Since its release, there are around , sites who are still using some version of Drupal 7. It also included more than 11, contributed modules, distributions and themes. Well, yes the number is huge. It almost served us for a decade but now it's time for us to upgrade to the later versions of Drupal 7 which comes with a lot of amazing features and benefits.
But still you need to know exactly how long will Drupal 7 be supported? And also about Drupal 7 security updates. Since a huge number of sites are seen using Drupal 7, the community decided to extend the community support until November also keeping under consideration the COVID 19 situation.
Therefore, after the release of Drupal 9, Drupal 7 will be supported for around 2. Also, the Drupal Security Team looks forward to following the Security Team processes for Drupal 7 core and contributed projects. Towards the end of the community support, you will be given the facility of signing up with vendors providing support until Drupal encourages organizations who are interested in delivering commercial Drupal 7 Vendor Extended Support to their customers by motivating them to join the program and fill up the application form for the Drupal 7 Vendor Extended Support team.
This section will now tell you whether staying on Drupal 7 will be a good decision for your organization or not. But how will you take that decision?
Here is a solution. You will need to craft a business case as it will help in estimating the initial and ongoing costs for making the upgrade investment in comparison to the current state of things, also estimating the revenue and settings. With a business case, you get an opportunity to project the break-even point for your upgrade investment.
It is essential to be aware of the risks that might come upon not upgrading from Drupal 7. Below are the risks that can be a threat to you and your organization. Take a look. Site maintainers will have to spend a lot of time searching for security issues and solving them. In case, if there are a lot of contributed modules in your Drupal configuration, the risks might even get increased. One of the risks that is observed is that while maintaining the status quo, the key integration starts failing.
For instance, your Drupal environment might be integrated with any other platform, and a main API on that platform gets deprecated, since the Drupal module which connects to it is no more maintained, you will need to update the module and even write a new custom module in order to keep the integration working. After the end of life, the Drupal community reduces the amount of activity on Drupal 7 core and modules.
So, it will therefore lead you to additional investments. So, have you finally made up your mind to go for an upgrade? I hope you did. Since Drupal 9 got released on June 3rd, , you can directly upgrade from Drupal 7 to 9.
This option can be very convenient as it can assure you that your upgraded site will have maximum expected life. On the other hand, you can first go for an upgrade to Drupal 8, and then finally to Drupal 9.
The reasons for upgrading first to Drupal 8 can be of the fact that your site is in need of functionality also provided by modules which are available in Drupal 8 but still not in Drupal 9 release. So, if you upgrade to Drupal 8 first, it will eventually make the upgrade to Drupal 9 a lot easier.
At the time of upgrading a Drupal 7 site to Drupal 8 or Drupal 9, there are three vital tools that are being used. Have a look below. Do you have any concerns about upgrading to the Drupal 8 and 9 version? Well there may be things that bother you. Long story short Whatever you choose it will be imperative that you have a Drupal expert either on your team to execute the upgrade, or that you partner with a Drupal expert like Thinkbean to guide you through.
Here's our process here at Thinkbean :. Review your site and content and determine if it's actually accomplishing your needs - what's working and what isn't. From there you can establish the the functionality used by your Drupal 7 site and allows you to cross reference that with what's provided in Drupal 9.
This information will help in the creation of a technical spec for your new site, and highlight any changes you may want to make in regards to UX, information architecture and content. In regards to the upgrade itself you have two options. The first is to simply rebuild the site, meaning that your Drupal 7 site would essentially be retired and replaced by your new Drupal 9 site. This mode is ideal for sites that do not have much complexity and are small to medium in size in relation to content and functionality.
If you have a large and or complex site you'll need to include migration in your overall plan to ensure all content and things like user generated content, special functionality and custom code is accounted for. All content and custom modules will need to be migrated, alternative modules will need to be identified or created from scratch and the front end of your website will then also need to be rewritten which is a great time for making aesthetic changes. There are a lot of moving parts during a migration so you'll want to plan in advance to ensure the least amount of ideally zero downtime for your end-users.
Once your site is in Drupal 9 future updates will be simple - so keep in mind the complexity of the above is a one time experience. If you are completely rebuilding on 9 and do not need to consider any migrations it will save you a considerable amount of time. There is of course one additional option, which is to plan for a new website on another CMS platform before the Drupal end of life in and And while a migration to another CMS could actually be more complex that upgrading to Drupal 9.
If your organization does not need a scalable, customizable, scalable and highly secure solution you may be able to find an alternative CMS that fits your organization better. Ready to start that conversation? Fewer agencies will offer any sort of Drupal support for these versions. The talent pool of developers will dry up - anyone who learns Drupal today will be learning on newer releases. Upgrading from Drupal 7 or 8 to Drupal 9 is the opportunity to revolutionize the way you think about the web as a business tool.
If you have a Drupal 7 or 8 site, you have almost certainly had it for at least five years. How many little usability improvements have you considered in that time? Is your design dated? At this time, no new features are being added to Drupal 7 or 8. All the innovation is happening in Drupal 9! All the best of Drupal 8 - Drupal 8 came with many new features such as an improved authoring experience with Layout Builder, an API-first architecture that opens the door to a decoupled CMS, TWIG templating engine for improved design capabilities, and built-in web integrations to name a few.
All of these features are carried over to Drupal 9. Easy out of the box, a new front-end theme, and automatic updates are among the strategic initiatives for Drupal core. Future upgrades - Upgrades will be seamless for future releases. You will no longer be forced to replatform as new versions are released.
Stay on the edge of innovation - Adopting Drupal 9 will give you access to the latest new feature releases, happening twice a year. Upgrading can certainly come with challenges. As you start planning for an upgrade, a good starting point is performing a readiness audit.
An audit assesses the level of effort and provides recommendations for a smooth migration path to Drupal 9. Drupal 7 reaches end of life in November of It was originally scheduled for November of The date was extended due to the large user base, and the difficulties stemming from the global coronavirus pandemic.
Drupal 8 reaches end of life on November 2, Rebuilding your website on new technologies which also have their own EOL schedules , can be expensive and time consuming. Drupal 8 to Drupal 9 is an easier upgrade, making its EOL less problematic for users.
D7ES ensures Drupal 7 remains secure and safe to run.
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