At March’s Sydney Drupal user group, I did a lightning talk on Page Manager and Panels in Drupal 8. In the talk, I demonstrate both modules and show you how to create a custom homepage with a few clicks. You can watch the whole talk in the video above.
Panels in Drupal 8 has changed considerably. The UI for building pages is now offered by Page Manager, with Page Manager UI installed, and not Panels itself. The UI also changed, but I think it’s much easier to use than in Drupal 7, but that’s my opinion.
How to Install Page Manager and Panels
If you don’t want to watch the video, below are the basic steps to install Page Manager and Panels.
1. Download Page Manager, Panels, Ctools and Layout Plugin.
Drush:
$ drush dl page_manager panels ctools layout_plugin $ drush en page_manager_ui panels
Drupal Console:
$ drupal module:download page_manager panels ctools layout_plugin --latest $ drupal module:install page_manager_ui panels
2. Go to Structure, Pages and click on “Add page” to create a custom page.
3. Then click on “Add new variant” and click on Panels in the pop-up.
The “Block page” variant is not meant to be used on production sites. Just use the Panels variant.
This was helpful in getting an understanding of the UI in D8. Having worked extensively with Panels in D7, the D8 interface was a little disorienting.
Thanks.