"Are there any upcoming changes?"
This is one of the most often asked questions.
The release of Drupal 10 has been delayed
We know Drupal 10 will be released in the latter half of 2022. This update, like the one from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9, will be easy for any properly constructed and managed Drupal site.
As of Drupal 8, the Drupal development team has been methodically releasing new versions of the content management system. This helps anyone involved in developing, managing, or maintaining a Drupal site by outlining the steps required to upgrade from one major release to the next.
The biggest mystery is the delay in Drupal 10's release date from August to December. There are two possible explanations for the date switch:
Why not drop it in the middle of August?
The Core Development team has been working tirelessly over the past few months to meet the deadline, specifications, and strategic goals for the release of Drupal 10.
As a group, we've been hard at work getting rid of old code, cleaning up dependencies, modernising our JavaScript, and getting modules ready for contributions.
Drupal 10's primary requirement is compatibility with CKEditor 5. Drupal 10 should switch to CKEditor 5 because CKEditor 4 will be retired at the end of 2023.
This latest version of CKEditor has been integrated into Drupal after thousands of hours of work and extensive communication with the CKEditor team.
The effort has uncovered additional major issues that must be fixed before CKEditor 5 can be considered stable, and these problems could not be fixed by the May 13 beta deadline necessary for the August release.
Launching Drupal 10 in December 2022 instead of August 2022 has the following benefits: By delaying the release of Drupal 10 until December instead of August, we gain valuable time to ensure that CKEditor is stable before its public debut.
As an added bonus, this gives site owners additional time to evaluate the conversion from CKEditor 4 to the new version in Drupal 9, so ensuring a safe and trouble-free upgrading process.
The most exciting news for PHP developers like myself is the impending release of Drupal 10 in December, along with Symfony 6.2, which will bring updates and bug fixes over the current 6.0 version and reduce the effort required of security teams.
Since most hosting providers will now support PHP8.1 after its December release, sites can begin upgrading immediately instead of waiting for platform changes, as was previously indicated when Drupal 10 was announced to require it. This is Drupal 10, the tenth major release.
Drupal 10 will be as compatible as it can be with PHP 8.2, which is also slated for release in November. Drupal 10 requires at least PHP 8.1 until November 2024. If you want to know more about PHP 8 and why it's so crucial to upgrade, check out our comprehensive guide.
When comparing Drupal 8 and 10, what differences can you expect to see? It's been announced that Drupal 10 will have several new features. So, let's have a peek at the improvements that Drupal 10 will make possible.
Using the music from "Claro," The source is the claro theme for Drupal 10, which uses a navigation bar at the top of the screen and a Word-like page at the bottom.
The Seven theme, originally created in 2009 for Drupal 7 and barely updated for Drupal 8, is being retired in favour of the newer and more modern Claro theme.
Drupal 10 was built using the latest standards, and it has been tweaked for optimal performance with the latest releases of this content management system.
Olivero
The Olivero Drupal theme is in action for the frontend, showcasing the theme's preview with the name "olivero" at the top, a droplet-like symbol in the centre, and text.
We also want to see an update to the control panel. Website visitors will also appreciate the new, sleek layout.
The Olivero theme was built to integrate with the new system's most popular tools, such as Layout Builder, and make the most of its possibilities. In other words, the theme will adhere to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 Level AA.
You may find a brand new flowchart depicting the Drupal starter kit theme with several different coloured boxes on Drupal.org.
Drupal 8 and 9 users should not expect the same template-building experience in Drupal 7. Because of the new starterkit, this won't be added to the base theme, but instead will create a blank layout to work from.
This prevents taking on the full template's limited update options due to compatibility concerns.
Sub-theming remains a viable option, allowing us to spin out variations on our main theme that share visual cues with the original. This automated process of creating themes will be handled by Drupal scripts.
Distinct menus
Since it has robust API support for languages like REST, JSON, and GraphQL, Drupal is a dependable content management system. To facilitate the development of a comprehensive library of web components and JavaScript framework integrations, Drupal 10 aims to expand the number of available web service endpoints.
