Call for Speakers & Sponsors

Call for Speakers

MidCamp has hosted over 300 sessions since 2014 and we want to add your talk to that number. We’re looking for talks geared toward beginner through advanced Drupal users, as well as end users and business owners. Please see our session tracks page for full descriptions of the kinds of talks we are looking for. Join our Speaker Workshop if you want to bounce around some ideas.

Submit a session now!

Important Dates:

• Call for Proposals Open: December 12, 2022

• Speaker Workshop: January 18, 2023 (Register)

• Proposal Deadline: January 25, 2023

Sponsor MidCamp

MidCamp offers a variety of sponsorship packages that are designed to provide improved exposure, greater flexibility, and more opportunities for organizations to sponsor, regardless of budget. Sponsors make MidCamp possible.

We have opportunities starting at $600 and whether you’re looking to recruit new talent, grow your business, or just support the community—we have a package for you. The sooner you sign up, the more value you get (and we can still invoice for 2022 payments).

Find the right sponsorship for you!

Stay In The Loop

Join the MidCamp Slack and come hang out with the community online. We will be making announcements there from time to time. We’re also on Twitter and Mastodon.

Keep an eye on this space, we will be releasing more blog posts with venue details, hotel and travel options, fun social events, speaker announcements and more!

We can’t wait to see you soon! Don’t forget, cancel all those other plans and make MidCamp the only thing happening on your calendar from April 26-28, 2023.

Thanks to 2129 contributors from 616 organizations resolving 4083 issues in the past two and a half years, Drupal 10.0.0 is available today! This new version sets Drupal up for continued stability and security for the longer term. All new features will be added to Drupal 10 going forward.

What’s new in Drupal 10.0.0?

Better looking on the frontend and backend

The new Olivero theme provides a modern look and feel. Olivero includes built-in support for multi-level menus and listings in responsive grids. The new administration theme, Claro, provides an accessible, clean interface for site management. The prior default themes Bartik and Seven are available as contributed projects if you wish to use them.

CKEditor 5 is the new content editor

With CKEditor 4 reaching end of life at the end of 2023, it was time to upgrade. Thanks to a fantastic collaboration with its developers, Drupal 10 comes with CKEditor 5 built-in. The new version brings a modern editing experience with in-place controls and support for arbitrary input and output formats. Optional premium features are also available, such as live collaborative editing. An upgrade path is provided to move editor settings over and developer tools are available to help port any custom integrations. For now, CKEditor 4 is also available as a contributed project, so you can continue using that for Drupal 10 for now until its end of support.

Internet Explorer support is removed

Microsoft has ended support for Internet Explorer and so has Drupal.This allows Drupal themes to use modern solutions for user facing problems.

Responsive grids in views

Views now supports a responsive grid display format. Instead of specifying the number of columns, and screen widths, users specify the maximum number of columns, the minimum grid cell width and the gutter spacing. When the grid cells resize to a point where they’re below the minimum width, the grid will reflow to have less columns. Alternatively, the grid will expand to fit in as many columns as permitted, while keeping the grid width above the minimum value. Dropping Internet Explorer 11 support enabled the addition of this feature.

Starterkit theme generation tool

Drupal 10 introduces a new command line tool to generate a standalone theme from a compatible base theme. We recommend using the tool to prevent breaking a sub-theme when the base theme changes. Runtime theme extension is still supported, but only advised if you have full control of the base theme (e.g. by creating it with the starterkit command).

Requires Symfony 6.2 and PHP 8.1

Drupal 10.0 depends on the Symfony 6.2 framework, and later Drupal 10 minor versions will be updated to future minor versions of Symfony 6. This sets Drupal up with the latest version of the underlying platform.

As PHP 7 reached end of life on November 28, 2022, it was clear Drupal 10 must require at least PHP 8. Symfony 6.2 requires PHP 8.1 and choosing that version provides the best support timeline for Drupal 10 itself as well. PHP 8.2 is also fully supported.

Non-essential features removed

The QuickEdit, Aggregator, HAL, RDF, and Color modules have been removed from core. They are available as contributed projects. This allows Drupal 10 to focus on the core strengths of the system.

