Drupal 8 was a watershed moment in the platform’s history. The community was able to incorporate more current development technologies and tools as a result of its release. If you’ve ever moved a site from Drupal 6 or 7 to Drupal 8, you’ll know that it takes a lot of time and effort to make a successful transition. Fortunately, you can easily upgrade from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9 in a swift.
Sponsoring a site migration is a big choice, but there are several low-cost actions you can take today as a site owner to ensure a smooth transfer tomorrow. Let’s go through how to ensure you’re ready for a smooth upgrade of your Drupal 7 or Drupal 8 site can easily move to Drupal 9.
#1 Start with A Site Audit
Examine your site and content to see whether it’s meeting your objectives – what’s working and what isn’t. From there, you can figure out what features your Drupal 7 site uses and compare them to what Drupal 9 has to offer.
This information will aid in the construction of a technical spec for your new site as well as highlight any UX, information architecture, and content improvements you may want to make.
Related: Are You Still On Drupal 7- How Will This Impact You In The Future?
#2 Make a Plan
The following aspects must be planned and strategized for a successful upgrade:
- Identifying which Contrib modules offer Drupal 7 to Drupal 9 upgrade routes.
- Document the functionality that would be lost and the module’s dependencies for modules that don’t have an upgrade route. This will aid in determining the scope, schedule, and financial implications.
- Prepare ahead of time for the theme, since it will need to be rebuilt from the ground up in Drupal 9.
- Make a content plan. In terms of typical Drupal entities, the content transfer approach is very easy. The migration pathways for Taxonomy, Blocks, Nodes (content kinds), and Users are all solid. Any data saved outside of Drupal’s standards, such as custom entities, can create problems.
- It’s also necessary to decide whether to use dynamic or static material.
- If the system is extensively utilized for comments or there are any end-user interactions, a maintenance time will be required to prevent content loss throughout the conversion process.
- Similarly, if you have a lot of static material, you’ll need to figure out a migration strategy to guarantee that it’s all loaded on your new site.
- End-users can resume interacting with the site after the migration is complete, understanding that data is being saved in the new Drupal 9 database.
- Plan for SEO, including URL and data structure modifications, how changes influence Google PageSpeed, and overall compliance, among other things.
- Make preparations for configuration storage.
#3 Rebuild and/or Migration
In terms of upgrading, you have two choices. The first option is to simply rebuild the site, which would basically retire your Drupal 7 site and replace it with your new Drupal 9 site. This mode is best for sites with little to no complexity and a modest to medium amount of information and functionality.
If you have a large or complicated site, migration should be part of your overall strategy to guarantee that all material, including user-generated content, special functionality, and custom code, is preserved. All content and custom modules must be moved, replacement modules must be discovered, and the front end of your website must also be redone.
Because there are so many moving pieces during a migration, you’ll want to prepare ahead of time to guarantee that your end-users have the least amount of downtime.
Related: AI & Drupal. How Smart Algorithms Could Impact Businesses?
#4 Review & Testing
Following the rebuild and/or migration, a thorough testing procedure ensures that the update is full and successful. Future upgrades will be straightforward once your site is on Drupal 9. Therefore bear in mind that the intricacy of the above is a one-time experience.
Time And Cost For Migration
The intricacy and scale of your website will determine this.
It will save you a lot of time if you are entirely rebuilding on 9. Do not need to consider any migrations.
If content transfer and/or unique functionality is required, the budget will need to be increased significantly owing to the number of development hours required for planning, strategy, and implementation.
Altering your entire branding and/or design is another factor to consider in terms of price and schedule. You’ll have to spend more time and money on the UX/design. The execution of the designs and any new functionality they may generate.
The good news is that upgrading to Drupal 9,10 and beyond will be a breeze.
Not Interested In Upgrading Drupal? Migrate From Drupal 7 To WordPress
There is another option. Prepare for a new website on a different CMS platform like WordPress before Drupal’s end-of-life dates in 2021 and 2022.
A move to another WordPress, on the other hand, maybe more difficult than upgrading to Drupal 9. If your company requires a scalable, configurable, and highly secure solution, you may choose WordPress that better suits your needs.
We understand. Even while information is power, it may be overpowering at times.
It’s critical to choose a partner who knows Drupal and cares about finding the best solution for your specific requirements.
Are you ready to strike up a conversation? Please contact our team at Agira technologies so that we can begin planning your Drupal 7 End of Life strategy.
