Varbase Recipes

Varbase 11.0.x adopts a modern, recipes-based architecture built on Drupal Recipes, replacing the traditional module-based installation approach used in earlier Varbase versions. Drupal Recipes are a standardized way to package and apply sets of modules, configurations, and permissions as reusable, composable units.

What Are Drupal Recipes?

Drupal Recipes allow distributions like Varbase to define discrete bundles of functionality that can be applied individually or composed together. Each recipe declares its dependencies, installs the required modules, applies configuration, and sets up permissions, all in a single, repeatable operation.

This approach provides several advantages over the previous module-based architecture:

• Composability: Recipes can depend on and build upon other recipes, creating a layered architecture.

• Selective installation: Sites can apply only the recipes they need rather than installing the entire distribution.

• Maintainability: Each recipe is an independently versioned Drupal.org project, making updates and patches more straightforward.

• Compatibility: Varbase recipes build on top of Drupal CMS recipes, ensuring alignment with the broader Drupal ecosystem.

The Varbase Starter Recipe

The Varbase Starter recipe serves as the main site template that orchestrates the entire Varbase installation. It bundles all core Varbase recipes along with Drupal CMS recipes, Easy Email, and the Vartheme BS5 theme. For most projects, applying the Varbase Starter recipe is the recommended starting point.

Varbase Recipes Overview

The following recipes comprise the Varbase 11.0.x recipe ecosystem. The Applied By column shows whether a recipe is applied automatically when installing with the Varbase Starter recipe, ships in the project codebase as an optional recipe you can apply on demand, or is a separate add-on project you require first.

Recipe	Description	Applied By
Varbase Starter	Main site template recipe that orchestrates the full Varbase installation	Installer
Varbase Users Base	Default user roles, account settings, and user management configurations	Varbase Starter
Varbase Admin Base	Default admin experience with Gin theme, navigation, audit trail, and admin tools	Varbase Starter
Varbase Content Base	Core content configuration including node types, taxonomy, views, ECA automation, and essential content modules	Varbase Starter
Varbase Media Base	Media types, image styles, responsive images, media library enhancements, and file handling	Varbase Starter
Varbase Editor Base	CKEditor 5 with rich text editing capabilities, plugins, and enhancements	Varbase Starter
Varbase Security Base	Password policies, CAPTCHA, honeypot, antibot, security kit, and flood control	Varbase Starter
Varbase SEO Base	SEO modules including metatag, pathauto, redirect, sitemap, and structured data	Varbase Starter
Varbase Workflow Base	Content moderation, scheduled publishing, and workflow notifications	Varbase Starter
Varbase Performance Base	Page caching, asset aggregation, image optimization, and lazy loading	Varbase Starter
Varbase Webform Base	Default webform modules, configurations, and professional contact form template	Varbase Starter
Varbase Page Base	Page content type with SEO fields, editorial workflow, and menu configuration	Varbase Starter
Varbase Blog Base	Blog post content type with featured images, tags, categories, and listing pages	Varbase Starter
Varbase Demo Content	Demo content for new Varbase sites	Varbase Starter
Varbase Media Assets	Default demo media assets including images, videos, and documents	Varbase Demo Content
Varbase API Base	JSON:API with authentication, authorization, and OpenAPI documentation	On demand
Varbase Auth Base	Social Single Sign-On with default social authentication providers	On demand
Varbase Internationalization Base	Internationalization, language management, and translation support	On demand
Varbase Development Base	Development modules and configurations for local development environments	On demand
Varbase News Base	News content type with featured images, categories, listing page, and Drupal Canvas templates	Add-on
Varbase Events Base	Event content type with smart date and location, events listing, and related events	Add-on

The Varbase AI Recipes are documented in their own section. The Varbase AI Base recipe, its feature recipes, and Varbase AI Figma Base all ship in the project codebase and can be applied on demand.

Applying a Recipe

All recipes marked Varbase Starter or On demand already ship in the recipes/ folder of your Varbase project. Composer downloads them as drupal-recipe packages, and Drupal core's Recipe Unpack plugin unpacks them into recipes/ with their dependencies added to your project's composer.json.

To apply a recipe that ships with the project, run Drush from the project:

ddev drush recipe ../recipes/recipe_name

For example, to add multilingual support:

ddev drush recipe ../recipes/varbase_i18n_base

Recipes marked Add-on, such as Varbase News Base and Varbase Events Base, are separate Drupal.org projects. Require them first, then apply them:

ddev composer require drupal/varbase_news_base
ddev drush recipe ../recipes/varbase_news_base

Refer to each recipe's documentation page for specific installation commands and details.

Having Varbase Recipes

Provides general custom config action plugins for Drupal recipes.

Manages a custom optional list of Varbase recipes for projects, with the full list of Varbase Recipes to apply, and integration with the Project Browser.

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