When you combine different technologies, you multiply their powers, and the results are stunning! That’s what happens, for example, when Drupal cooperates with JavaScript tools. Drupal 8’s brand-new architecture with API-first improvements gave it especially impressive integration capabilities. However, to make things even better, enthusiasts created Drupal Waterwheel. Plenty of interesting details about it are coming right now. So let’s set the wheels turning — or, better to say, the waterwheels!
Drupal and JS: the rise of decoupled architecture
To explain the importance of Drupal Waterwheel, we need to mention the decoupling “boom”. In recent years, it is increasingly popular to use a CMS as a data source, while exposing this data to another front-end, or even a whole ecosystem of devices.
In case with Drupal, the front-end “fiddle” is played by React, Angular, Vue, Ember, Backbone, and many other lightning-fast JavaScript frameworks. This approach is known as decoupled, or headless Drupal.
With the strong “back” provided by the most powerful CMS such as Drupal, the newly-made sites and apps impress users with a sky-high level of interactivity and speed. They are able to create unique users experiences and significantly increase your audience.
It’s not only that Drupal developers choose JavaScript frameworks for decoupling. The creators of various JS applications also choose Drupal as a backend CMS. However, some of them are not acquainted with it. That’s where Waterwheel comes for help!
Drupal Waterwheel, its mission and work
Waterwheel is meant to make Drupal more understandable to non-Drupal and non-PHP developers. For customers, this means a wider choice of developers who can implement their wished.
Basically, Waterwheel is an ecosystem of SDKs (software development kits) that help developers obtain data from Drupal and manipulate it in various ways.
Drupal Waterwheel frees them all from the need to know the ins and outs of Drupal’s core REST. This inspires them to choose Drupal as the backend CMS, as well as speeds up the development processes.
When we talk about the Waterwheel ecosystem, we should first of all mention the Waterwheel.js — a generic JS library, which helps handle Drupal 8 data via Drupal REST and JSON API. It is a great fit both for progressively decoupled and fully decoupled scenarios.
There also are framework-specific tools like the following:
- React Waterwheel App — a sample application based on Drupal 8 and Waterwheel.js to demonstrate integration with React.js
- Ember Whatewheel App — a sample application to demonstrate the integration of Drupal and Ember.js via JSON API
- Ember Drupal Waterwheel — a helpful add-on for the developers of Ember apps that consume Drupal data.
A special Drupal module called Waterwheel is meant for those who want to have resource discovery in their application for the sake of client-side validation. However, the module has become obsolete is no longer needed. Instead, you can rely on the OpenAPI module to obtain the resource information from Drupal.
Final thoughts
With the help of such great assistants as Drupal Waterwheel, it’s high time to fulfil the most ambitious ideas about combining Drupal with JavaScript tools.
Our Drupal developers also have great skills with JavaScript technologies. They can help you create the perfect decoupled setup or other integration scenario. And, of course, if you have a Drupal 7 or 6 websites, our experts can migrate you to Drupal 8 with its awesome integration perspectives.
Contact our Drupal development team — and you will amaze at what your site or application can do in the right combinations!
