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Drupal 10 was released in December 2022 and ever since, the community has been pushing its users to do Drupal 7 to 10 migration. As per w3techs.com, as many as 41.2% of all Drupal sites are running on Drupal 7.
Using an outdated version has downsides. Businesses miss out on technological advancements and new features that can speed up and safeguard their digital properties.
With the release of Drupal 10 and the fact that Drupal 7 end of life is in January 2025, it is crucial to do Drupal 7 to 10 migration soon.
So, if your existing content management system is running on the Drupal 7 version, we suggest looking into OpenSense Labs' Drupal 7 to 10 migration services for guidance and upgrading to Drupal 10 today.
And if you’re still not convinced, let’s look into why enterprises should plan their Drupal 7 to 10 migration now, and not wait until the last moment.
Why Should You Do Drupal 7 To 10 Migration?
Drupal 10 brings automated updates, and improved user experience, along with several other feature additions. These components are more secure, user-friendly, and powerful. Let’s dive deep into why enterprises must plan their Drupal 7 to 10 migration right away.
1. Drupal 7 Support From The Community
As an open-source CMS Drupal 7 support that comes from the Drupal community is what keeps Drupal's continuous innovation ongoing. With the Drupal community prioritizing and actively focusing on the security of newer versions, when the Drupal 7 end of life comes, the Drupal 7 support from the community will also seize.
This primarily jeopardizes the security of your Drupal 7 website. This also means that contributed modules and themes that are currently used in your Drupal 7 website, will also lose maintenance support. This would bring challenges in website maintenance.
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2. New Features And Upgrades
Another consequence of not upgrading to Drupal 10 is that certain functionalities may cease to perform as intended. Or there may be better alternatives available. Not only can this cause extra annoyance among website maintainers, but resolving these issues may incur additional expenditures for your company owing to the time and resources required to do so.
In Drupal 7, while developers had to manually upgrade/update or search for modules from drupal.org, Drupal 10 has simplified this with Automated updates and a Project browser, respectively. A lot of Drupal 7 features are either incorporated out-of-the-box in Drupal 10 or simply removed to maintain ease of use.
Also, the Drupal 7 ‘Seven’ theme from 2009 gave off an out-of-date system impression. Seven was replaced by the new ‘Claro’ theme, which was created by the most recent requirements.
And the front-end theme, ‘Olivero,’ was created to fit with features that are well-liked by users, such as the Layout Builder. The Olivero theme will meet WCAG AA accessibility standards.
The simple finding and installation of modules should empower Drupal newcomers as well as ‘ambitious site builders’. – Dries Buytaert
3. Technical Dependencies
Drupal works on currently supported PHP versions. Choosing the recommended PHP versions is ideal for developing a Drupal site, as they offer extended support over time. Drupal 10 is built on PHP version 8.0 while the Drupal 7 CMS is built on PHP 7 which has also reached its end of life.
This creates technical dependencies in supporting the platform better.
- jQuery, jQuery UI, jQuery Forms: Drupal 7 CMS includes old and unsupported versions of these libraries. jQuery's current version is 3.7.1. Drupal 7 CMS includes 1.4.2. Other libraries have comparable challenges. You may minimize this little with the jQuery Update module, although the most recent version is 3.5.2.
Drupal 8 and later (as well as many other content management systems) make it simple to provide API access to your content. In the age of ‘publish everywhere’, this is a critical feature. Drupal 7 CMS has some basic API support, but if you want a full-fledged API with write support, you'll have to create it yourself, which adds technical debt and possible vulnerabilities. - CKEditor 5 Update From CKEditor 4: With a thorough rebuild and an exciting new feature set, CKEditor 5 gives Drupal 10 a modern, collaborative editor experience. Users of programs like Microsoft Word or Google Docs will be used to the new CKEditor's interface.