All features added since Drupal 9.0 are still here

Drupal 10.0.0 includes all of the features that were added to Drupal since 9.0, such as lazy image loading support for better frontend performance, WebP support in image styles, a dedicated Content Editor user role, "Manage permissions" tabs for entity bundles, and bundle classes on the PHP level for better code encapsulation, among many other improvements.

Thousands of contributed projects ready at launch

Thanks to the diligent work of the Drupal community on automated code update tools, porting events and dedicated work on key projects over the past two and a half years, Drupal 10 launches with almost three thousand compatible extensions, 26% more than how many Drupal 9 launched with.

The future of Drupal 10

All new features will be added to only Drupal 10 going forward. Several key improvements are already in the works as contributed projects. The Project Browser contributed project is now in beta and includes a Composer-based user interface to install contributed projects with all their dependencies. The Automatic Updates contributed project is already stable, allowing you to apply patch-level core updates to your site. (Experimental support is included for minor version updates and contributed project updates). The Recipes initiative is less far along but already has early versions of automation functionality to ship composable bundles of Drupal modules and configuration.

All of these are planned to be added to Drupal 10 core in the future and will help users find, keep up with and combine all the fantastic contributed projects the Drupal community is famous for.

What does this release mean for me?

Drupal 9 site owners

Drupal 9 will reach end-of-life alongside two of its key components (Symfony 4 and CKEditor 4 on November 1, 2023. (There is a small chance that a final security release of Drupal 9 could be issued between November 1 and November 30, 2023 if one of these dependencies chooses to do so as well.)

Upgrades to Drupal 10 are supported from Drupal 9.4 and 9.5. However, Drupal 9.4 will no longer receive normal bugfixes. For continued bugfix support, Drupal 9 users should update to Drupal 9.5 now.

Drupal 9.4 and 9.5 will both receive security fixes until the release of 10.1 on June 21, 2023. After that date, Drupal 9.5 will be the only Drupal 9 version to receive security fixes until the November 2023 end-of-life.

Drupal 8 site owners

Drupal 8 is end of life as of November 17, 2021. There is no direct upgrade path to Drupal 10 from Drupal 8, so you will need to first upgrade from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9. There are disclosed security issues with Drupal core that are not fixed in any Drupal 8 version, so if you have not yet upgraded to Drupal 9, do so as soon as possible.

Drupal 7 site owners

Drupal 7 support was extended until November 1, 2023, and it will continue to receive bug and security fixes throughout this time. The migration path for Drupal 7 sites to Drupal 10 is stable. Choose which Drupal major version to update to based on your project timeline. Read more about the migration to Drupal 10.

Module, theme and translation contributors

Drupal 10 removes deprecated APIs. Use Upgrade Status on Drupal 9 to check your custom modules and themes for the changes needed. Upgrade Status will also give suggestions on automating the fixes.

Translators should check localize.drupal.org for any untranslated strings.

PORTLAND, Ore., 14 December, 2022—Drupal, the most powerful open source content management system for everyone from the small non-profit to the enterprise, is launching the latest upgrade to its popular software.

Drupal 10 comes with even more features that Drupal developers and users love. What sets Drupal apart is its flexibility; modularity is one of its core principles. With Drupal 10, users will find even more incredible tools to help build the versatile, structured content that dynamic web experiences require.

Drupal 10 - Continuous innovation in technology and user experience

This latest version brings Drupal to the next level with a modernized backend look and a future-proof platform upgrade. The updated version delivers powerful new features and an enhanced user experience. 

Over the past two and a half years, developers have been working to make the open source software that we know and love even better. The new features empower Drupal’s vision for the next generation of the web and include the Claro administration theme, the Olivero front-end theme, CKEditor 5, and more.

“Drupal 10 includes many new features that appeal to developers and content creators alike. A stronger developer and site builder experience combined with easier content authoring and editing make this a key update for all users,” says Dries Buytaert, Founder and Project Lead of Drupal. “The path from Drupal 9 to 10 is easier than ever, so we anticipate organizations will want to move to the latest version quickly to gain its benefits.”

Drupal 10 is built on the latest Symfony 6.2 version. It also streamlines the core system with the least used components removed, focusing even more on its foundational strengths. The upgrade tools and processes are the same as the previous major release, with almost all code changes automated and three times as many contributed extensions available at launch time as with the last major update.

