Do you know that every 1 out of 30 websites in the world is built on Drupal? Features like no license costs and ease of use contributed to its global accessibility makes Drupal a perfect choice for building your ecommerce and other platforms. Moreover, the historical changelog in the versions is continuously hitting us.
It’s been two years since the launch of Drupal 9 – the open source content management system approached us, but still, half a million websites are running on Drupal 7. This should be changed for good.
The migration process is stable and manageable, unlike the upgrade to Drupal 7. It was a big challenge and a hectic job to migrate from Drupal 7 to 8 when Drupal 8 was launched in 2015. From developers to businesses, it seemed less like migration or upgradation and more like building their website from scratch. The challenges could not be summarised without mentioning the content transfer. Undoubtedly, it was an evacuating and long-drawn-out process.
But thankfully, Drupal 9 was launched to provide the most effortless migration so businesses will not miss the boat. When Drupal 9 approached the Drupal community worldwide on June 3, 2020, it created a huge hype and is known as the “most straightforward” update in Drupal’s history.
Let’s find out why to migrate from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9!
What is Drupal 9?
Drupal 9 is the latest and a cleaned-up version of Drupal 8 with removed deprecated code and updated third-party dependencies where the latter stays optional.
Apart from those mentioned above two significant features, Drupal is almost similar to Drupal version 8.9. Moreover, this version receives updates twice a year, just like Drupal 8. Two modules, including the SimpleTest Module and Place Blocks, have been removed in the updated version. According to Drupal.org, other modules will be removed in Drupal 10.
Why Upgrade from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9?
Migration to Drupal 9 is a highly trouble-free process for developers in terms of security. The majority of the code interfaces are intact as before. Whether it is security or migration, it is a fluent and painless operation for developers. Experts also believe that Drupal 9 is far better for developers to develop and maintain and even marketers believe that Drupal is apt for SEO. Kudos to its disengaged features.
Drupal 7 End-of-life:
Drupal 7 is slowly moving towards its end of life. It was initially scheduled for November 2021 but got delayed to November 2022 because of the broad impacts of COVID-19 on businesses. Now it has been postponed to November 2023.
Effortless Migration Process:
Unlike the migration to Drupal 8, where the whole rebuild is required, Drupal 9’s migration is comparatively smooth and less extensive.
- The backward compatibility feature adds value to the Drupal 9 version that assists the well-ordered migration operation.
Personalization:
Enabling the compatible experience across all the digital channels, Drupal is a perfect choice for your business and integrates seamlessly with external analytics tools, CRM, CDPs, and DMPs.
- Drupal 9 is entirely capable of offering support integration.
Advancements in Coding:
Drupal 9 extends services to easy coding, including,
- The deprecated codes had been removed from the website, and this deprecation has thoroughly improved the website’s performance.
- The overall code structure has been optimised accordingly.
- Cleaner code requires low maintenance, and software developers will have lesser time to perform the later-on analysis.
- Furthermore, it reduces the readability issues and improves the understanding of the current codebase. The templating procedure is smooth.
Upgraded Security
Securing open source software is highly necessary, and Drupal 9 has no outmoded codes. In addition to the same, there are no vulnerabilities involved. Overall, the update has improved the security of the platform.
Enhanced Performance
Performance results are far better when it comes to Drupal 9. They are enhanced, powerful, and feature-full.
- Improvised Multilingual Capabilities:
Drupal 8 has multilingual proficiencies and does not require further re-built during the upgrade or migration to Drupal 9. Also, the multilingual functionalities have been improved. - Redis and Memcached Support:
Drupal 9 has the assistance of caching systems to improve the speed of its rendering process. - Bigpipe Caching Mechanism:
Optimising the different workflows for contents and authoring experiences is possible due to the bigpipe caching mechanism, reducing the page load time.
1.Internal Dynamic Page Cache
2.Block
3.In-core Page
4.Views Caching - Assistance to Responsive Pictures:
Drupal 9 extends its support to responsive images. This feature allows mobile phones to display the most acceptable image size. Moreover, it also contributes to the website’s performance concerning speed by engrossing the lesser data. - Broad Spectrum for Content Fields Structure:
The content range has become more expansive and includes the date, time, email address, and contact number. - Replacement with Symphony 4:
To refine the developer’s experience, the Drupal 9 platform allows the developers to do their hands-on practice on Symfony 4, replaced with Symfony 3.
User-friendly Interface:
Drupal 9 carries a few of the most convenient features for developers, designers, and users in terms of features, adaptability, and user experience, contributing to usability improvement.
Its core features include:
-
- Easily controlled updates for CMS
- Better UI
- Easier navigation for a system for admin
- Diversified management for themes
- Great updates:
1. Default theme
2. Editorial workflows
3. Admin interface
4. Media library
E-Commerce Authorization
The open source content management system, Drupal 9, enables more accessible and better resourcing along with front-end freedom giving a high experience for users.
- API – First Architecture: It allows the building of applications that are decoupled and headless.
- Optimizes product information and key digital assets.
- Gives the content-driven e-commerce experience by syncing the sites’ products as entities of Drupal.
Before You Upgrade
There are a few things that you need to consider before diving into the upgrade directly. You must check if your current contributed module is compatible with Drupal 9. To confirm the same, you can ask the concerned Drupal developers for the below details.
It is imperative to have everything in its place before the upgrade.
Before upgrading to Drupal 9, you must ensure that developers keep track of the following checklist.
- Review of the website, whether it is tarballs or composer-based. It is crucial to decide the actual upgrade flow.
- Upgradation to the newest PHP requirements that is, PHP 7.3.
- The utilization of the Upgrade Status Module to deprecate and fix the code of the website.
- Ensure the website is up to the latest minor version, Drupal 8.9.
On that note, reaching out to an expert Drupal development company who can write well-commented codes, run automated tests, and create custom modules is recommended.
Fortunately, if everything on the list has a tick mark, you should be confident enough to move ahead.
Impacts of Upgrade
For Drupal 7, it is crucial to know that the procedure can be daunting, and each site’s migration journey is distinguished. It is undoubtedly daunting for complex websites.
But, in addition to the same, community support for Drupal 7 has been extended. A piece of good news!
Important: Drupal version 8
In case you are using Drupal 8,
- The upgrade from Drupal 8 is similar to the upgrade procedure of minor versions of Drupal 8.
- For 8.9, modules and a few permissions are not supported anymore, so the upgrade is required to version 9.
- You have to check whether features and favorite contributed modules are supported.
Key Takeaways:
- Drupal migration from version 7 to 9 can be helped with the core Migrate module.
- Drupal 9 is much similar to the Drupal 8.9 version.
- The migration process is effortless primarily but can be a little daunting if the website is complex.
- Allows personalization with value-added features.
- Several tools can be used for migration, including Drupal Module Upgrader, Upgrade Status Module, and Core Migrate Module Suite.
Concluding is not doubtful that Drupal 9 allows the Drupal community to avail themselves of a more flexible, accessible, and effective CMS.
