Problem/Motivation

Is this project an alternative approach to the Experience Builder project? Or is it something that may be combined with it? I'm just confused what's the primary purpose of it. Thanks for clarifying.

Steps to reproduce

Proposed resolution

Remaining tasks

User interface changes

API changes

Data model changes

CommentFileSizeAuthor
#7 Capture d’écran du 2025-04-23 18-45-01.png66.69 KBpdureau

Comments

mxh created an issue. See original summary.

pdureau’s picture

pdureau commented
Category: Task » Support request
Status: Active » Postponed (maintainer needs more info)

Hello mxh,

Thanks for your interest.

Is this project an alternative approach to the Experience Builder project?

Like Experience Builder, this project is a next generation display building tool for Drupal. "Next gen" because both are:

  • Design system native: use your design system directly in Drupal without the burden of compatibility layers
  • Unified: replace many display building tools: Layout Builder for entity view displays, Block Layout for page displays....
  • Modern: introducing new, powerful, features (dynamic previews, pattern presets...)

See more: https://youtu.be/3OYXZ8-G4gk?t=1597

However, the 2 projects are different. Display Builder is currently targeting a wider horizontal scope (more display building coverage):

Experience Builder Display Builder
Layout builder replacement ✅ Config & content overrides ✅ Config & content overrides with powerful data retrieval system
Page layout replacement ⚠️ Yes, but each region is a builder ✅ Full page support
View (displays) replacement ⚠️ Is it still planned? ✅
Entity form modes ❌ Out of scope? ✅ Planned

But Experience Builder is currently targeting a deeper vertical scope (before and after display building):

Experience Builder Display Builder
Content editing ✅ the first use case covered ⚠️ Yes, but not a central feature
Component authoring ✅ as shown in DrupalCon NA ❌ Out of scope, we promote SDC instead
Designer tool (Figma-Lite) ✅ Planned ❌ Out of scope

And they also differ by the technical and strategic choices. For example, Experience Builder is a complete ReactJS app, aside of Drupal, when Display Builder is just an usual Drupal module using HTMX.

So we are going in 2 different directions and our friendly competition will be only on the shared subset of our scopes. So, not such a big deal.

Or is it something that may be combined with it?

I hope both will be usable in a same project if this is needed by a team. Anyway, we are actively collaborating to provide same or compatible low level API and to improve Drupal Core together. So it is a win-win situation.

I'm just confused what's the primary purpose of it.

This is a display building tool made by a team specialized in design systems and display building since 2017: UI Suite people. This project is new, right, but it is only a thin layer upon APIs we are building for many years, and which are already used, tested and loved by many.

So, it is the natural next step for us. We are excited about what can be done here and we hope people will enjoy using this tool.

Is it clearer for you?

mxh’s picture

mxh commented

@pdureau Thank you for providing this detailed answer, this makes it clear now. You've set it to postponed maybe for some good reason, for me it's fixed now since this has been clarified.

pdureau’s picture

pdureau commented
Status: Postponed (maintainer needs more info) » Fixed

So, fixed :)

anybody’s picture

anybody
Primary language German
Location Porta Westfalica
commented

Just asked myself the same and found this. I guess it might be really useful to put this comparison on the project page?
XB will be widely used in the future, so I think people will look for exactly this comparison, when deciding for a solution.

vasike’s picture

vasike
Location Ramnicu Valcea
commented
Status: Fixed » Needs work

sorry to re-open this issue, but I totally agree with @anybody, so @pdureau, please update the project page with this very useful comparison
info.

and thanks a lot.

pdureau’s picture

pdureau commented
Assigned: Unassigned » pdureau
StatusFileSize
new Capture d’écran du 2025-04-23 18-45-01.png66.69 KB

OK :) I will provide at least a link to this issue, maybe a bit more.

By the way, this is from my Drupal Dev Days (Leuven 2025) slides:

scopes

pdureau’s picture

pdureau commented
Version: » 1.0.x-dev
Component: Miscellaneous » Main / Misc.
Assigned: pdureau » Unassigned
Status: Needs work » Closed (outdated)

Both projects have changed a lot in one year.

Updated information will be added in #3580549: Update documentation

Now that this issue is closed, review the contribution record.

As a contributor, attribute any organization that helped you, or if you volunteered your own time.

Maintainers, credit people who helped resolve this issue.