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Drupal and Salesforce Integration to Boost Your Business Productivity

CRMs help businesses to easily communicate with their existing and potential customers. And, this is the reason why many business owners prefer integrating the CRM software with their websites. Fortunately, the seamless third-party integration opportunities in Drupal 8 help you integrate your CMS with any third-party systems of your choice, which is one of the significant benefits of Drupal website development. The main focus of this blog is specifically on Drupal and Salesforce integration.

As a leading Drupal development company, we have extensive experience in integrating Drupal websites with various CRMs, so you can reach us with your requirements at any time.

What is Salesforce?

Salesforce is an industry-leading cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution that brings businesses and customers together. The term ‘Sales’ in its name clearly signifies its main objective, that is, to help businesses effectively manage their sales, customer service, marketing automation, collaboration, and analytics. The software gives the sales, marketing, commerce, and other in-house teams a common view of every customer.

Integrating Salesforce with Drupal CMS is an effective way to streamline workflows of various departments in your organization and establish a long-term relationship with your current and prospective customers.

Key Benefits of Drupal and Salesforce Integration

If you’ve indulged in Drupal website development, your sales and marketing team can leverage the power of Salesforce through seamless integration between the two systems. Below are some of the benefits that you’ll enjoy with Drupal and Salesforce integration

  • Increased efficiency in the workflows of sales and marketing
  • Time and cost-saving due to a fully integrated system
  • Grab and retain prospective customers with the help of instant email notifications
  • Opportunity to track your competitors
  • Both uni/bi-directional data sharing between Drupal and Salesforce is possible
  • Smooth synchronization that helps in creating and updating the data easily
  • Enhanced data protection thanks to the authorization features

So, if you’re planning for Drupal-Salesforce integration, you may hire Drupal developers from us and they will help you with seamless Drupal integration with Salesforce without disrupting your live sales or overall website. We have a pool of experienced and highly-skilled Drupal specialists who have successfully integrated a wide range of third-party applications and systems with Drupal CMS-based websites.

How Drupal and Salesforce Integration Works?

The common objective of any integration is a perfect data exchange. Drupal websites need to pull from as well as push the data to Salesforce. Thanks to Drupal 8’s API-first approach, any integration has become a breeze. Additionally, Drupal boats a wealth of pre-built contributed modules that facilitate any sort of integration. So, of course, there is a useful Salesforce module for Drupal 8, called the Salesforce Suite that ensures a seamless integration.

The Salesforce Suite includes a bunch of submodules, so let’s take a look at these modules one by one.

Modules for Integrating Drupal with Salesforce

The Drupal 8 Salesforce Suite Module

The Salesforce Suite is the main module for Drupal integration. The module synchronizes Drupal website’s entities like users, content nodes, etc. with Salesforce objects such as contacts, organizations, etc. The exact relationship between these two is provided by field mapping. Salesforce Suite helps in importing and exporting data in real-time or asynchronously, based on the Cron runs. The Drupal 8 Salesforce Suite module version has been updated in 2020.

As a professional Drupal development company, we follow the best Drupal and Salesforce integration practices that help us save time and effort consumed in the integration process.

The Salesforce Suite Submodules

Here’s how the specific tasks are carried out by the powerful group of the submodules available suite’s Drupal 8.4 version:

  • Salesforce Integration – This submodule takes care of the smooth Drupal and Salesforce integration.
  • Salesforce Mapping – Field mapping is used to effectively synchronize the exchanged data. This submodule in the suite maps Drupal entities to Salesforce objects.
  • Salesforce Mapping UI – The handy user interface of this submodule allows you to efficiently manage the mapping settings.
  • Salesforce JWT Auth Provider – This module is responsible for the key-based Salesforce authentication.
  • Salesforce Logger – This tool provides for the consolidated logging of the Salesforce Log events.
  • Salesforce Webform – This submodule in the suite provides support for webforms fields in the mapping process to provide seamless Drupal Salesforce webform integration.
  • Salesforce Push – This member of the suite particularly manages the pushing of the Drupal data to Salesforce when any changes or updates are made on Drupal.
  • Salesforce Pull – It’s the opposite of the previous module. It is responsible for importing the Salesforce objects based on the mapping.
  • Salesforce Soap – This tool exposes a SoapClient service to connect with the Salesforce SOAP API.