Powered by a global community

Drupal is a true open source project, leveraging the expertise of tens of thousands of developers worldwide. As a result, Drupal has earned a reputation for unparalleled security, performance, accessibility, and scalability in the CMS ecosystem.

“It is fascinating to see how Drupal keeps innovating and continuing to be the number one open source software for enterprise-grade digital experiences,”  says Baddý Sonja Breidert, Chair of the Board of the Drupal Association. “We have huge momentum with more than 270 organizations and 750 individuals contributing to Drupal 10 specifically, and 10,000+ contributing to Drupal in general. I am very proud to be a part of this community.”

More innovation on the horizon

Following the upgrade to Drupal 10, the Drupal community is focused on further innovations to keep Drupal on the leading edge of content management. From a secure automatic updates mechanism to a project browser for easily installing Drupal extensions, even more innovation is waiting to be realized. 

To upgrade or get started

If you’re ready to experience Drupal 10, discover how easy it is to upgrade by visiting drupal.org/about/10.

Need some help onboarding with Drupal or building a digital experience from scratch? Many agencies in the Drupal community would be happy to help.

About Drupal and the Drupal Association

Drupal is the open source content management software used by millions of people and organizations worldwide, made possible by a community of 100,000-plus contributors and enabling more than 1.3 million users on Drupal.org. The Drupal Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the Drupal software project, fostering the community, and supporting its growth.

The fifth and final feature release of Drupal 9 brings a stable CKEditor 5 module, a command line theme generator and helps prepare for your update to Drupal 10. Bugfixes will be provided for Drupal 9.5 until June 2023 and security fixes will be provided until November 2023.

What’s new in Drupal 9.5.0?

CKEditor 5 support is now stable

Drupal 9.5.0 is the only feature release of Drupal that includes both a stable CKEditor 4 integration (labeled as the "CKEditor" module) and stable CKEditor 5 integration (exposed as a separate "CKEditor 5" module). CKEditor 4 has been removed from Drupal 10 and moved to a contributed project. The support overlap in Drupal 9.5.0 allows users to move to CKEditor 5 ahead of their Drupal 10 upgrade. (Sites may also install the CKEditor contributed project before upgrading to Drupal 10, but should take note that its security support will still likely end in November 2023.)

Starterkit theme and theme generator are stable

The Starterkit theme is used as a basis to generate new standalone themes with the theme generator command line tool, rather than being extended at runtime like the Classy core base theme. Currently, the markup provided by the Starterkit theme is the same as Classy's, but its markup will be improved in future minor releases (whereas Classy's can't).

Several themes and modules are deprecated

Drupal 9.5 deprecates numerous themes and modules that will no longer be a part of Drupal 10 core. Altogether the Bartik, Seven, Classy, and Stable themes have been deprecated, and the Aggregator, CKEditor (4), Color, HAL, Quick Edit, and RDF modules are all deprecated. (Some of these were initially deprecated in 9.4.)

It is safe to use the Drupal 9 core versions of these modules and themes for as long as a site is on Drupal 9. Before upgrading to Drupal 10, review the recommendations for deprecated modules and themes. Determine whether you actually need these modules or themes, or whether you can replace them with other solutions. Drupal 10 compatible versions are available as contributed projects. Drupal's Extend list, Appearance page, and Status report pages will all highlight these extensions if they are used. Upgrade Status will also notify you if you are using any deprecated extensions and helps to make a choice about whether you need them going forward.

What does this release mean for me?

Drupal 9 site owners

Drupal 9 will reach end-of-life alongside two of its key components (Symfony 4 and CKEditor 4 on November 1, 2023. (There is a small chance that a final security release of Drupal 9 could be issued between November 1 and November 30, 2023 if one of these dependencies chooses to do so as well.)

Upgrades to Drupal 10 are supported from Drupal 9.4 and 9.5. However, Drupal 9.4 will no longer receive normal bugfixes. For continued bugfix support, Drupal 9 users should update to Drupal 9.5 now.

Drupal 9.4 and 9.5 will both receive security fixes until the release of 10.1 on June 21, 2023. After that date, Drupal 9.5 will be the only Drupal 9 version to receive security fixes until the November 2023 end-of-life.

