What is an Update Hook

When working on contributed Drupal modules, you sometimes need to make changes to schema or data structures.

This will generally need an update hook to make necessary changes to existing stored data on sites that installed the module before the change.

The update hook itself is generally simple enough. Here’s an example from the Smart Trim module, to update “read more” link settings on each display type:

It’s Christmas eve, and time to open our final Advent Calendar door. What better way to relax before the holiday festivities than by playing some tabletop games for all the family? Maybe a role playing game like Dungeons and Dragons as suggested by AmyJune!

It’s the penultimate door of our Advent Calendar, and today we want to look at efforts to make Drupal easier and more intuitive for new users. Emma Horrell explains how UX research is central to Drupal CMS’s mission of flattening Drupal’s traditionally steep learning curve.

As we prepare to open the last few doors of our Advent calendar, I think it’s a good point to consider our future. A lot of the speakers we’ve featured so far have many years of experience in Drupal, what about new blood? As a special treat, today’s door features not one talk, but two!

Today is the twenty-first day of our Advent calendar, and it also happens to be the winter solstice – a moment defined by time, cycles, and transitions. It seemed a good time to revisit a talk by Martin Anderson-Clutz of Acquia, which he gave at DrupalCon Nara.

Welcome back to day 20 of the Drupal Advent Calendar, where we look at a talk from DrupalCamp Scotland, where Philip  Norton of Code Enigma and #! Code discussed ways of making Single Directory Components easier to use with design tools.

For today’s Advent Calendar door, we’re joined by Eric Michalsen, who was keen to tell us about a talk he say at DrupalCamp Asheville…

In today’s door we return to DrupalCon Nara, where Elliott Mower of Mediacurrent, describes himself as a non-engineer who became an “accidental designer” of the new starter theme for Drupal Canvas.

For today’s door of the Drupal Advent Calendar, we are joined by John Picozzi, who wants to share the keynote from this year’s New England Drupal Camp. John writes…

Yesterday’s door was looking back at the launch of Drupal CMS 1.0, and today we look forward to CMS 2.0, which currently has an Alpha release available.

It is expected to launch early in 2026, though I suspect it won’t make it for Drupal’s 25th birthday.