The latest major version of Drupal - Drupal 10 - launched in December, bringing a number of enhancements including updated content authoring tools, additional site admin improvements and faster performance. The new version also ensures that the technical backbone of the platform remains in line with the latest, secure versions of related technical architecture such as PHP versions and the Symfony framework.
So should you be looking to upgrade your Drupal website to Drupal 10 and, if so, when? Here we address some of the most commonly asked questions with regards to the Drupal 10 upgrade.
How straightforward is it to upgrade from Drupal 9 to Drupal 10?
Drupal 10 is a natural progression from Drupal 9 and is designed to be upgradeable directly from Drupal 9 without too many issues. This should especially be the case if your Drupal 9 website and all the contributed modules used on it are already fully up-to-date and on their latest Drupal 9 versions.
However, there are still some potential complexities to be aware of when upgrading your Drupal site from Drupal 9 to Drupal 10 which may need some time to resolved. The main ones are likely to be:
- ensuring your hosting environment can run the newer version of PHP that Drupal 10 requires (at least PHP 8.1)
- ensuring any custom modules and themes remain compatible with Drupal 10 and PHP8
- dealing with any contrib modules used on your site which are not yet fully Drupal 10 or PHP8 compatible
- ensuring the newer version of the CKEditor tool (used for editing most content) delivers the same functionality/results as the older version likely to be in use on your site currently
Above all else, it's essential that full and thorough testing is carried out following the upgrade prior to it being rolled out to your live production site.
When should you upgrade to Drupal 10?
Drupal 9 remains fully supported until later this year so there's no pressing imperative to move to Drupal 10 right away. Just make sure you allow enough time to make the move to Drupal 10 by November, which is when Drupal 9 reaches end-of-life.
Adaptive's own policy on such major upgrades has always been to wait until a few months after the initial launch of a new version before beginning to upgrade sites. This ensures that any initial bugs or other issues with the newer platform are discovered and dealt with prior to us starting to utilise the new version.
We'll be in touch with all our clients in the coming months to plan and deliver their upgrades to Drupal 10.
How much time/work is involved in upgrading to Drupal 10?
This can vary depending on the complexity of your site and other factors, including those potential complexities listed above.
For an 'average' site already up-to-date on Drupal 9, we'd anticipate the full upgrade process taking several days to complete, allowing time for the main upgrade work as well as dealing with some of the likely key complexities above and ample testing before making the upgrade live.
The process is likely to take longer for sites where there is more custom functionality, greater complexity so more testing required or where there are other issues relating to either the Drupal or PHP upgrades.
What if my current website is on Drupal 8?
There is no direct upgrade path from Drupal 8 straight to Drupal 10. Instead, you will first need to upgrade your site to Drupal 9 and then repeat the process from Drupal 9 to 10.
Drupal 8 is already end-of-life and out of support so could be at risk of security exploits until you upgrade to at least Drupal 9. We would therefore recommend you upgrade to at least Drupal 9 at the earliest opportunity. Once on Drupal 9, you can then choose whether to continue straight to Drupal 10 or to do that step later in the year.
What if my Drupal website currently uses Drupal 7 (or earlier)?
Unfortunately there is no real direct upgrade path from Drupal 7 to any later versions of Drupal. This is because the newer versions Drupal are structurally very different from Drupal 7 so it’s not possible to simply upgrade from one to the other.
As a result, the process of moving on from Drupal 7 requires a full rebuild of the website in Drupal 10 and all content/functionality from the current Drupal 7 either migrated to the new site or rebuilt. This will therefore require much more planning in advance, not least to secure suitable budget for such a project.
Drupal 7 is currently expected to reach end-of-life in November this year, although may be extended further. It's best though to start planning your project sooner rather than later if you need to move on from Drupal 7.
Read more in our FAQs for moving on from Drupal 7.
If you're already an existing Adaptive client, your Account Manager will be in touch in the coming months to discuss planning in the upgrade to Drupal 10 with you.
If you're not an Adaptive customer but have a Drupal website that needs upgrading to Drupal 10, why not get in touch for a chat about how we might be able to help?