Drupal in 2025: Why It Still Matters for Enterprise Architecture

/**
 * Defines the Campaign entity.
 *
 * @ContentEntityType(
 *   id = "campaign",
 *   label = @Translation("Campaign"),
 *   base_table = "campaign",
 *   entity_keys = {
 *     "id" = "id",
 *     "label" = "name",
 *     "uuid" = "uuid",
 *     "langcode" = "langcode",
 *   },
 *   handlers = {
 *     "view_builder" = "Drupal\Core\Entity\EntityViewBuilder",
 *     "list_builder" = "Drupal\campaign\CampaignListBuilder",
 *     "views_data" = "Drupal\campaign\Entity\CampaignViewsData",
 *     "form" = {
 *       "default" = "Drupal\campaign\Form\CampaignForm",
 *       "add" = "Drupal\campaign\Form\CampaignForm",
 *       "edit" = "Drupal\campaign\Form\CampaignForm",
 *       "delete" = "Drupal\campaign\Form\CampaignDeleteForm",
 *     },
 *     "access" = "Drupal\campaign\CampaignAccessControlHandler",
 *   },
 *   admin_permission = "administer campaigns",
 *   fieldable = TRUE,
 *   revisionable = TRUE,
 *   translatable = TRUE,
 * )
 */
class Campaign extends ContentEntityBase implements CampaignInterface {
  
  public static function baseFieldDefinitions(EntityTypeInterface $entity_type) {
    $fields = parent::baseFieldDefinitions($entity_type);
    
    $fields['name'] = BaseFieldDefinition::create('string')
      ->setLabel(t('Campaign Name'))
      ->setRequired(TRUE)
      ->setSetting('max_length', 255)
      ->setDisplayOptions('view', ['weight' => -5])
      ->setDisplayOptions('form', ['weight' => -5]);
      
    $fields['status'] = BaseFieldDefinition::create('list_string')
      ->setLabel(t('Campaign Status'))
      ->setRequired(TRUE)
      ->setSetting('allowed_values', [
        'draft' => 'Draft',
        'active' => 'Active',
        'paused' => 'Paused',
        'archived' => 'Archived',
      ]);
      
    $fields['budget'] = BaseFieldDefinition::create('decimal')
      ->setLabel(t('Budget'))
      ->setSetting('precision', 10)
      ->setSetting('scale', 2);
      
    return $fields;
  }
}

class CampaignController extends ControllerBase {
  
  /**
   * Returns campaign data optimized for mobile app consumption.
   */
  public function getMobileCampaigns(Request $request) {
    $query = \Drupal::entityQuery('campaign')
      ->condition('status', 'active')
      ->condition('target_platform', 'mobile')
      ->sort('priority', 'DESC')
      ->range(0, 20);
      
    $campaign_ids = $query->execute();
    $campaigns = Campaign::loadMultiple($campaign_ids);
    
    $serializer = \Drupal::service('serializer');
    
    // Custom normalization context for mobile optimization
    $context = [
      'groups' => ['mobile_api'],
      'include_media' => TRUE,
      'image_styles' => ['mobile_2x', 'mobile_1x'],
    ];
    
    $data = [];
    foreach ($campaigns as $campaign) {
      $normalized = $serializer->normalize($campaign, 'json', $context);
      
      // Add computed fields for mobile
      $normalized['estimated_reach'] = $this->calculateReach($campaign);
      $normalized['optimized_creative'] = $this->getOptimizedCreative($campaign, 'mobile');
      
      $data[] = $normalized;
    }
    
    return new JsonResponse([
      'data' => $data,
      'meta' => [
        'count' => count($data),
        'cache_tags' => Cache::mergeTags(...array_map(function($c) { 
          return $c->getCacheTags(); 
        }, $campaigns)),
      ]
    ]);
  }
}

Enterprise Multi-Site Platform Architecture

class CampaignSyncService {
  
  public function __construct(
    private EventDispatcherInterface $eventDispatcher,
    private QueueFactory $queueFactory,
    private LoggerInterface $logger
  ) {}
  
  /**
   * Sync campaign data with Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
   */
  public function syncCampaignToSalesforce(CampaignInterface $campaign) {
    try {
      // Prepare data for external system
      $sync_data = [
        'external_id' => $campaign->getExternalId(),
        'name' => $campaign->getName(),
        'budget' => $campaign->getBudget(),
        'target_segments' => $this->prepareSegmentData($campaign),
        'creative_assets' => $this->prepareAssetUrls($campaign),
      ];
      
      // Queue for reliable processing
      $queue = $this->queueFactory->get('salesforce_campaign_sync');
      $queue->createItem([
        'operation' => 'upsert',
        'entity_type' => 'campaign',
        'entity_id' => $campaign->id(),
        'data' => $sync_data,
        'retry_count' => 0,
      ]);
      
      // Dispatch event for other integrations
      $event = new CampaignUpdatedEvent($campaign, $sync_data);
      $this->eventDispatcher->dispatch($event, 'campaign.updated');
      
      $this->logger->info('Campaign queued for Salesforce sync', [
        'campaign_id' => $campaign->id(),
        'external_id' => $campaign->getExternalId(),
      ]);
      
    } catch (\Exception $e) {
      $this->logger->error('Campaign sync failed', [
        'campaign_id' => $campaign->id(),
        'error' => $e->getMessage(),
      ]);
      throw $e;
    }
  }
}

Headless vs Traditional Drupal Decision Framework

# docker-compose.yml for local development
version: '3.8'
services:
  web:
    image: drupal:10-php8.2-apache
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    volumes:
      - ./web:/var/www/html
      - ./config:/var/www/config
    environment:
      DRUPAL_DATABASE_HOST: db
      DRUPAL_DATABASE_NAME: drupal
      DRUPAL_DATABASE_USERNAME: drupal
      DRUPAL_DATABASE_PASSWORD: drupal
    depends_on:
      - db
      - redis

  db:
    image: mysql:8.0
    environment:
      MYSQL_DATABASE: drupal
      MYSQL_USER: drupal
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: drupal
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: root
    volumes:
      - db_data:/var/lib/mysql

  redis:
    image: redis:7-alpine
    ports:
      - "6379:6379"

  node:
    image: node:18-alpine
    working_dir: /app
    volumes:
      - ./themes/custom:/app
    command: npm run watch
    
volumes:
  db_data:

Enterprise Drupal Implementation Roadmap