Drupal Experience Builder Enhancements: PageTemplate and Auto-Saving Updates

Wim Leers details the week 23 updates [Week 23 was October 14–October 20, 2024] in Drupal’s Experience Builder (XB), focusing on the introduction of the PageTemplate config entity, which allows XB to manage component trees for theme regions independently of Drupal’s core Block Layout system. This week’s progress includes a fix by Bálint Kléri and Jesse Baker addressing an unscrollable component inputs form, making XB more accessible on small viewports. Dave Long and Wim simplified how XB represents Component config entity IDs, facilitating future support for multiple component types. Ted Bowman and Dave introduced basic auto-saving, preventing changes from being lost when navigating away.

The Drupal Association also updated the default GitLab CI template to version 1.6.3, inadvertently affecting contrib modules with customized CI jobs; Dave resolved this by pinning XB’s template to the previous 1.5.x version. Additional bug fixes from Atul Dubey and Travis Carden were also implemented. Wim introduces the PageTemplate config entity, which stores and validates component trees per theme, preparing XB for managing global sections like navigation and footers. The update also includes a new PageTemplateDisplayVariant that assumes Block-sourced components, marking progress toward a broader integration within XB. Wim concludes by highlighting a test validating XB’s page variant functionality, ensuring a foundation for future UI development.