Drupal 7 End of Life: Our Approach to Migration

However, all good things must come to an end, and the support for Drupal 7 will cease on January 5, 2025. This transition does not have to be fraught with anxiety and stress; it could be a perfect time to revolutionize and optimize your sites and systems.

Five Jars has had the privilege of partnering with many businesses in diverse industries to migrate their sites to the latest version of Drupal, so it’s safe to say that we’ve learned a few things along the way.

Upgrading to Drupal 10 or 11

There are many advantages to upgrading to the latest version of Drupal, both in streamlining frontend and backend functionality, and long-term sustainability. While Drupal 10 is released and continues to iterate, Drupal 11 has already scheduled a launch date for the week of July 29, 2024. There are plenty of options and advantages; here are some key features in upgrading to either:

1. Enhanced Security: Drupal 10 and 11 have the latest security improvements that are actively maintained, and official support from the Drupal community ensures timely patches and updates.
2. Modern Architecture: Drupal 10 and 11 are built on the Symfony framework, offering a more robust, scalable, and maintainable architecture. This more modern codebase adheres to cleaner coding standards, making it easier for developers to customize to the business needs.
3. Improved Performance: Newer versions of Drupal have performance enhancements including better caching mechanisms, faster page load times, and improved overall handling of server resources.
4. Streamlined User Experience: Both 10 and 11 support user-friendly admin themes like Claro and Layout Builder, allowing the creation of visual layouts for displaying content. Layout Builder, for example,  allows web admins to customize how content is arranged on a single page with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, then translates that across the website.
5. Better Developer Experience: Support for dev workflows including Composer for dependency management, automated testing, and configuration management make for a more streamlined development environment. Newer versions of Drupal feature an API-first approach with enhanced support for creating decoupled applications and integrating via RESTful APIs and GraphQL.

There are many more upgrades that make the decision to migrate from Drupal 7 more than a necessity depending on your unique business and industry needs. This migration not only helps ensure your site’s security and performance but also future-proofs for long term support and continuous solutions as newer versions of Drupal are released.

However, migrating your site to the latest version of Drupal is a significant project that requires careful planning and execution. You may want to partner with a Certified Drupal Partner like Five Jars as an extension of your team, with Drupal 7 migration planning, strategy, launch, and post-launch experience. Let’s explore some insights, planning, and execution tactics we’d implement in a Drupal 7 migration project:

Discovery: Project Goals and Objectives

We start with a comprehensive website audit to identify all data points that need to be migrated including:

• Content
• Front-end design
• Content management
• Taxonomies
• Custom code and themes
• Opportunities for leveraging latest Drupal and integrations

After identifying what is, we can then collaborate with the client to understand what could be in an idyllic work environment. Clear goals should be set, focusing on:

• Accessibility: Ensuring your site is accessible to all users.
• Navigation: Enhancing user experience with intuitive navigation.
• Design: Updating the design to be modern, responsive, and customizable for your business needs.
• SEO: Implementing best practices for search engine optimization.
• Backend Workflows: Streamlining backend processes for efficiency.
• Web Hosting: Selecting the best hosting solution for your needs.

From there, a clear data mapping plan, integration strategy, and optimized front-end and back-end migration plan can be outlined. This stage of planning is crucial to kickoff and launch, and can be an exciting opportunity for your website to have a strong foundation aligned with your mission, vision, and values that can be built on for years to come. 

Migration and Launch

As Captain Picard says in the Star Trek: The Next Generation series: “Make it so.” Moving into the migration and eventual launch phase requires diligence and detail, making sure to assign responsibilities and deadlines for each element of the plan. Our team at Five Jars would manage the migration process, maintaining your existing front-end design if desired, troubleshooting, and testing along the way to provide data-backed recommendations. 

Here’s a closer look at our migration approach:

• Content: Backup and migrate media, content types, and content. There may be creation of new content types required, with rebuilding of views and blocks.
• Module Installation and Configuration: Installing the latest version of Drupal, all the required contributed modules, and porting custom modules from Drupal 7 or replacing them with community-supported solutions.
• Custom Code: Nearly all Drupal 7 sites will have some elements of custom code and/or themes that will need to be migrated or updated along with the required libraries and templates.
• DNS and Domain: Setting up DNS and domain configuration of the new site, making sure they are added to the hosting environment.
• Functional Testing: Conduct Unit Testing in parallel with migration implementation to ensure that all functionalities work as expected.

Post-Launch

You’ve launched, made the leap, and that warrants some celebration. However, there is still work that we would have done. After launch, we’ll provide ongoing support to ensure your sites remain up-to-date and perform optimally. Some of our post-launch services include:

• Training and Documentation: We provide training to appropriate parties such as content editors and site administrators on using the new site, including admin guides and user manuals specific to your custom build.
• Ongoing Maintenance: We’ll work with you to establish an ongoing plan for maintenance as new upgrades roll out for your Drupal version including security, latest features, and improvement support.
• Communication and Feedback: Making sure you’re observing how your new site is performing will influence future decision-making. With open and clear communication, and collecting feedback from users and stakeholders, you’ll be able to identify areas for improvement, allowing for continuous improvement of your sites.

Ready to Upgrade?

Migration can be a lengthy process depending on your site, so the time to plan your Drupal 7 migration was yesterday. This can be a great opportunity to leverage digital presence into a more secure, efficient, and feature-rich Drupal site aligned with your unique vision and needs. Contact us today and let’s turn the end of Drupal 7 support into a breath of life for your business or organization.