It also provides standard collaboration tools such as comments, suggestions for changes, version histories, and other widely accepted editing methods. Additionally, it has outputs to .docx and .pdf files for straightforward conversion to print formats. - Composer 2 And PHP 8 Support: Although the backporting of Composer 2 to Drupal 8 was successful, PHP 8 compatibility was not. PHP 8 will be required for Drupal 10 because PHP 7 was discontinued in November 2022.
OpenSense Labs, as a Drupal organization, is committed to providing active support. Check out our Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 Migration services today for a long-term and fruitful collaboration.
4. Modules That Have Gone Out Of Support
The Drupal 10 core was updated to eliminate a few modules that are redundant or are not frequently used. For uniformity, these modules were transferred to the Contributed Module area. Gathers and presents syndicated material from outside sources (RSS, RDF, and Atom feeds).
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QuickEdit: In-place content editing
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HAL: Serializes entities using the Hypertext Application Language
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Activity Tracker: Users may keep track of recent content with the activity tracker feature
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RDF: Enhances websites with metadata so that other systems may comprehend their characteristics
You will have to leave Drupal 7 CMS behind. Eventually, the opportunity cost of continuing to use software that is more than 10 years old is substantial, and once Drupal 7 end of life comes, the risk and expense of an uncovered vulnerability increases rapidly.
There are several possibilities available to you, and now is the time for you to choose and make plans for one of them. The ideal option will rely on the expertise level of your team, the amount of business logic you have included in Drupal 7 CMS and your projected budget.
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CMS Drupal 7 v/s Drupal 10
As this article aims to highlight the difficulties associated with the ongoing use of Drupal 7 CMS and to present the most effective solution, below is a comparison of CMS Drupal 7 v/s Drupal 10 to help you understand the benefits of Drupal 10 better.
Our primary objective is to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of how various popular website features, tasks, and workflows are represented in both Drupal 7 CMS and Drupal 10.
1. Mobile Design
Drupal 7 CMS lacks the essential responsive design capabilities needed to develop web pages that adjust their structures to different screen sizes of devices. One can develop websites that are mobile-friendly with Drupal 7 CMS by manually adjusting settings and incorporating extra modules or themes that have been contributed by others.
In Drupal 10, developers can construct responsive pages with greatly streamlined workflows, minimal manual configuration, and without the necessity for additional modules. The contemporary Drupal core features a powerful framework for managing responsive images and breakpoints, which are essential components of responsive design.
Recent advancements include innovative features like Views Responsive Grids, which provide intuitive responsiveness options for grids within Drupal Views. The core themes for both the administration and front end in Drupal 10, known as Claro and Olivero, are inherently responsive.
2. Administrative Interfaces
Drupal 7 CMS features a conventional administrative dashboard organized with tabs and subtabs. The overlay-contributed module enables extensive menu sections to be displayed in modal windows. The user interface of Drupal 7 CMS seems to be antiquated regarding its design and overall user experience.
Accessibility challenges also exist, including problems with colour contrast and the absence of keyboard navigation options. Accessing the administrative dashboard on mobile devices proves to be challenging due to the lack of optimization for smaller screens.
Upon accessing the administrative dashboard in Drupal 10, one is greeted by a contemporary and elegant design offered by the core admin theme, Claro. The design features a tidy and organized appearance. The admin interface has become more intuitive and user-friendly due to a more logical arrangement of settings and actions, accompanied by clearer labels throughout.
Claro has been developed with a focus on responsiveness, enabling your team to perform administrative tasks using mobile devices when necessary. Significant enhancements in accessibility are readily apparent through the noticeable colour contrasts and the use of more legible fonts.
A consistent approach to focus states and styles facilitates the interaction with forms, buttons, form fields, and other interactive components, ensuring accessibility for users who navigate solely via keyboard.
3. Content Authoring
When Drupal 8 was released in 2015, it included a comprehensive text editor by default — CKEditor. Over the years, CKEditor has continually evolved following the latest trends.
CKEditor 5 has emerged as a significant asset for Drupal 10, introducing contemporary and user-friendly balloon panels for ALT text and links, a specialized toolbar for inline media formatting, straightforward table creation, code blocks, special characters, and a variety of additional features.