Different Architectural Approaches

There are several architectural approaches when it comes to data flow that caters to different requirements and gratifies different needs. Let’s take a tour of the different architectures:

Real-Time Push

Real-time integration facilitates the export of Drupal objects to Salesforce immediately. You get the feedbacks that indicate whether the item failed to export and the data is available in Salesforce or not.

  • Strength – Fast, limited, update lag, avoids UX, can avoid race conditions
  • Weakness – Less durable and reliable

The Drupal 8 salesforce Cron based push service was introduced to construct database queues, normalizing queue items, augmenting queue operations, and implementing error handling. The Cron based sync facilitates Drupal’s core API schedule synchronization from Salesforce to Drupal.

  • Strength – Handles large volumes well, can be stopped and started when needed
  • Weakness – Slow, lags and risk the update conflicts

Work Queues

The queue-based batching system running in the background allows for the sending of many objects to the Salesforce as early as possible. In this architecture, instead of the objects being sent to the Salesforce at a given time, as soon as it is created, edited, deleted it goes into the queue where it waits to be exported to other items.

The queue items are then selected based on the configurable schedule and then exported to the Salesforce in batches. Batching the data enables synchronization and increases the performance by using fewer API calls.

  • Strength – Reliable, high-performing, and has a shorter time lag
  • Weakness – Large changes create backlogs, the potential risk of update conflicts

The Future of Drupal Integration with Salesforce

Drupal integration with Salesforce brings immense opportunities for improving sales and marketing. Integrating Salesforce and Drupal is a cost-effective solution to increase sales. If you’re able to get Drupal and Salesforce integration deployed to your operation and organization, you’ll definitely enjoy streamlined and optimized business processes, both in the short and long term. This will ultimately boost your sales and make the entire process simpler and effective.

Wrapping Up

All Drupal CMS installations are unique because of the different modules and customizations that they use. Therefore, the integration has to be set up differently by an expert. Hire Drupal developers from us and they will get the job done in a matter of minutes. If you already have a Salesforce instance set up, we’ll be happy to explore the suitable integration options. If you’re new to or have less knowledge about Salesforce, we can work with your Salesforce developers to make sure your data is organized in a way that reduces the integration effort and costs.

As a leading Drupal development company, we offer a complete suite of Drupal website development services and solutions that drive better results for our global clientele. If you’re looking for other Drupal website development services, you may hire Drupal developers at Drupal India for the required services.

FAQs

What other third-party systems and applications can you integrate with Drupal CMS-based website?

Being a top-notch Drupal development company, we have the required expertise in carrying out Drupal integration with a wide variety of third-party applications and systems seamlessly. Our wide spectrum of the Drupal integration service includes:

  • Drupal and ERP systems – SAP, SharePoint, NetSuite, etc.
  • Drupal and CRM systems – SugarCRM, Zendesk, Salesforce, Hubspot, Adobe Test and Target, ExactTarget, Janrain, etc.

How to integrate Drupal with Salesforce CRM?

Drupal integration with Salesforce can be a daunting task. If you’re new to this, you may hire Drupal developers at Drupal India and they will help you set up Salesforce on your Drupal website.

How do I contact you for Drupal integration with Salesforce service?

You may contact us for the required service through emails, phone calls, Skype, or WhatsApp.

Need to Integrate Salesforce CRM with your Drupal Website?

How to Choose Perfect Hosting Service for Drupal CMS Website?

Drupal is a robust and secure CMS for web application development. Several developers and business enterprises leverage the power of this innovative Drupal CMS for reaching their target audience. If you are among such users, you might know that web application success depends on the hosting solution it offers for the smooth deployment. While website requirements are not something extraordinary but still not every owner have expertise in Drupal development and thus needs expert guidance. Being a store owner, it is important to focus on Drupal Hosting Services to meet special considerations of the website & visitors.

