Gear Up for Migration to Drupal 9

Ever since the release of Drupal 9, Drupal users all around are wondering:

• What new features does Drupal 9 bring along?
• Is Drupal 9 a reasonable upgrade for them?
• Is it easy to migrate from recent Drupal versions to Drupal 9?

Well, if you’re also looking for answers to these questions, you’ve come to the right place. Keep reading!

Why Migrate in the First Place?

Before we dive into Drupal 9 features and its migration process, the first thing we need to be sure of is the need for migration. Drupal 9 was released on June 03, 2020. Since then, many businesses have already migrated to it while others are considering it.

If you also belong to the latter category, here’s are some things you need to be aware of:

• Drupal 8 is no longer supported by the Drupal security team.
• The outdated Drupal versions are vulnerable to security threats.
• You won’t be able to use new Drupal modules in previous versions.
• You’ll have less flexibility due to the more coupled architecture of older versions.
• The maintenance cost will be significantly higher.
• There will be no community support for advice and issues resolution.

Migrating your outdated Drupal versions to Drupal 9 will not only fix these issues but also update your CMS and its functionalities which will lead to overall performance improvement.

Your Drupal Migration Journey Scenario

If you decide to migrate to Drupal 9, your migration process will vary depending on your Drupal journey. Confused? Here are some scenarios to understand it better.

Are You on Drupal 7?
Drupal 7’s end of life has been extended to November 28, 2022^[1]. This means you can plan your upgrade within this timeline. Since Drupal 9 is mostly built on Drupal 8, the right migration approach is to first migrate your Drupal 7 version to Drupal 8 and then to Drupal 9.

Are You on Drupal 8?
Drupal 8 has already reached its end of life on November 02, 2021. So, if you haven’t already upgraded, it’s high time that you do. Drupal 8 will no longer receive security updates and is exposed to various potential risks and vulnerabilities. Since Drupal 9 has backward compatibility, migration is quite easy from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9.

A Look at the Major Updates in Drupal 9

So, what’s new in Drupal 9? Well, just like every upgrade, Drupal 9 comes with many extended capabilities and advanced features. It is built with an API-first development approach and offers immense usage flexibility and future support.

Here are some major features updates in Drupal 9.

• Backward Compatibility: For a long time, Drupal did not believe in preserving backward compatibility. But this changed with Drupal 9. Drupal 9 is backward compatible, meaning it will be able to use modules, configurations, and data of the latest version of Drupal 8.
• Cleaner Codebase: Drupal 9 has lifted the support for deprecated codes in Drupal 8. Modules in Drupal 8 will now have to be free of any outdated codes to ensure compatibility with Drupal 9. As a result, codes will become more nimble and Drupal 9 will be a cleaner version.
• New Symfony and Twig Versions: In Drupal 9, Symfony 3 has been replaced with Symfony 4.4 while Symfony 5 is also available now. The Twig version is updated to Twig 2.0 to enhance the developer experience.
• Headless CMS: Drupal 9 has an API-first architecture with Services and JSON:API modules available in Drupal core. Drupal Headless CMS comes with various features including Front-End Freedom, Easier Resourcing, and Create Once, Publish Anywhere.
• Improved Performance: Drupal 9 supports responsive images. Hence, mobile phones display best-sized images and consume less data. The BigPipe feature increases page view performance and Drupal 9 ships with various fields for content structuring.

Get Ready to Migrate to Drupal 9

Now that you know the ‘What’ and ‘Why’ of your Drupal migration journey, it’s time to focus on the ‘How’. Being a highly technical process, it can seem overwhelming at first. But using an incremental migration approach, you can upgrade your recent Drupal versions to Drupal 9 successfully.

To learn more about the new features and step-by-step approach for migration to Drupal 9, you can download Your Go-To Guide for Migration to Drupal 9.

Need Help in Migrating Your Drupal Website to Drupal 9? Contact Us!

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in August 2019 and has been revamped and updated for accuracy.