Drupal 8 has been in the market for good two years now. It’s mobile first and editor-friendly approaches have led to staggering growth rate. However, you might be running Drupal’s 7th release and you might be still okay with it. Considering your website’s business scope, you may or may not require an upgrade. But it is always good to upgrade as older versions go nearly obsolete in some time. 

Read what does Drupal 8 bring to the table 

Here’s Why You Should Move to Drupal 8 Right Away

The below statistics show how the Drupal community’s real concern is accelerating Drupal 8’s existing capabilities while widening its feature pool. These recorded statistics are from January 1st to April 30th of 2018, which show the tremendous speed at which the community is pushing Drupal 8 in various verticals. 

One of the situations you would have to deal with when running Drupal 7 is not having the latest and frequent core releases at hand. This may lead to security, functionality, and compliance loopholes which would further deter the output of your online business. Here are some statistics which would get you thinking:

Drupal Core Release Statistics

During the recent period of four months, which is quite a turbulent situation for many active Drupal 7 web properties .

Drupal Module Statistics

In the same 4 month time period, 500 new module projects were created for Drupal 8 while only 174 new projects were created for Drupal 7. This is again an unpleasant sight for Drupal 7 users as they would be suffering with the module crisis. Which would in some or the other way affect their web property’s well being or affect their overall efforts to improve functionalities and user experience across their website. 

Drupal Themes Statistics

From January 1 to April 2018, 31 new Drupal 8 theme projects were created while only 3 were created for Drupal 7. As you can see, this would become a nightmare for e-commerce and showcase-oriented websites. Unavailability of the latest trendy themes is always going to keep you at a two-hand distance from providing the best possible user experience.

However, Drupal 8 websites would be stuffed with numerous latest themes to try-on, hence unlocking the ability to provide a trendy and rich user experience.

With Drupal 8 getting better stability and advanced functionalities, it is extremely recommended to hop on the migrate-to-8 bandwagon right now. I say this because you would have to do it anyway after the D7 end of life is announced. And that would be a rush hour.

Here is a complete migration guide to help you upgrade to Drupal 8. It also addresses the problems you might face when migrating to Drupal 8 from 6 or 7. 

While you are giving a thought to migrating immediately or at the soonest. You should not worry about the financial or resource scarcity. We can help you in making the right decision, taking into consideration your time to go to market again. 

Here are some core and contributed modules which would assist you in migrating right off the bat. However, they would require you to have some technical expertise though.  

Here are Some Modules to Help you Migrate 

1. Migrate: Core Module 
   
   With over 1,334,222 downloads and 40,232 sites reportedly are using the Migrate module. Stable releases for this project are covered by Drupal security advisory policy. It proved to be so helpful that it was introduced with Drupal core. 
   
   What does it do? 
   
   It provides you with a fluid framework for migrating content into Drupal from other Drupal and Off-Drupal sources. Right out-of-the-box, it provides you the support for creating core Drupal objects such as nodes, users, files, terms, and comments are included.
   
   The content from the source property is imported and rolled back using a bundled web interface or the included Drush commands.
2. Migrate Upgrade: Contributed Module
   
   Scoring 86,417 downloads and nearly 1,528  sites report using Migrate Upgrade module, stable releases for this project are covered by Drupal security advisory policy.
   
   What does it do?
   
   This module is Drupal migrations oriented. It equips you with migrate-upgrade Drush commands for preparing and initiating migration from any Drupal source site. It also provides Drush support for moving from Drupal 6 or Drupal 7 to Drupal 8. However, in Drupal 8.1.3 This module is part of the core.
    
3. Migrate Tools 
   
   With nearly 12,350 sites report using this module and achieving a download score like 419,499, Migrate Tool is also covered by Drupal’s security advisory policy. Alongside numbers, a number of organizations are supporting the development and maintenance of this module. 
   
   How does it help?
   
   The Migrate Tools module provides tools for running and managing Drupal 8 migrations.
   
   It provides you with a set of Drush commands and tools such as:
   1. Migrate-status - Which neatly lists migrations and their current status for you to have better insights. 
   2. Migrate-import - This command performs nearly all the import related operations quietly in the background. 
   3. Migrate-rollback - This command runs all the required rollback operations for data and architecture security. 
   4. Migrate-stop - This command helps you stop a running migration at any point in time. Proves to be helpful when you commit a mistake in the process which might spoil it all. 
   5. Migrate-reset-status - In case, a migration hangs or gets stuck in the middle of operations, you can use this command to set the migration status to idle or even rest it for that matter. 
   6. Migrate-messages - You might receive migration related communication from the program and this module brings forward and messages which might be associated with your migration import or other operations. 

4. Upgrade Compatibility Check 
   
   Drupal 8 Upgrade Estimate is developed by us. After installing the module, you just need to upload your JSON file and wait for the report generation to finish. 

   The module allows a quick estimate of your Drupal project for migration to Drupal 8.
   
   Versions of the module are available for Drupal 6 and Drupal 7.
   
   Module analyzes project compatibility, prepares data and shows a detailed report on the service site. 
   It provides the compatibility status and the required manpower in hours to successfully complete the migration process. Here is a sample report for a detailed insight. 

   

   Migration estimation tool provides easy estimation. 

5. Migrate Spreadsheets

   With over 28220 downloads and166 sites report using Migrate Spreadsheet module, stable releases for this project are covered by Drupal security advisory policy. However, it does only receive minor maintenance fixes, is minimally maintained and is considered feature-complete by its introducers. 

   The module provides a migrate source plugin for importing data from spreadsheet files. This source plugin uses the PhpOffice/PhpSpreadsheet library to read from the spreadsheet files.It has support for these source file types - .ods, .xls, .xlsx and  .csv.

6. Migrate Manifest 

   With over 1716 downloads and 330 sites report using this module, stable releases for Migrate Manifest are covered by Drupal security advisory policy. However, it does only receive maintenance fixes and is considered feature-complete by its introducers. 

   The Migrate Manifest module doesn’t provide you with any UI on the web, but two Drush commands - one for running migrations and the other for listing available migrations. This has been recently split into a standalone project by the Drupal community. 

These modules fuel a better D7 to the D8 migration process. To help you further, we provide a free consultation regarding your migration decision. Check out our Drupal upgrade and migration services. built in-house. We are here to address your concerns regarding migration as well. Please feel free to reach us out at [email protected].