The range of functionalities offered by CKEditor 5 for Drupal 10 is continually expanding, accompanied by supplementary contributed modules for CKEditor 5. We conducted a comparative analysis of CKEditor 4 and CKEditor 5, examining each feature for the benefit of our readers.
In the case of Drupal 7, it is important to note that it does not come equipped with a WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) editor by default. The content editing form lacks a toolbar that facilitates the addition of links, bold text, italics, headings, bullet points, numbered lists, and other formatting options.
Acquiring a toolbar necessitates the installation of contributed modules that provide different iterations of the WYSIWYG editor. For many years, one of the most effective solutions has been the installation of the CKEditor 4 contributed module.
The module is currently no longer supported, which means that its presence on your website will necessitate additional paid CMS Drupal 7 support to guarantee its proper functionality. There is more to consider than merely the loss of CMS Drupal 7 support for all Drupal 7 modules. The issue is rooted even more profoundly in this situation.
CKEditor 4, a third-party application, officially reached its end-of-life for the open-source version earlier this year.
4. Creating Page Layouts
The process of creating layouts in Drupal 7 CMS is mainly facilitated by contributed modules, particularly Panels, in conjunction with several other dependent modules, including Page Manager and Ctools.
To modify a Drupal 7 CMS layout, it is frequently necessary to possess a certain level of understanding of PHP as well as the ability to configure settings via the administrative interface. In Drupal 10, the Layout Builder feature is integrated into the core, enhancing the intuitiveness and flexibility of layout creation.
It boasts an intuitive interface that includes drag-and-drop functionality. Customizations can be achieved without the necessity of coding, thereby creating new opportunities for individuals who are not developers. The Layout Builder in Drupal 10 is designed to inherently accommodate responsive web design.
The development of visually appealing and consistent responsive layouts in Drupal 10 is becoming increasingly engaging due to innovative methods such as Single Directory Components, as well as contributed modules like Bootstrap UI Kit, among others.
The integration of the Bootstrap framework into Drupal websites enhances their capabilities, streamlines workflows, and increases overall project efficiency.
5. AI Tool Integration
Generative AI can be seamlessly incorporated into a Drupal website, transforming it into a centralized hub where users can enhance their workflows utilizing artificial intelligence.
AI tools are capable of providing responses directly within the Drupal administration interface, producing content, translating text, proposing titles, modifying the tone and voice of written material, creating taxonomy terms, and generating placeholder content complete with images for quality assurance and development teams to evaluate new features, among various other functionalities.
The variety of AI-related modules and their functionalities is continually expanding. All modules developed for AI integration are specifically designed for Drupal 10, and there are none created for Drupal 7. The sole method to obtain it for Drupal 7 CMS is by developing a custom module.
This solution will require payment, which poses a challenge for development due to the limitations of Drupal 7 CMS in integrating with specific APIs or functionalities.
6. Decoupling Opportunities
Today, there will be extensive discussions regarding decoupled architecture. Separating the front end and back end enables developers to use modern JavaScript frameworks designed for creating user interfaces that enhance performance, improve user experience, and boost developer productivity.
Examining the decoupled setup possibilities of Drupal 7 CMS resembles a journey through time. Drupal 7 CMS is a monolithic content management system in which the front end is closely integrated with the backend. The built-in support for REST APIs is limited, and the development of APIs for content sharing necessitates the use of additional modules.
Drupal 10, in contrast, adopts an API-first methodology. The system incorporates integrated RESTful Web Services and JSON:API, facilitating the development of APIs and the distribution of Drupal content to external applications. While these features were introduced before Drupal 10, efforts continue to enhance Drupal with additional exciting functionalities.
One of the recent advancements in Drupal is the development of Decoupled Menus, which is designed to facilitate the consumption of Drupal menus by JavaScript frontends. With the introduction of Drupal 10.1, it is now possible to activate a menu Linkset API endpoint with minimal effort, and additional improvements are on the horizon.