Drupal 8 site owners

Drupal 8 is end of life as of November 17, 2021. There is no direct upgrade path to Drupal 10 from Drupal 8, so you will need to first upgrade from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9. There are disclosed security issues with Drupal core that are not fixed in any Drupal 8 version, so if you have not yet upgraded to Drupal 9, do so as soon as possible.

Drupal 7 site owners

Drupal 7 support was extended until November 1, 2023, and it will continue to receive bug and security fixes throughout this time. The migration path for Drupal 7 sites to Drupal 10 is stable. Choose which Drupal major version to update to based on your project timeline. Read more about the migration to Drupal 10.

Translation, module, and theme contributors

Drupal 9.5.0 includes backward-compatible API additions for developers as well as new features.

Since minor releases are backward-compatible, modules, themes, and translations that supported Drupal 9.4.x and earlier will be compatible with 9.5.x as well. However, the new version does include some changes to strings, user interfaces, internal APIs and API deprecations. This means that some small updates may be required for your translations, modules and themes. Read the 9.5.0 release notes for a full list of changes that may affect your modules and themes.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to Drupal 9.5.0!

After a year of preparation and beta testing, DrupalEasy is thrilled to announce our newest long-form course; Professional Module Development! Building on our flagship Drupal Career Online course, Professional Module Development delivers the same level of best-practice-focused training in the authentic manner we are known for. This latest professional development program debuts January 31, 2023. 

Author and architect for the PMD, (and Drupal Career Online) Michael Anello (ultimike), infused his 15+ years of experience as a full-time Drupal developer and trainer into Professional Module Development, crafting it in the same thoughtful and methodical way to ensure aspiring Drupal module developers can master the necessary skills to serve their clients and the Drupal community in the most effective manner possible. 

The course is designed as two versions; the full version accommodates those who are looking for a complete foundation of module development topics, while the lite version serves those who need only the core topics of the course. Both the full and lite versions cover topics including plugins, services and dependency injection, custom forms, Drupal hooks, as well as the Drupal Batch and Queue APIs. The lite version runs about 60 hours. 

The full 90-hour version expands further into topics like developer tools (PhpStan, phpcs), IDEs (both Visual Studio Code and PhpStorm), using Xdebug with DDEV and Lando, Drupal events, custom Drush commands, and caching.

To ensure the unrivaled quality that DrupalEasy training is committed to, 17 Drupal Career Online alumni recently completed a beta test of the full version of the course. The vast majority of participants that submitted the post-course survey indicated that they were "very satisfied" with the course, and 100% indicated they would recommend it. 

This is a great class, I am much more confident in my module building and have improved my coding standards... A "must do" for anyone who wants to write code that you can share with confidence.
Adam Bauer, Summer 2022

Excellent course - cannot recommend highly enough! Covers all the necessary topics in great detail. 
Ian Finlay, Summer 2022

The cost for the full version of the course is $3,500 (lite version is $2,500). Special rates are available for Drupal Career Online alumni, non-profit organizations, and groups of 3 or more students.

The full version begins on January 31, 2023 and the lite version begins on February 14, 2023.

All Professional Module Development participants have access to the DrupalEasy Learning Community, a set of features that enhances each student's experience and provides opportunities for the student to become more effective Drupal professionals for themselves, their organization, and the Drupal community. Aspects of the DrupalEasy Learning Community include weekly office hours, event gurus, and our alumni network.

The full schedule, registration deadlines, and more information about the class can be found at https://www.drupaleasy.com/academy/pmd/course-information

Why Drupal is the future of content strategy Suzanne Dergacheva Thu, 12/15/2022 - 03:00

Drupal is already a robust content management system and digital experience platform. It's also playing a critical role in content strategy.

As a long-time advocate for open source and a contributor to Drupal, I spend a lot of time thinking about how organizations can leverage the platform. I've been thinking about…

Bug Smash is a community-run initiative tackling the growing backlog of bugs in Drupal Core. So, what has made it so successful? 

by griffyn.heels / 15 December 2022

Based on my talk at DrupalSouth 2022 in Brisbane. You can also watch the recording featured at the end of this post.

