Drupal 9: Focusing on innovation | cPanel Blog
Everyone gets excited when their favorite software gets an update! The Drupal Community is currently abuzz about the release of Drupal 9. Wondering what the big deal is? Let’s talk about Drupal and the new improvements. The Drupal project was started 20 years ago by Dries Buytaert in his college dorm room as one of the world’s first Open-Source Content Management Systems. Online years before WordPress or Joomla, Drupal has the distinction of being original GPL code, whereas WordPress and Joomla are “forks” of previous GPL software.
When Drupal began, the internet was a different world. At that point, there were around 50 million websites online, Google was still a private company, mobile browsers weren’t even a concept, and social media didn’t exist. Over the past 20 years, Drupal has become a massive project funded by the parent company Aquia and used by Fortune 50 corporations, governments, and education facilities worldwide. Over 150 countries use Drupal in government and intergovernmental agencies. While WordPress and other DIY CMSs have focused on democratizing websites and content, Drupal set its eyes on a developer’s first experience.
Drupal is not for everyone – and that’s fine. There are thousands of articles comparing the top three open-source CMSs, but the world of open-source CMSs was not meant to be a popularity contest, but instead, it was meant to be tools for developers. Let’s take a quick look at the primary usages of Drupal:
It’s relatively apparent that Drupal is focused on enterprise websites. Drupal 8 has made a lot of advancements to lower the learning curve for designers and looks to be doubling down with Aquia’s acquisition of Cohesion – a drag and drop website builder for Drupal. Easing the curve for WordPress users, the popular WordPress Gutenberg editor was also released for Drupal in 2019.
Drupal 9 to focus on innovations, not features:
Drupal 9 has been in production for over the past five years and started during the Drupal 8 development cycle. Drupal 9 doesn’t offer any new features upon its initial release but provides a leaner, more secure system with APIs that are easier to work with. These changes will be most noticeable to developers. Future versions of Drupal 9 will continue to feature additions and improvements along the six-month release timeline, established with Drupal 8.
The bottom line for Drupal 9, according to project lead Dries Buytaert, is: “The big deal about Drupal 9 is… that it shouldn’t be a big deal.”
With no new features, Drupal 9 is reinforcing Drupal 8’s focus on making it easier for agencies, marketers, and content creators to use Drupal, while still focusing on developers. The project has also done a lot of work, reducing the cost of ownership, making it easier to upgrade, and making it easier to do security updates. Keeping up with technology, Drupal has also invested in leading innovations around the headless and decoupled CMS.
Drupal for Agencies:
As of Drupal 8, content management has been simplified, making the overall Drupal experience more user friendly. Drupal contains many improvements for front-end developers, including HTML5, additional helper libraries, accessibility enhancements, enhanced base themes, UI elements, and improved performance. Some of the most significant features include:
Drupal for Developers:
Drupal 8/9 offers numerous backend developer improvements, including object-oriented code, improved caching, better integration with third-party services, and extensive built-in web services features. Some of these stand out features include:
What’s new in Drupal 9?
As mentioned above, Drupal 9 will feature all the Drupal 8 features, but under the hood, Drupal 9 will also be an evolutionary advancement over 8.
Here are the top 5 new advancements:
Upgrading to Drupal 9:
Out of all the open-source CMSs, Drupal has been the most complicated to update and involved so many changes that it often required a complete site rebuild. With the introduction of Drupal 8, that has changed, and now upgrading is easier than ever. Users of Drupal 7 and 8 should migrate to 9 over the next year with Drupal 7 and 8 reaching EOL (End of Life) in November 2021.
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Upgrading for Drupal 8 Users:
Drupal 9 is currently scheduled for release on June 3, 2020. The first scheduled feature update (minor version) to Drupal 9, Drupal 9.1, is scheduled for December 2020.
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