Webform module and Stripe provides a flexible and powerful solution. In this guide, I’ll walk you through setting up a donation form using the Webform, Stripe, and Stripe Webform Integration modules—all on a local Drupal environment using DDEV.

My Go-To Setup for Local Drupal Development with DDEV and Colima

Illustration of a smiling developer sitting at a desk, working on a laptop with visible code. The Drupal and DDEV logos are prominently displayed in the background. The scene uses shades of blue and follows a cartoon-style aesthetic, with a simple workspace and a light, tech-focused atmosphere.

As someone who frequently builds POCs and demos with Drupal, I’ve spent plenty of time spinning up local environments. A while back, I switched to DDEV as my go-to local dev tool after hearing great things—and it quickly became a core part of my workflow. It's fast, reliable, and makes managing Drupal projects a whole lot easier.

Drupal is Great! Its Perception Might Not be.

I love Drupal! With over 15 years of experience and active involvement in its community, I value its open-source software philosophy. Despite its remarkable improvements, Drupal faces perception problems due to dated opinions and issues with past versions. Educating the misinformed and emphasizing new features will improve its perception, strengthening Drupal as a household name in the digital space.

Drupal Starshot: Delivering on a promise to Ambitious Site Builders

For me the introduction of the Starshot initiative raised concerns about a potential divide in the community and not going far enough into the no code space. However, further exploration revealed that Starshot is not a separate version of Drupal but an enhancement built on Drupal Core. Features such as Recipes, Experience Manager, and Project Browser aim to simplify site building and encourage community growth. Making it seem that Starshot could deliver on the promise made to support Ambitious Site Builders.