Roadmaps for Drupal 10 include the Decoupled Menus feature. With this skill, you can create a lightweight web component that satisfies a widespread scenario with no effort.
If the Drupal team is able to successfully implement additional web service endpoints and JavaScript components, it might significantly enhance both headless development and composability. That's why Drupal has a chance to keep being one of the most robust and flexible development frameworks out there. Read this comprehensive guide to learn everything there is to know about the Decoupled menus project.
Automatic upgrades are performed without user intervention
Just imagine how you, the developer, would react if your website could automatically apply security patches. The features introduced in Drupal 10 make it safe and simple for programmers to apply patches and updates. Sites based on Composer will soon have the option to update as it is being incorporated into the core.
As of right now, the Automatic Updates Initiative is hard at work on a number of ambitious projects, including UI upgrades, package signing for increased security, and extensive testing with a wide range of hosting providers. This in-depth manual explains all you need to know about the programme that automatically upgrades software.
The Project Browser Image depicts the project's display box, with Browse Drupal.org written at the top and numerous options shown at the bottom.
The original content was derived from the Drupal.org website.
Admins of sites built with Drupal 10 have access to a searchable library of modules that can be easily downloaded and installed. Rather than being an add-on, the feature will be built into Drupal itself.
The feature is in its early phases of development, but for the time being it is only available as a donated module. With a click of "Try it now," developers can try the function on a brand new instance of Drupal.
Inactive or obsolete code has been removed
When Drupal 9 was released, deprecated code and libraries were omitted, but there is plenty of time for developers to upgrade to Drupal 10 standards.
There have been deletions in certain vital components
For Drupal 10, the core team will be getting rid of a few modules that are either unnecessary or rarely used. In order to maintain cohesion, these components will be shifted to the Contributed Modules section.
- A service that collects and shows content syndicated from other websites is called an aggregator (RSS, RDF, and Atom feeds).
- With QuickEdit, you can make changes to text without leaving its context.
- The entities in this library are serialised using Hypertext Application Language, or HAL.
- With Activity Tracker, users can easily keep tabs on the most recent updates.
- RDF-Enhances webpages with metadata that can be read and interpreted by other programmes.
- The discussion forum features a message board.
- Changes made to the editing process
- Drupal 10's CKEditor 5 preview, with Full HTML text on top and several checkboxes below.
- The original content was derived from the Drupal.org website.
- In Drupal 10, the CK Editor 5 rich text (WYSIWYG) editor will be used by default. It adds many helpful tools that make it easier to edit material.
Auto-formatting allows you to easily add bold with asterisks, headers with #, inline code with text, code blocks with "," and bulleted lists with *. In addition, the ability to copy text from a document and paste it elsewhere has been enhanced.
In the updated version of CK Editor, the option to clean up copied text from Microsoft Word or Google Docs is highlighted. Visit our comprehensive tutorial on how to modify Drupal settings for more information.
Third-Party application upgrades
Since Drupal 10 relies on PHP 8, and PHP 7 will be retired in November 2022, this is a significant change. Internet Explorer 11 is incompatible with Drupal 10. Potentially, jQuery UI will be phased out in favour of modern JavaScript components.
One of Drupal's primary engines, Symfony, will be deprecated in November 2022. Symfony 5's incompatibility issues with Drupal 10 have been fixed, so developers can start using it. The group is similarly enthusiastic about Symfony 6 upgrades.
Check out the Drupal 10 preparedness programme documentation for additional info.
Conclusion
Scary as it is to say considering Drupal 7 is still here and the most popular version, but there isn't much time left to get ready for Drupal 10. So it's important to keep learning. Now that Drupal has matured into a more flexible update schedule and simpler migration tools, businesses are less likely to be reluctant to make the switch.
If you want to update your site to Drupal 9 in anticipation of Drupal 10, you can count on our Drupal migration expertise and experience. Please feel free to contact us; we'd love to talk!