Drupal community members from around the globe are working together to smash (triage, update and close) Drupal bugs. 

With 450+ members, this is the largest active Drupal community initiative making a substantial contribution to Drupal core and helping to train new members. Community members work asynchronously, with many living in Australian-friendly time zones. 

Let’s look at the Bug Smash initiative, discovering how and why it started, how it is run and how it continues to grow. 

Hang on, isn’t Drupal perfect?

Drupal is great; there’s no doubt about that! But over time, a few bugs have appeared in core.

In fact, as of December 2022, there are approximately 6,000 active bug reports for Drupal 9 and 10. That number of reports is bound to include duplicates or items that are no longer relevant, making it even harder to find and address actual bugs in the platform.

So, what’s the solution? Get in there and smash them!

How does Bug Smash work?

There are close to 500 members using the #BugSmash channel on Drupal’s Slack. This channel includes a few separate work streams, including the daily triage target, the community triage meeting, and the fortnightly initiative meeting.

The daily triage target runs twice a day, at around 10 am AEST and again later in the day, giving our US/EU friends something to smash when they wake up.

Here’s an example daily triage target.

The fantastic Quietone runs the community triage meeting. This meeting picks a theme and dives into a few bugs. It’s an excellent opportunity for members to learn about triage and get bugs ready for smashing by other team members. In 2022, a triage meeting targeted one of the oldest active bugs in Drupal core, resulting in the 16-year-old bug being fixed and closed.

Here’s a recent triage meeting.

The fortnightly initiative meeting runs asynchronously so that all global members can contribute. This meeting is an excellent opportunity to catch up on everything Bug Smash, update everyone on progress and set targets for the coming weeks. It’s also a great place to start if you’re unsure about the initiative or want guidance on what to tackle.

Here’s a recent fortnightly meeting.

However, you can Bug Smash how and what you like. Though, please remember to use the ‘Bug Smash Initiative’ tag on Drupal.org.

Who can Bug Smash?

There are plenty of opportunities for everyone to get involved.

Seasoned Drupalers can tackle critical, older or more complex bugs or mentor others on the daily triage threads.

Newcomers to the community or Drupal can be matched with suitable beginner tasks, allowing them to cut their teeth on Core contributions.

For those without developer skills (like me!), there are tasks such as handling comms, session notes and getting the word out about Bug Smash.

Does all this bug-smashing work?

The short answer? Yes!

Below is a graph that shows the number of active bugs in Drupal core in October 2020, which was early in the initiative.

And here is the number of active bugs in October 2022–showing a reduction of over 6,000 bug reports.

Why does Bug Smash work?

It may not be the first initiative of its kind in Drupal, but it’s still growing after two and a half years. So, what makes it effective? I asked the following questions of a number of Bugsmash community members:

What works in Bug Smash?

• It’s simple. This was the most consistent response. We smash bugs to reduce the overall bloat and bad stuff in core. What is there not to love? 
• It’s not just about development. 
• It provides education and mentorship. Bug Smash is a collaborative community of senior, mid and junior-level Drupal developers tackling similar issues. Members can quickly request support or advice to get things across the line.
• It is informal and low commitment. Depending on the topic, you can contribute as much or as little as you’d like. Members can provide support and then drop out without disrupting the overall initiative.

What keeps you coming back?

• Education. Members said they learnt ‘heaps’ from the back-and-forth discussions about bugs, benefitting from the interaction within a great group of super-smart people.
• Progress is possible without fixing bugs. Goals are still achieved without a bug being fixed each time.
• Reviewing bugs is fun. Some even say it’s their favourite thing to do in Drupal.
• Bugs have a start and finish point. On the other hand, tasks and features can be open-ended.
• Everyone likes seeing the number of bugs go down. Seeing actively reported metrics and stats goals each fortnight is a big motivator for the community. 

By bringing everyone’s answers together, we can tell that the initiative works because of its community, and the community is effective because of the structure of the initiative.

In summary, Bug Smash gives you options for getting involved. This means taking part doesn’t have to overtake your day. If you get stuck, there’s always someone around to point you in the right direction. Watching the overall number of bugs drop keeps everyone focused and driven, whilst the experience everyone gains helps to skill up community members. And the more people who join Bug Smash, the more successful it will be for everyone.