In this blog post, we will be discussing important factors that you must consider before investing in web hosting. First, let us focus on the important factors that several store owners usually miss during Drupal development that on later stages make a huge impact on the website performance. Irrespective of the website size, features & traffic, your web hosting provider should offer the below-given features.

1. Security

Make sure the hosting plan offers predefined security measures. Yes, every necessary step needs to be taken to ensure website security is not compromised. But in terms of server security, the Drupal CMS Hosting provider has complete responsibility. Check whether the hosting provider has a server with the latest software integrated or not. In addition, there should also be DDoS protection, along with firewall and anti-malware software.

2. Speed

Speed is another important parameter of the utmost importance. No one prefers visiting a slow & sluggish website. Drupal website’s performance can be improved if it is not properly optimized. But optimizing the website is not the only solution. What if the hosting server is already slow in performance? It is important to opt for web hosting that takes extra care regarding the infrastructure to make sure the hardware is never overloaded. You can consult Drupal developer to check whether the hosting provider is using the latest software for caching or not. It is the website admin’s responsibility to set up a caching solution on the self-managed servers.

3. Compatibility

Be sure to verify your Drupal website hosting specifications and compare them with the offered by the web hosting provider. Before moving ahead, check for the PCI compliance to ensure the website does not experience any unnecessary compliance problems.

4. Technical Support

Technical support is highly significant as the website can come across issues related to speed, performance and optimization at any moment of time. Things usually go wrong when you least expect them to. What if your website becomes down when giving any presentation to the client? You would need quality technical support from Drupal Development Company to bring desired results. Technical support should be available 24/7 to ensure no business loss is experienced. You might be thinking it is too much to ask for 24/7 support when a few dollars per month is paid for Drupal hosting. It is highly important to pay a little extra to avail of quality support.

So, these are the important features to consider when investing in Drupal Hosting Services for your website.

Types of Web Hosting Services

1. Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is like using one wifi connection by multiple people in a room. Since multiple people are using it, the sum of money gets divided. It is a perfect hosting service for startups and small businesses. Shared hosting offers the best opportunity in a tight budget, and so you have to spend less.

2. Virtual Private Server (VPS)

It is a slightly better option than shared hosting. A VPS is shared by a limited number of people. The expenditure is higher for each pocket, however so does the service quality. The benefits comprise larger consumption with better speed. Instead of sharing a complete server, each site is allocated a certain amount to use. It is a perfect hosting service for the small to medium site traffic websites.

3. Cloud Hosting

Cloud hosting allows multiple servers to work together so it looks like one huge server. The benefit of cloud hosting is that when there is a surge in your website traffic and it is beyond the limits, a significant amount is, then, shifted to another server. This helps in traffic management without spending extra bucks.

4. Dedicated Hosting

In all of the hosting services discussed above server is shared with other organizations. In a dedicated hosting server, each website gets its individual server. Dedicated hosting offers greater freedom over the resources. With no sharing of resources, you can use the server to its capacity. Dedicated hosting is best known for their high-speed performance and best for the sites which drive a large volume of traffic.

Conclusion

Thus, we now have proper information regarding Drupal hosting. The following points need to be kept in mind when opting for a hosting package:

  • Server speed
  • Security methodology
  • System software and compatibility
  • Quality of technical support

Depending on the size of the website and the amount of traffic, you can opt either shared, or semi-dedicated, or dedicated hosting. The above-mentioned tips will help you to choose the best Drupal hosting for your website. A VPS is a great choice if not planning to invest in a dedicated server or shared hosting.

Top 10 Reasons to Consider Drupal for Education Websites

Building a University Website and managing the entire University content management system is a tough row to hoe. This not only requires an extensive logic but also university-specific customization during the development phase. That’s where the best website development companies struck a chord with Drupal website development. The World’s leading educational institutions and universities such as Harvard University, Stanford University, UCLA, Oxford University, Duke University, and the University of British Columbia, all have their websites built on either Drupal 8 or Drupal 9 platform. This indicates that there is something special about Drupal website development and why universities are opting for Drupal for education websites. In addition to its extensive customization capabilities, Drupal is a perfect solution when it comes to managing diversified and multilayered content ecosystems. The voluminous database not only demands extensive management but also needs to be placed logically.

