Notes from DrupalCon - What's New in the Panels Universe

The following are my notes from What's New in the Panels Universe on Wednesday, March 21st, 2012 at DrupalCon Denver.

What IS the Panels Universe?

• Panels
• http://drupal.org/project/panels
• Layout manager
• May end up in core in D8
• Page Manager (CTools)
• http://drupal.org/project/ctools
• GUI for hook_menu
• Panels Everywhere
• http://drupal.org/project/panels_everywhere
• Replacement for blocks and templates
• A lot of work will be done on this over the next year
• Panelizer
• http://drupal.org/project/panelizer
• Panel nodes “on steroids”
• Fieldable Panel Panes
• http://drupal.org/project/fieldable_panels_panes
• Entities that can be used as fields
• Like theme module for blocks
• Field API Pane Editor (FAPE)
• http://drupal.org/project/fape
• Entity Revision Scheduling (incomplete)
• http://drupal.org/project/ers
• You’ll need to check it out of git; no releases yet
• Panopoly
• http://drupal.org/project/panopoly

New in Panels

• Redesigned IPE (In Place Editor)
• Can change layout
• Can change pane styles
• Less ugly
• Pane locking
• Can lock panes to a region or make them immobile
• Content people wanted to control where the content was; these ads and header elements can’t move
• Currently does not prevent deletion; will be added in the next couple weeks

Panelizer

• Like Panel nodes, but with context
• For any node
• Or user
• Or taxonomy term
• By bundle
• With defaults
• That can be picked by the node editor
• Very granular set of permissions
• Entity generic - plugins for users, for example
• Presents users with a slimmed down interface
• no need for the page manager UI
• Covers 90% of use cases of variants

Fieldable Panel Panes

• An entity that can be added as a pane
• Create on the fly or in an administrative UI
• Full access control
• Supports bundles through a hook (no UI)
• Like BEAN module for blocks
• Example: Create an entity with whatever fields you want, such as an image

Field API Pane Editor

• Form to edit a single field on a single entity
• Contextual link on a panel to hit that form in the overlay
• Offers ability to save revisions
• Isolation of experience
• Not tied to panels

Entity Revision Scheduler

• Create a “draft” revision that is not the normal revision used
• Schedule when a revision is set to the current revision
• Works for Nodes as well as Fieldable Panel Panes
• Entity agnostic
• Incomplete; more works
• Patch in the queue to unschedule

Panopoly

• Panels-based site-builder distribution
• Based upon OpenAcademy but generalized
• Still in its infancy
• Should provide a fantastic starting point for site building
• Now includes starter content