If you want to start your own Drupal or other open source contribution community, I’ve hopefully given you some food for thought.

How to get involved

Start off by joining the #BugSmash channel on Drupal Slack and say hi!

You can also visit the Bug Smash page on Drupal.org. It has all the information you need about what Bug Smashers do, how the initiative works and when the next meeting is.

Just remember, it doesn’t matter if you’re not in this time zone. The fortnightly meeting is open for 24 hours, meaning everyone has a chance to contribute to threads.

If you have any more questions, feel free to drop them in the comments below! Or reach out to me in Slack, @griffyn.heels.

Drupal's core capabilities, such as content reuse, multi-channel publishing, and in-depth customization for website users, are widely praised by programmers and marketers alike. More great enhancements are on the way with Drupal 10, which will release today.

The long-awaited Drupal 10 will be released on December 14. Are you ready? While some of us get excited about software updates, we get that some might be overwhelmed by what this new version will change for their sites. 

Here we’ll go over how you can be prepared for the latest version, the benefits of moving and the next steps to get there sooner rather than later.

And don’t worry: if you still need guidance by the end of this post, you can watch our recent Drupal 10 webinar, or request custom training for your team. 

Why Upgrade? Can’t I Just Keep Using an Earlier Version?

Drupal 7 and 9 will become obsolete as of November 2023, and having an outdated version of Drupal or any unsecured CMS means your website is more prone to downtimes and bugs. As an organization, implementing and maintaining security measures on your own can be very expensive. Coupled with the custom infrastructure configurations needed to fix bugs, it will invariably cost more than proactively moving to the latest version of Drupal.

Apart from Drupal 7 and 9 reaching end-of-life, Drupal 10 promises to provide an overall improved Drupal experience for content editors, developers and site owners. 

Drupal 10 makes it easy to create content through CKEditor 5, has a greater standardization for using Drupal as a headless CMS, and future features such as automatic updates will make your platform easy to maintain. Overall, this upgrade will provide a better platform for brands looking to create engaging digital experiences. 

Content Creation Front and Centre with CKEditor 5

D10 continues Drupal’s trend of prioritizing content creators and editors for better front-end development. Central to this trend is CKEditor 5, which was an experimental module introduced in Drupal 9.3 and is the sole WYSIWYG editor in Drupal 10.

This new version provides a significantly improved content authoring experience with in-place controls for object editing. It enables you to easily manage media and tables using advanced features. These include various out-of-the-box core features, including basic formatting and styling as well as advanced productivity features.

Shiny New Themes

Content creators will appreciate Claro, which replaces Seven as the new default admin. Meanwhile, Olivero – replacing Bartik as the new default - makes for a more usable front-end, putting accessibility best practices at the forefront. 

Claro is notably less cluttered with more “white space” right out of the box, making it easier on the eyes, less complex to learn and allows for greater accessibility overall. Olivero, first introduced in Drupal 9.4, is now the default front-end theme for Drupal 10. Featuring a simple and modern design, Olivero is focused on the needs of content creators. It is also WCAG AA compliant right from the start, with an accessible and beautiful interface that features a high-contrast colour palette that’s easier on the eyes.

New Dependencies

On the developer side, Drupal 10 has some noteworthy upgrades, including a new underlying technology stack – Symfony 6.2 – and a new version of PHP. 

PHP 8.1, in addition to being a requirement for Symfony 6.2, promises a longer support lifetime for Drupal 10 as well as more stability and predictability in its dependency requirements.

Additionally, Drupal 10 will use modern JavaScript components to replace some uses of jQuery UI and jQuery, as well as a new version of Twig (3.x), which promises to be a faster, more secure and more flexible PHP template engine. Plus, Drupal 10 will no longer support Internet Explorer 11.

Ready-to-Go Headless

Drupal has long been a dependable CMS for hybrid or fully headless configurations thanks to its support for REST, JSON, and GraphQL APIs, (read more about Headless). Drupal’s Decoupled Menus Initiative has sought to make headless design even easier by improving how JavaScript front ends consume configurable menus managed in Drupal.