Why Should You Consider Drupal for Education Websites?

Drupal website development is widely used by universities and colleges for various reasons.

Drupal is an open-source PHP-based development framework that doesn’t need to be licensed. This means the code is free to use and could be easily modified with a simple text editor. Once Drupal is installed, it can be used for a wide range of use-cases with minimal changes, and therefore, it is called a low code framework. With Drupal, a university can get their website up and running within a couple of weeks. Drupal offers powerful content management which all universities and colleges require at a top priority.

Drupal simply requires a Linux-based server having MySQL capabilities. Nearly all servers have these capabilities and over time, Drupal-based university and college websites have matured into full-fledged portals.

Additionally, adding new pages is as simple and easy as using a GUI. Be it typing text or embedding image and video, it is as quick and simple as clicking icons and uploading the required files. Moreover, editing and changing pages are equally easy and simple. You just need to open an existing page, make the changes, and save it to apply. Also, multiple authors could work on a single page, maintaining different versions.

Lastly, being open-source software, thousands of Drupal developers have contributed and continue contributing to keeping the Drupal source code up-to-date.

Top Reasons to Choose Drupal for Education Websites

1. Seamless Content Management

Designing and installing a Drupal 8 or Drupal 9 based website only a small part. The main part is adding and maintaining content and keeping it up-to-date. Whether your administrative staff and students are tech-savvy or not, once your Drupal website is up and running, adding and updating content is as easy as working with a Word document. The Drupal page editor allows you to do everything that you can do with a Word document.

2. Easy Customization

Drupal offers thousands of templates and themes that can be fully customized according to your needs. If you’re looking to have something unique designs for your reputed university or college, you may hire Drupal developers from us who can easily create a theme that will give an attractive and beautiful look to your website.

3. High Scalability

Whether you’re building your website with 10 pages or 1000 pages, Drupal website development allows you to easily develop and manage websites of any size. So, even if you have a single-page website, you can use Drupal because it can be similarly installed on a basic web hosting configuration. Moreover, the framework is also capable of handling any type of traffic surge even if you’re getting a million hits per hour.

4. Enhanced Security

Owing to the fact that higher education websites store a lot of sensitive and confidential information, Drupal-based websites are protected with security features to maintain a higher level of security. Moreover, new security patches are constantly being released and based on the settings of your Drupal installation, these updates can automatically be installed as soon as they are available

As a leading Drupal development company, we have been developing high-end Drupal websites using our expertise and years of experience and adhering to the industry standards.
Are you planning to build a new website for your college or university or upgrading your existing website? You can hire Drupal developers from us and they will help you build your education website from scratch or migrate your existing website to the Drupal 8 or Drupal 9 framework.

5. User Roles and Access Management

No doubt, your college or website will be managed and used by different people including admins, professors, teachers, students, and even visitors. Therefore, it is important to assign different roles and access levels to all the users of your website. Drupal provides multiple access rights to different users, infusing a high level of integrity to your website structure and its content.

6. Multi-functional Site Capabilities

Different departments in universities and colleges seek different functionalities even though they share a common workspace. This is exactly where Drupal proves to be extremely efficient in providing a robust, dynamic, and secure platform to ensure seamless interoperability. It can efficiently serve the requirements from the Internet as well as Intranet. Each department can enjoy full and extensive control while Drupal is taking care of multiple sites from a single, common IT platform.

7. Content Reusability

After building the content, Drupal allows for reusing the content and circulating it across various departments, different intranets used in the university along with sub-sites. As Drupal is an open-source program, it comes with various free and simple modules to enable it.

8. Mobile-first Approach

Today, the majority of us use smartphones more than PCs for accessing the information over the internet. Students and staff members use smartphones for communication, information, and administration purposes. Drupal’s ‘mobile-first’ approach ensures that the university website is mobile-responsive so that it is easily accessible to mobile device users.

9. Multilingual Capability

Drupal supports multiple languages allowing the universities to cater to global needs. Drupal’s translation module is also a great option to serve a global audience.

