Drupal 8 Support Ends Soon – Get Your Drupal 8 to 9 Migration Done Now

The latest breakthrough in the Drupal world came on June 3, 2020, in the form of Drupal 9. Drupal 9 was launched along with Drupal 8.9 – an LTS (long-term-support) minor release of Drupal 8. The Drupal 8 LTS release and Drupal 9 release only differ by the elimination of deprecated code and updated dependencies in Drupal 9.

When it comes to Drupal 8, it depends on Symfony 3, and the end of life of Symfony 3 is November 2021. Therefore, the support for Drupal 8 will end on November 2, 2021. The Drupal 8.9 minor release will also receive support until November 2021.

As Drupal 9.0.0 is out, Drupal will receive patch releases only now. New features will no longer be incorporated in Drupal 8 and minor releases will also not be made available.

Why Prioritize Drupal 8 to 9 Migration?

Here are the reasons you should upgrade Drupal 8 to 9 promptly:

• The Drupal development team will discontinue providing LTS support for the older Drupal versions in November 2021. This implies that, if your site runs on an outdated Drupal platform and you experience any issues with your site, you will be unable to get any technical support.
• The Drupal development team will also discontinue the release of bug-fixes for the previous versions. This will heighten the risk of successful hacks.
• It will no longer be possible to connect the necessary modules’ latest versions, thereby limiting your site’s capabilities substantially.

An untimely migration may result in user data leaks and other issues like hacker attacks led by support termination for old Drupal versions. So, it is recommended to perform Drupal 8 to 9 migration in advance so as to transfer all data without haste as well as perform proper testing of the updated site.

How to Perform Drupal 8 to 9 Migration?

Drupal 8 to 9 migration process is simple. Following are the steps:

1. Check Hosting Compatibility 

You will need to prepare your Drupal 8 site for Drupal 9 firstly. For this, check whether the hosting chosen by you meets the requirements to install an updated Drupal version.

2. Update Drupal 8 Engine to the Most Recent Minor Version

If your website is still not running on the most recent Drupal 8 version, i.e., Drupal 8.9.x or Drupal 8.8.x, you will need to upgrade. Upgrading will ensure that you get support for the latest versions of extensions you use.

3. Update the Themes and Additional Modules of Code

Refresh your themes and codebase so that they are fully compatible with Drupal 8.9.x or 8.8.x. A code editor offered by Drupal developers can assist you in this. Additionally, if you employed the TWIG 1 template editor, it will be necessary to offer TWIG 2 support. This can be done using this tutorial.

4. Start the Process of Auto-Update

After you refresh all standalone code pieces, you have to execute the “update.php” script. This will update the engine of your website to Drupal 9.0.x.

Wrap Up

Now that you have an idea of the process involved in Drupal 8 to 9 migration, start planning for the upgrade now, if you have not already. Considering that Drupal 8 support ends Nov 2021, it is better to ensure Drupal 9 readiness now and perform the migration sooner than later.

To carry out a seamless Drupal 8 to Drupal 9 migration, let the professionals handle the job. eWay Corp comprises highly skilled and experienced Drupal developers who can expertly perform development and migration for Drupal-based websites. Whether you want to create a robust Drupal site for your business, tweak your existing Drupal website, or upgrade your Drupal 8 site to Drupal 9, we can help you out. If you have Drupal requirements, let us talk today!