Beyond Drupal 10.0, the platform’s headless capacity will be expanded further by adding read-only menus for Drupal HTTP APIs. This will make it easier for front-end developers to consume menu data to build navigation systems.

Site Builders Will Soon Have a Project Browser

Another exciting addition that will come in the next versions of Drupal 10 is Project Browsing, which meets the ultimate goal of taking the mystery out of starting and building a new project in Drupal. This handy feature makes it easier for users – especially novice site builders – to hunt down the perfect modules for their projects. It will have a visual browsing interface within the Drupal admin with a more intuitive filtering system and iconography to convey key quality measures faster. 

Three Cheers for Automatic Updates!

Automatic updates have long been one of the most requested features for inclusion in Drupal. The Automatic Updates Initiative has been one of Drupal’s key strategic initiatives for quite some time, and while not yet available in Drupal 10, is expected in version 10.1 or 10.2. With Drupal releasing new features every 6 months or so, it’s only a matter of time before it’s included. 

The upcoming automatic update module will rely on the following three components:

• Public safety alerts regarding critical and highly critical updates from Drupal.org
• Readiness checks, which trigger warnings of issues blocking your website from receiving automatic updates
• In-place updates, which download the update from Drupal.org, check it and create backups of the files, perform the update and restore your backup files if anything goes wrong

The Automatic Updates module is yet another feature aimed at making life easier for content creators, particularly those who don’t have a development background who are tasked with managing Drupal websites and who lack a routine for checking and running Drupal updates upon release.

Need Help With Upgrading?

If you are already using Drupal 9, the upgrade to 10 will be smooth as the two share the same architectures. If you are still using an older version, you are looking at a migration of your site to Drupal 10, which involves replicating applications from the old product onto the new one.

As easy as it sounds to upgrade or adopt Drupal, sometimes you just need a little support. Follow along with Drupal experts as we do a deep dive and reveal some sneak peeks for Drupal 10 in our recent webinar or reach out to request custom training. We offer custom training for teams like yours, from sales and marketing to software development. 

Regardless of which version of Drupal you’re currently using, or even if you’re thinking of moving to Drupal from a different CMS, you can hire us to help. Fill out our contact form to schedule your move and let us do the heavy lifting.

+ more awesome articles by Evolving Web

Back in 2020, Drupal delivered a surprise by estimating a June 2022 release for Drupal 10. While the release was ultimately pushed back to December 14, 2022, you need to know where your website stands for the upcoming upgrade.

For any IT team, changes to a site platform are cause for concern. With less than a year before Drupal 9 hits end-of-life, you need to start planning your preparations for the coming year.

Thankfully, Drupal has remained true to its word about its latest updates avoiding the complex migrations that were required moving from Drupal 7 (but I’ll touch more on that later). Still, the overall impact of Drupal 10 ultimately depends on the condition of your current site.

Platform updates are always cause for uncertainty, and your preparations will vary to navigate a move to Drupal 10. If you start by taking into account where your current site stands, you can best ensure it’s on steady ground for the benefits that lie ahead.

Advantages of upgrading to Drupal 10

The benefits of moving your site to Drupal 10 follow a familiar path. Drupal’s development team doesn’t pack major updates with flashy new features, unlike traditional hardware and software development. Instead, the community continues to refresh the latest version of Drupal with brand new tools.

The arrival of Drupal 10 will clear the system of old, backward-compatible code so the platform runs more efficiently. That way, as work begins to create new tools for version 10, Drupal developers are starting from a clean slate.

The promise of a clean codebase may sound a bit anticlimactic from the perspective of your users. But for developers, it’s an addition by subtraction. Drupal 10 will run much faster than your current platform by losing the clutter required to support out-of-date features.

What can you expect from the next version of Drupal?

Many of the features included with Drupal 10 have already been in use at various points in Drupal 9’s development. Here are a few benefits planned for Drupal’s new release:

• CKEditor 5: Drupal 9 features version 4 of the open-source JavaScript text editor, which will be deprecated in 2023. This new version is already in use and features a similar-enough interface to be familiar with performance and security enhancements.
• Updated frontend and admin themes: These features have been available in Drupal 9 but will become the default themes. In addition to offering improved capabilities for migrating a site into Drupal, the new administration theme is more intuitive with better spacing and readability.
• New package manager: Though potentially unavailable until version 10.1, this feature enables admin users to install modules through the UI. Instead of requiring a developer to FTP modules to a server, you can install them directly from a menu in a way that resembles WordPress extensions.

