Drupal 10: Prepare for the new upgrade

Drupal 10 was released on 14 December 2022.

Drupal 7 will reach end of life in November 2023. Businesses are encouraged to start upgrading to Drupal 10, which represents a seismic shift from Drupal 7. With Drupal 10, the groundwork will be laid for a platform designed for "ambitious site builders."

Let’s understand how organizations can prepare themselves and plan Drupal 10 migration. 

Drupal 10: What to expect

Drupal 10 is an upgrade and by far an extension of Drupal 9. Therefore, most of the features remain as is with some new being added to it. The primary distinction is that Drupal 9's deprecations will be removed in Drupal 10. 

Instead of performing a comprehensive rebuild, project owners may incrementally upgrade their custom code for Drupal 10 and introduce these improvements to their Drupal 9 sites.

Following are some of the new Drupal 10 features. 

1. New themes Olivero & Claro: The administrative panel gets a new design with Layout Builder improvements and new Media Library capabilities being included.  
2. Automatic update: The Automatic Upgrades module ensures that critical Drupal core updates are automatically implemented to an existing website without the need for any programming work.
3. CKEditor 5: CKEditor 5 is available as an experimental module in Drupal 9.3 but is not yet stable. Because of its user-friendliness and fantastic UX, CKEditors is not only wonderful for site builders, but it is also a terrific platform for developers to tweak and build upon.
4. PHP 8: It would enable Drupal 10 to employ technologies that will enable improved performance and ongoing growth
5. jQuery UI: jQuery will be replaced by vanilla JavaScript writing, which will offer more customization choices and a more modern, seamless user experience than jQuery, which has been connected with Drupal since 2011.

Check out our blog that covers an in depth volume on Drupal 10 features

Preparing for Drupal 10 migration
 

Technical Requirements

In November 2023, Drupal 7 and Drupal 9 will reach end of life. Which means that security and bug patches will no longer be maintained by the community. 

The end of life for Symfony 4 and CKEditor 4 are an important factor why Drupal 7 & 9 will no longer be supported, and this date is not expected to alter. With only a few  months before their end of life, enterprises must plan now for migration from Drupal 7 & 9 site before the support ends. 
 
Use the available tools to estimate how much work is required to switch to Drupal 10.

• Drupal Upgrade Status module: to identify deprecations that need to be fixed. The amount of effort required can be estimated.
• Drupal Check module: to assist with deprecation detection in static code.
• Drupal Rector app module: to remove deprecations automatically 
• Drupal PHPStan module: to analyze deprecations using the static code analysis tool.

Migrating from Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 

In November 2023, Drupal 7 will reach its end of support. Yes, this news was released after Drupal 10 was made available. Businesses should start planning their migration from Drupal 7 because Drupal 10 will have many of the above-mentioned new updates and functionality, but it is much more likely that the contributed projects you want are already accessible for Drupal 9 and won't be available immediately. Therefore, rather than waiting for a migration to Drupal 10, Migrate with us to Drupal 7.

How can you migrate to Drupal 10 from Drupal 7?

• Find a reliable Drupal partner to assist you with a smooth migration.
• Upgrade to Drupal 9’s most recent (latest available) version, if you're still using Drupal 7 or 8.
• Upgrade all of your contributed projects to support Drupal 10 by removing deprecations. This will guarantee that they are compatible with all recently published libraries, components, and PHP versions (as their older versions will deprecate in Drupal 10)
• Drupal 10 will be accessible, with only a straightforward core upgrade.

 
Upgrading from Drupal 9 to Drupal 10 

Drupal 9's end of life is in November 2023. You will no longer receive updates or community-supported security updates beyond November 2023. Enterprises have less than a year to migrate to newer versions. With Drupal major versions getting easier with each release, upgrading to Drupal 10 from Drupal 9 will be an effortless upgrade.
Start updating contrib projects and custom code now.

Contributed modules: Verify that the installed contributed modules are compatible with Drupal 10. If not, think about collaborating with the maintainers to develop and test changes. 

Custom modules: Check to see if any of your custom code utilizes any obsolete features.

Hosting setup: PHP 8.1 is needed for Drupal 10. You might have some system administration work to undertake because Drupal 9 requires PHP 7.3. 

Preparing for Drupal 10

1. Install Drupal 9 now, if you haven't previously
2. Install Drupal Upgrade Status
3. Check whether your contributed modules require an upgrade. You can do so by Administer > Reports > Upgrade Status
4. Determine which deprecated APIs must be fixed in custom code.
5. Ensure that all deprecated APIs are observable with the most recent Drupal 9 version.
6. Use Drupal Rector to automatically correct numerous errors with your custom code.
7. Use the Drupal Project Update Bot to obtain assistance in resolving any difficulties.

Make your Drupal 10 Migration Seamless With OpenSense Labs

Our Acquia-certified Drupal developers leverage proven methodologies to deliver an enhanced user experience with newer Drupal versions. Upgrading to Drupal 10 needs to be planned now. 

OpenSense Labs is a leading Drupal agency and among Top 10 Global Drupal agencies (Drupal marketplace rank). As Drupal Signature Supporting partner & Platinum Drupal Certified Partner, OpenSense Labs has been contributing extensively to the community and product development. Our marketplace rank is a testimony of our contribution efforts. 

Get a free pre-migration audit before you plan your Drupal 10 migration. Drop a mail at [email protected] or connect with our Drupal experts today!