10. Easy Access to Literature

Drupal comes with powerful features that help students as well as faculty members to easily access handbooks, manuals, documents, and other research content. They can access, submit, or share content anytime and from anywhere.

Wrapping Up

For building a successful educational website, you certainly need to hire Drupal developers who can turn your vision into reality. Drupal India, a top-notch Drupal development company India, has a team of seasoned Drupal developers who have already successfully implemented Drupal-powered websites for many prestigious educational institutions and universities. Quickly grab on this opportunity to build the most professional website for your university or college with the help of Drupal India.

FAQs

Q.1. What if we need certain modifications after the website is launched?

We are ready to undertake any modification before, during, and after the website is live. However, any changes made to the website post-development will be chargeable, depending upon the type of change that you require.

Can you redesign our University website designed by someone else in Drupal?

Yes, we can. We choose Drupal for education websites because of the powerful features it offers. Our team of creative heads can transform your existing educational site into an attractive yet professional-looking website. We will review your website thoroughly and provide you with the estimation based on your requirement.

How much does it cost to build an educational website?

The development cost of building an educational website depends on the feature that you want to add to your website, the size of the project, design and complexity, and the experience level of the developer. We are committed to delivering high-quality Drupal projects at a competitive rate. Just get in touch with us to see what wonders we can do within your budget.

Have more questions? Feel free to ask us right away!

Why Should You Hire Remote Drupal Developers amid COVID-19 Pandemic?

Looking for some positive news amid the coronavirus outbreak? We have some good news for you! Drupal website development during this global pandemic continues as this has opened new perspectives. One of the distinguishable traits of a good web development company is that it becomes stronger in tough times. Read on to learn why it’s a good idea to hire remote Drupal developers for your Drupal development project during the Corona crisis.

Benefits of Outsourcing Drupal Website Development Project

We have a pool of Drupal talents with a great level of remote workflows. Finding a Drupal developer who will meet all your requirements can be a much more successful task if you expand your search across the globe and hire overseas. Moreover, hiring Drupal developers from countries like India can be fruitful for business owners as Drupal development companies based in India offer high-quality Drupal development services at much cheaper costs than those in other countries. Here are some of the benefits that you can enjoy when you outsource your Drupal development project:

1. Considerable Cost Savings

If you hire Drupal developers from other countries like India, you can save considerable development costs. Moreover, outsourcing your project instead of hiring in-house teams can help you save a lot of money in the recruitment process, monthly wages, work equipment and tools, and so on. When you outsource Drupal website development overseas, you only get your services as and when required.

2. Diversified Skill Set

By outsourcing Drupal web development, you get a chance to hire top talents in the industry. If you hire an in-house Drupal developer, he will find it difficult to compete with an expert team of developers who have worked on a diverse range of projects resolving a variety of issues and can combine their expertise with the latest technologies to develop a powerful solution for you. Additionally, an offshore Drupal development company has a dedicated team of professionals specializing in UX design, QA and testing, digital marketing, and customer support.

3. More Focus on Your Business

When you avail of services from a reliable offshore Drupal development company like Drupal India, you are assured that your project is in safe hands. You no longer have to worry about or dedicate your valuable time to your project. You have more time to focus on other business-critical processes. A good web development company will keep you informed about the progress of your project development and will provide you with timely reports.

4. Stable and Tuned Workflows

What to do if your in-house Drupal developer cannot work on your project due to an illness, unforeseen situations, probably because he cannot fulfill your requirements? To avoid such situations, you should consider outsourcing web development companies as they have other devs to substitute them. These companies sign a contract and follow an agile approach to ensure that they provide stable and tuned workflows throughout your project development.

5. Flexibility on Your Project

Every web development specialist (developers, designers, QA engineers, or consultants,) has its own role to play at every stage of project development. You don’t need to hire this entire staff in-house permanently. When you hire Drupal developers outside of your country, you are free to vary your project requirements as per your business situation. For example, you may first create an MVP, and then add features and scale your project. Agile web agencies are flexible to welcome any such changes.

