2023 15 Jun

Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 Migration - Need of the Hour

You must wake up if you are still working on Drupal 6 or 7. With D7's official support ending in November 2023, it is high time that you consider the Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 migration.

Are you still wondering why you must endure this pain to upgrade to the Drupal 10 version? Here are three strong reasons why Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 migration is the need of the hour:

You can't run your digital system (Drupal 7 platform) with security vulnerabilities. With all the sensitive data you might be hosting on different forms, it might impact your brand reputation.
More than a technical upgrade, it is time to revamp your website's front end. It is important to comply with the latest accessibility guidelines or SEO (Search Engine Optimization) requirements to ensure that your website keeps performing.
Give time to your editors for creativity. Let them have a modern and accessible CMS (Content Management System) that will make their life much easier to manage all the content and assets for your website.

Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 Migration Guide

Before jumping to Drupal 10 migration, you need a team of developers, QA testers, and a project manager. You can choose to have an internal team, or Innoraft experts can also help you go through the project.

So, let's begin with the stepwise Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 migration guidelines:

Access Drupal 7 Site

Migrating to Drupal 10 from Drupal 7 is a complete site rebuild that includes design, content, information architecture (IA), and feature updates. Hence, before any migration, check for the features and content you want to change and what you should ditch.

Access the current site to make a list of all the content, features, and functionality
Draft a plan about the things you want to keep and that you wish to change
Choose a new and fresh design for your project
Identify custom modules that are not compatible with Drupal 10
Make sure your hosting environment is compatible with Drupal 10

Check Module

Modules are important for any site's functionality. Hence, make sure that they are compatible with Drupal 10. You need to determine the core modules of Drupal 7 that you are relying on. Find out if they are compatible with Drupal 10. If not, check what you're going to replace these modules with.

You can review the module's compatibility with Drupal 10 by reviewing each module's page
Check the status of the modules to see if they are being worked upon for updates by their maintainers
Consider alternate options for the modules
You can also think of customized modules compatible with Drupal 10

Create a fresh Drupal 10 Site

Build a new and fresh Drupal 10 site and migrate the content from the Drupal 7 site. Pick the latest available version of Drupal 10 for the best results. Choose all the modules you want to add to your site and install them on your Drupal 10 site.

Make a list of modules selected
Configure selected modules on Drupal 10
Test the site on the functionality
Remove the modules that your team no longer needs

Create Content Structures

For the migration, create content structures that include content types, block types, vocabularies, media types, menus, etc. Follow the best practices, as this is when you can rework the structure of your pages and leverage new features.

Add fields to the pages based on your requirements
Remove fields from the pages that are redundant or don't fit your requirements now

Upgrade Custom modules

It is important to keep updating your custom modules over time. However, choosing minimal coding while working with core or contributed modules would be best.

Upgrading custom modules involves rewriting your code
Use new APIs provided by Drupal 10 to upgrade your modules
Test the functionality of each module and take a nod from your business stakeholders

Migrate the data from Drupal 7 to Drupal 10

It is one of the crucial steps in the Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 migration process. You can manually copy and paste the content between sites for a small site with less data. However, for a big enterprise site, the process must be automated. Choose the correct content structures in Drupal 10 for the data to be migrated into.

Ensure you have the correct content structure, like content types, vocabularies, media types, menus, etc.
Perform audit across the content
Clean up the content (remove duplicates) on your Drupal 7 site before the migration
Backup your data for any mishandling during the migration
Freeze content changes on the site during migrations
Handle migration of site configurations properly

Rebuild your theme or build a fresh one

You can rebuild your old theme, create a new customized theme, or even choose an existing Drupal 10 theme. Pick the one that suits your needs. At a time of migration, it is best to do redesigns. Bring an aesthetic appeal and enhance the overall user experience with a UX/UX revamp to keep up with the latest theme trends.

Test your Site

QA testing should be done in such a way that you test individual components.

Frontend tickets that is what the visitor sees on the site (theme)
Backend tickets that is what the content editors and site admins can see
Migration tickets that is the data you're migrating from Drupal 7 to Drupal 10

Launch the Drupal 10 site

It is time to launch your new Drupal 10 site. You only need to switch the DNS (domain name server) to point to the new site. Train your team on the features of the Drupal 10 website.

Top 5 changes to look forward to in Drupal 10

Here is a look at five changes that this new version of Drupal will bring and how you can get ready.

Readiness

One of the most enterprise-ready open-source content management systems (CMS), it has third-party components from wider communities like CKEditor, PHP, Symfony, and more. Drupal 10 aligns with the latest version of PHP 8, Symfony, and its components. Drupal 10 meets the need for a migration path for the web content created with the CKEditor plugin versions 4 to 5.

Project Browser

Currently, developers know the most popular modules and usually have to install them manually. Drupal 10 brings a more accessible option to search and install thousands of third-party modules and add-ons that you can choose as an additional feature for your core CMS. This new interface will be integrated directly with the admin area and include a powerful search engine with categories. And it also allows one-click installation for some of those.

Automatic Updates

The Drupal security group is recognized as very efficient when patching the vulnerabilities in the core framework. However, third-party modules from the community become unmaintained and pose security risks to your website over time. Automatic updates to Drupal 10 aim to apply Drupal core patches and security.

Easy Out of Box

As a CMS, Drupal has a steep learning curve. It can scale to enterprise-level solutions and deliver global websites better than any other platform. The Easy Out of Box initiative aims to smooth initial onboarding with a default theme that is more accessible and easy to use. Also, it will be easy for developers to build custom themes on top of it. It will have SEO benefits as well.

For example, the new CKEditor will remove the H1 tag because there will be only one on the page, which would come from the page title. You can manage lazy loading for the images directly in the CMS.

Decoupled Menus

This initiative will provide a more consistent experience for developers. For example, JavaScript developers can reuse an existing React component or build a robust Drupal API (application program interface) on top of other frameworks without needing the Drupal themes for every website.

3 Key tips from Innoraft while Migrating from Drupal 7 to Drupal 10

If you have removed or changed the path of the content, make sure that you redirect the visitors from the old URLs to someplace appropriate on the site. It helps you with a 404 error: "page not found".
Keep testing each phase of migration timely to ensure the content and data have all come across to Drupal 10 as expected.
QA testing should be done on different devices to ensure that site performance and accessibility are adequately tested.

Innoraft offers Drupal 10 Migration Services

Migrating to Drupal 10 is a step in the right direction, but it won't be an easy magic solution. Because when you are running a website ecosystem, you still require technical help for configuration and a proper change management workflow. Innoraft helps you with the right technical assistance and guidance. We ensure that any new module or plugin you install is thoroughly tested and doesn't break the rest of the website.

We help you rebuild your website with a modern design system faster and for less money. You can also think of a complete UI (user interface) or UX (user experience) revamp to attract your target audience and boost business revenue. Also, we ensure 24-hour customer support.

Conclusion

Don't get left behind by running an unsupported and outdated content management system. As a top-notch business, it is important for you to continuously improve your digital platform, stay secure, and maintain accessibility and performance.