{ "uuid": [ { "value": "af1271f1-d7b4-446b-8fb0-1d94eee5846f" } ], "langcode": [ { "value": "en" } ], "type": [ { "target_id": "daily_email", "target_type": "node_type", "target_uuid": "8bde1f2f-eef9-4f2d-ae9c-96921f8193d7" } ], "revision_timestamp": [ { "value": "2025-05-11T09:00:26+00:00" } ], "revision_uid": [ { "target_type": "user", "target_uuid": "b8966985-d4b2-42a7-a319-2e94ccfbb849" } ], "revision_log": [], "status": [ { "value": true } ], "uid": [ { "target_type": "user", "target_uuid": "b8966985-d4b2-42a7-a319-2e94ccfbb849" } ], "title": [ { "value": "Open-source encourages more open-source\n" } ], "created": [ { "value": "2023-12-05T00:00:00+00:00" } ], "changed": [ { "value": "2025-05-11T09:00:26+00:00" } ], "promote": [ { "value": false } ], "sticky": [ { "value": false } ], "default_langcode": [ { "value": true } ], "revision_translation_affected": [ { "value": true } ], "path": [ { "alias": "\/daily\/2023\/12\/05\/open-source-encourages-open-source", "langcode": "en" } ], "body": [ { "value": "\n

In yesterday's email<\/a>, I mentioned the Private Message Queue module - a contributed Drupal module we wrote for a project as part of a contribution-first workflow.<\/p>\n\n

In our experience, doing that and releasing Private Message Queue as its own open-source project encouraged more open-source contributions.<\/p>\n\n

We started to ask questions like, \"Which user should the messages be sent from?\".<\/p>\n\n

System Users<\/h2>\n\n

This led us to create the System User module<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Inspired by system users in Linux, it provides a way to identify and retrieve system users that aren't tied to individuals' accounts and without relying on \"magic\" user IDs.<\/p>\n\n

But what if a website doesn't have a system user?<\/p>\n\n

Null Users<\/h2>\n\n

This led to the Null User module<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Following the Null object pattern, if there isn't a system user, instead of returning NULL<\/code> or FALSE<\/code>, you return a null user that you use in the same way, though they'll have default empty values and won't perform any actions.<\/p>\n\n

This pattern simplifies your code as you don't need to check for NULL<\/code> or FALSE<\/code> values.<\/p>\n\n

Here's the thing<\/h2>\n\n

If I remember correctly, as part of the project, we created and released around ten new contributed modules to Drupal.org.<\/p>\n\n

We were able to move straight onto the next phase of the project.<\/p>\n\n

We didn't need to clean them up or refactor them beforehand. We didn't need to dedicate any additional time as they were already released.<\/p>\n\n ", "format": "full_html", "processed": "\n

In yesterday's email<\/a>, I mentioned the Private Message Queue module - a contributed Drupal module we wrote for a project as part of a contribution-first workflow.<\/p>\n\n

In our experience, doing that and releasing Private Message Queue as its own open-source project encouraged more open-source contributions.<\/p>\n\n

We started to ask questions like, \"Which user should the messages be sent from?\".<\/p>\n\n

System Users<\/h2>\n\n

This led us to create the System User module<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Inspired by system users in Linux, it provides a way to identify and retrieve system users that aren't tied to individuals' accounts and without relying on \"magic\" user IDs.<\/p>\n\n

But what if a website doesn't have a system user?<\/p>\n\n

Null Users<\/h2>\n\n

This led to the Null User module<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Following the Null object pattern, if there isn't a system user, instead of returning NULL<\/code> or FALSE<\/code>, you return a null user that you use in the same way, though they'll have default empty values and won't perform any actions.<\/p>\n\n

This pattern simplifies your code as you don't need to check for NULL<\/code> or FALSE<\/code> values.<\/p>\n\n

Here's the thing<\/h2>\n\n

If I remember correctly, as part of the project, we created and released around ten new contributed modules to Drupal.org.<\/p>\n\n

We were able to move straight onto the next phase of the project.<\/p>\n\n

We didn't need to clean them up or refactor them beforehand. We didn't need to dedicate any additional time as they were already released.<\/p>\n\n ", "summary": null } ], "feeds_item": [ { "imported": "1970-01-01T00:33:45+00:00", "guid": null, "hash": "11107beced548217d0455b4197564141", "target_type": "feeds_feed", "target_uuid": "90c85284-7ca8-4074-9178-97ff8384fe76" } ] }