Why Build Virtual Team of Drupal Developers amid COVID-19

1. Employees’ Safety is Priority

As the whole world is gripped by the fear of the spread of the dreadful Coronavirus, safety has become the top priority for every small and enterprise-level organization. If you’re concerned about the health of your employees, work from home concept can help keep them safe and protected against COVID-19.

2. Improved Work Productivity

If you hire dedicated remote Drupal developers, you can improve productivity by 43%. Hiring remote workers means better work-life balance and more focus on core business activities.

3. Ease of Management

Organizations these days are looking for effective ways to manage employees that are working from home. When discussing remote teams, they are mainly hired to ease their development process.

4. Higher Flexibility

Remote teams bring higher flexibility in working when compared to traditional in-house employees. Remote web developers can scale up the workflow and more productive. Managers will worry less about reduced productivity, communication challenges, and other obstacles.

Key Components of Our Remote Drupal Development Services

1. The Efficiency of Our Staff

While working from home, our team members can work comfortably on their personal couch and deliver brilliant ideas. They are never stuck in traffic jams and have more time for their families. Of course, working from home requires self-discipline, time management and responsibility. At Drupal India, we only hire Drupal developers who are well-disciplined and have proved responsible and reliable. They are committed to meeting the deadlines and being in touch with the whole team and customers via video calls as per the best Scrum practices.

2. The Equipment We Have

The only necessary equipment required is computer hardware with internet connectivity. And you can set up an office at home easily. For many IT professionals, the capacities of their personal computers and the characteristics of their monitors are necessary for being more productive.

So, we have equipped our Drupal website development team with the necessary hardware and have delivered them right at their doorsteps. We also have a dedicated technical support team that is ready to help our teams with any technical issues they face with their laptops or PCs.

Therefore, if you hire Drupal developers from Drupal India, you are assured that we are equipped with everything needed to work on your project efficiently.

3. The Tools We Use

As always, we employ the best tools to ensure smooth remote communication and efficient workflows. Our effective communication process eliminates repetitive tasks, enhances the development speed, handles the shared work, avoids confusion, and does much more. Some of the tools that we use include live chat tools, project management software, version control tools for Drupal developers, messengers, etc. We communicate with our global customers via Zoom, Slack, Google Hangouts, Jira, Skype, Github, Bitbucket, Google Docs, Google Drive, and many more that are crisis-proof and work at any distance.

Why Hire Remote Drupal Developers from Us

As the whole world is moving online, giving importance to social distancing and safety, the Drupal industry has been lucky to continue during the lockdown period. People nowadays prefer to browse the web over traveling or doing other outdoor activities. Therefore, companies can turn this adversity into a great opportunity to boost their business. Businesses having digital presence are already gaining a lot from doing business online. These days, there is a great demand for online shopping, delivery services, online educational and entertainment activities, news, blogs, and much more.

We are hopeful that the lockdown will end someday and the world will defeat COVID-19 happily. People will resume their normal lifestyles, travel again, and see their loved ones. However, the trend of digital transformation within organizations and availing online services will remain forever as the world has understood their convenience and comfort zones. So, if a user has enjoyed shopping in your Drupal e-commerce store with a user-friendly shopping cart, he/she will keep coming back to you for hassle-free online shopping. Don’t miss this chance to hire remote Drupal developers from us who can help you get you started with a powerful e-commerce store.

We are with you in the fight against the novel Coronavirus. We are here to help you in your most difficult times and so we are offering very reasonable pricing if you wish to hire Drupal developers from an offshore Drupal development company. We have affordable Drupal solutions to provide your business sustainability, attract more customers, promote your brand, and increase conversions.

FAQs

Q.1. Why choose Drupal CMS over other CMS’s?

Drupal, no doubt, is one of the most popular open-source content management systems among developers across the globe. The Drupal CMS is exclusively designed to build versatile and well-structured websites for businesses. It offers a plethora of powerful integration tools, multisite capabilities, multi-currency and multi-lingual support. To know more in detail, get in touch with our Drupal consultants.

Q.2. Can I migrate from WordPress to Drupal?

