Concerned about how to prepare for Drupal 9? It’s common knowledge (hopefully, if you’ve been reading our blog) that Drupal 7 and Drupal 8 have reached their end-of-life dates. If this is your first time here, as a reminder, Drupal 8 will reach End of Life in November this year and Drupal 7 in 2022. Yes, that seems backwards, you didn’t read it wrong. And as a Drupal user, you will be aware that things will change, but the how and when might still be unknown.
However, now is the time to act. Drupal 9's release date has been revealed.
Drupal 9 is here
Drupal 9 was released on June 3, 2020. That was not, however, the only thing revealed that day. Drupal 8.9, which was also released at the same time. Drupal 8.9 was intended as a minor release with long-term support (LTS) for Drupal 8.
Drupal 9's updated dependencies and removal of deprecated code are the sole difference between it and Drupal 8's LTS release. It's also worth noting that the Drupal community will continue to support Drupal 8 until next month (November 2021).
Though, due to COVID, Drupal 7 support will continue. The Extended Support program will run from November 2022 until November 2025. Though it's worth noting that there are only so many vendors on the list and each one will have a capacity.
What should I do now?
The fact that your Drupal 7 or Drupal 8 site will no longer be supported is a reality, as is the fact that you need a safe and functioning Drupal platform.
As a result, we recommend a:
- full site audit,
- migration plan to reduce and remove any surprises along the way,
- rebuild of your site in Drupal 9. Ready for you to then drop your existing (and, recommended audited) content,
- review and test to ensure the upgrade was complete and successful.
If you’re already on Drupal 8, it’s less complicated. Involving only a few minor platform modifications to upgrade to Drupal 9.
You no longer need to release a new branch of your project to support Drupal 9, since a single project release may now be compatible with both Drupal 8 and 9.
Drupal 9 will continue to get new features from 9.1 onward, including routine security updates. So, if you're still using Drupal 7, the transition to Drupal 9 is a little more challenging.
Fortunately, we can assist you with this, as we already have done with our own website and a number of existing clients. Please contact one of our Drupal specialists using the form below, and we’ll be in touch to discuss your straightforward migration path.
We don't want to scare you, but Drupal 10 is coming, too...