CMS Drupal 7 To 10 Migration Checklist
So, let us now look into the requirements necessary to successfully execute CMS Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 migration. Although every Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 migration project possesses its distinct characteristics, it can typically be divided into the following steps:
Step 1: Examine Your Drupal 7 Website
CMS Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 migration represents a significant advancement. Consider this an opportunity to strategize for the future of your site by evaluating its structure, content, functionality, and design.
Here are a few questions to help you initiate your exploration:
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What are your expectations regarding Drupal 10?
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Is the existing structure functioning effectively?
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What elements require Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 migration?
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Is there a necessity for a redesign?
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Does your code require a comprehensive revision?
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What is the scale of the task?
Step 2: Verify The Availability Of Modules
Are you utilizing contributed modules to enhance the capabilities of your Drupal 7 site?
If so, you will need to verify their compatibility with Drupal 10 or seek an alternative before proceeding with the CMS Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 migration. You may accomplish this by individually reviewing the page of each module on drupal.org, or by utilizing a tool like the Upgrade Status module.
It is advisable to explore alternative options, even if your current modules are compatible with Drupal 10, as the Drupal community may have developed superior solutions.
Step 3: Develop Your Drupal 10 Website
You are required to develop a completely new website utilizing the most recent version available, which is Drupal 10.3.7 as of the current date. Now, proceed to install the modules that you have chosen in the preceding step. It is important to note that the installation procedure in Drupal 10 differs from that of Drupal 7.
Establish your content frameworks by incorporating blocks, content types, media types, web forms, and navigation menus. It is advisable to utilize Layout Builder, a fundamental module introduced in Drupal 8.5, which serves as a replacement for the Panels module. The robust drag-and-drop capabilities of Layout Builder facilitate the creation of visually appealing and adaptable pages with ease.
Step 4: Revise Your Code
It is advisable to utilize available contributed modules whenever feasible to minimize the necessity for custom coding. Custom themes must be developed anew from the ground up. Adopt optimal methodologies and contemporary coding standards. It is important to note that Drupal 10 necessitates a minimum of PHP 8.1 and has revised its database requirements.
Finally, integrate your personalized modules and themes into your Drupal 10 website.
Step 5: Transfer Your Data
If the amount of content is limited, it may be feasible to transfer it manually from the previous site to the new one. You may wish to consider automating the process instead. Automated Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 migration can be accomplished by utilizing the Migrate API to transfer content and configurations.
It is essential to recognize its limitations and to develop a strategy for addressing them effectively. You might need to regenerate views using the views migration module, for instance. Additional useful modules for CMS Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 migration consist of Migrate Plus, Migrate Tools, and Migrate Scanner.
Step 6: Test Your Newly Developed Website
Conduct thorough testing and quality assurance on your new website to guarantee its security, performance, and accessibility on a range of devices. Ensure that all content and data have been accurately migrated. Finally, obtain the necessary approvals from the relevant stakeholders.
Step 7: Launch!
Inform your audiences about the forthcoming change. This presents an excellent opportunity to demonstrate and articulate the advantages it offers to them. Adjust the DNS settings of your site to direct them to your Drupal 10 website. Re-establish any previous redirects or custom URLs and monitor your logs for any occurrences of 404 errors or other alerts.
Ensure that your previous Drupal 7 site is secure and inaccessible to the public. It may be advisable to ultimately establish a static version and a backup for future reference.
Key Takeaways
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The impending CMS Drupal 7 end of life in January 2025, underscores the importance of doing Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 migration soon.
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Drupal 10 introduces automated updates, enhances user experience, and includes a variety of additional features.
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The Drupal community places a strong emphasis on the security of its newer versions, the CMS Drupal 7 support from the community will also come to an end with Drupal 7 end of life in January 2025.
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One additional consequence of failing to upgrade to Drupal 10 is that specific functionalities may no longer operate as expected.
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Drupal 10 is developed using PHP version 8.0, whereas Drupal 7 CMS is based on PHP 7, which has also approached its end of life.