More good news: Drupal 10 will last longer than 9

One of the third-party technical dependencies of Drupal is its PHP framework, Symfony. Symfony runs on two-year release cycles, which introduces the potential for Drupal to do the same. Drupal 9 uses Symfony 4, which was at the tail end of its development when Drupal 9 was launched. Consequently, as Symfony fell out-of-date in less than two years, so did Drupal 9.

These dependencies were a big part of why Drupal 9 had such a short lifespan as compared with the platform’s history. At one time, versions of Drupal required five to seven years of development. 

Drupal’s development team is releasing Drupal 10 on Symfony 6, which was released earlier in 2022. Drupal 10 will last at least four years before the next major version is released. By working to get ahead of schedule with Symfony, Drupal aims to deliver a platform that’s faster and more stable — with staying power.

Will upgrading to Drupal 10 be easy? It depends.

Drupal 9 will reach its end-of-life sooner than may be ideal, but you face an easier upgrade path to Drupal 10 if your site is currently running version 9.4 or 9.5. Just as with the upgrade from version 8 to 9, updates to Drupal 10 will run “in place.” Rather than needing to migrate to a new platform to upgrade, Drupal 10 is being built inside Drupal 9.

You won’t have to rebuild your site to upgrade to Drupal 10 if you’re up-to-date with its latest version. However, not every organization can keep its website current with every platform release. As with any journey, the road to Drupal 10 entirely depends on where you are now.

If your site is running Drupal 9:

Much like the shift from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9, moving to Drupal 10 can be seamless with the right planning. You need to monitor custom code in any platform update, and Drupal Rector streamlines the process. The module identifies your areas of need, and in many cases will update your code automatically. 

You still need an engineer to oversee the upgrade, but Drupal Rector eliminates the tedium of manually updating a bunch of APIs beforehand. As changes are made to Drupal 10, developers are required to add an automated rule to Rector. Consequently, your future upgrades will be even easier.

Once Drupal 10 is released, you have until November 23, 2023 to complete the upgrade before Drupal 9 reaches its end-of-life. At that point, your site will no longer receive security updates from the Drupal community.

If your site is running Drupal 8:

Drupal 8 reached its end-of-life in November 2021, which means your site may be at risk without the community’s support with security patches and bug fixes. To offset that danger, you should use Drupal Rector to identify deprecated code in your Drupal 8 site to automate a portion of your upgrade journey to Drupal 9.

Fortunately, the move from 8 to 9 is an easier transition than you may think. Once your site is up-to-date to version 9.4, then the jump to Drupal 10 should be fairly straightforward upon its release.

If your site is running Drupal 7:

If you’re still on Drupal 7 (or older), your platform is currently scheduled to reach its end-of-life in November 2023. While this date has been extended several times over the past few years, there is no guarantee it will be extended again. However, you’re not alone. According to estimates, more sites are on Drupal 7 than there are on 8 and 9 combined.  

Migrating your site from Drupal 7 is a complicated, labor-intensive undertaking, which is why the community extended the platform’s support during the pandemic. However, once Drupal 7 reaches its end-of-life next year, you’ll only be able to receive security updates through Vendor Extended Support. Those organizations remain an option to provide service for your site until 2025 — for a price.

To reduce support expenses, you should start working toward loading your site into Drupal 9.4 or 9.5 as soon as possible rather than waiting for the latest version. Drupal 10 will include migration tools from Drupal 7, but Drupal 9 already includes many of the modules you use. That may no longer be the case after Drupal 10 comes out.

Future-proof your site with an upgrade to Drupal 10

Whether you’re facing a migration from Drupal 7 or the end-of-life for Drupal 9, platform updates require planning to succeed. There is no sense in waiting to get started. If anything, upgrading to Drupal 10 from a much older version may grow more complex the longer you delay.

The days of launching a website and ignoring it for five or 10 years are over. The industry just moves too fast. Fortunately, with the right plan, your organization can get the platform you need to take on whatever lies ahead.

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