Yes, you can. You can hire our Drupal migration experts who can help you with a smooth and seamless Drupal migration.

Q.3. Which version of Drupal should I choose Drupal 8 or Drupal 9 for Drupal website development?

It is always best to upgrade to the latest version of Drupal. With the release of Drupal 9, we strongly recommend Drupal 7 and 8 users to upgrade to Drupal 9 as both these versions will reach their end-of-lives in November 2021. If you’re using Drupal 7, you need to upgrade to Drupal 8 first and then to Drupal 9 as this will ensure fast and smooth Drupal upgrade. If you need help with Drupal upgrade or migration, just get in touch with our Drupal experts today!

10 Powerful Drupal 9 Features that Will Boost Your Drupal Site in 2020

What’s new in Drupal 9? These days, this is the question on the lips of every designer, developer, and content creator working with Drupal. With the release of Drupal 9 in June 2020, people are a bit confused about the Drupal 9 features. On one hand, you get to hear “Drupal 9 offers no new features”, on the other hand, you hear about “easy upgrade to Drupal 9”, “newer PHP libraries”, “a brand new admin theme”, and so on.

When it comes to Drupal 9 upgrade, perhaps the experience you had when upgrading to Drupal 8 from Drupal 7 is still haunting you, isn’t it? You just cannot forget the process of upgrading to Drupal 8 led you to rewrite Drupal from the ground up. After the upgrade, the contributed modules were not compatible with Drupal, and you had to sit down to rewrite tons of custom code.

Drupal 9.0 comes with the same features as of Drupal 8.9, except those that are provided by updated dependencies. Just like Drupal 8, Drupal 9.1, 9.2, and other newer versions will add new backward-compatible features to Drupal 9 every six months after its release. Another major advantage of Drupal 9 over Drupal 8 is that the platform will be backed by security fixes after November 2021. Among the various features of Drupal 9, the most significant feature is its ability to provide the easiest upgrade from Drupal 8. To leverage the full potentials of Drupal 9, you may hire Drupal developers from a professional Drupal development company that can help you with a smooth upgrade or migration to Drupal 9.

Besides these, there are many Drupal 9 features that you may look forward to. So, without much ado, let’s dive into the topic and see what Drupal 9 entails.

The New Drupal 9 Features – What to Expect?

1. Buttery Smooth Upgrade from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9

When upgrading to Drupal 9 from Drupal 8, you will experience a smooth upgrade experience, and this is the only shiny feature that Drupal 9 offers. Drupal states that “Drupal 9 will be a cleaned-up version of Drupal 8. It will be the same as the last Drupal 8 minor version with our own deprecated code removed and third-party dependencies updated.”

In short, upgrading to Drupal 9 will be as easy as upgrading from one minor Drupal 8 version to another version. However, you’ll only be able to enjoy a buttery smooth upgrade to Drupal 9, if you practice the health routine of removing old and deprecated code from your existing codebase.

2. New Major Versions of Symfony and Twig

Are you ready to say goodbye to the older versions of Symfony and Twig? Symfony 3 will be replaced by Symfony 4 or 5 after November 2021. You may also expect an upgrade to Twig 2.0. These upgrades can significantly improve performance, developer experience, and security. You may start by trying Symfony 4 on your Drupal 8 website just to check its ability to handle the new version.

3. Drupal 9 Eliminates All the Deprecated Code in Drupal 8

Drupal 9 weeds out all the deprecated code in Drupal 8. Since this is a long and on-going process, you should make it part of your daily routine to remove outdated code from your Drupal 8 to make sure that upgrading it to Drupal 9 will be as easy and smooth as possible.

4. Contributed Modules May Work with Drupal 8 and Drupal 9

This is one of the key features of Drupal 9 that will encourage Drupal users to upgrade to Drupal 9. Typically, there are greater chances that contributed modules share a single codebase so that they can run on Drupal 9 as well as Drupal 8 websites.

5. Drupal 9 Will Reduce Third-party Dependencies

As Drupal 9 will eliminate all the deprecated code on the Drupal 8 or 7 websites, it is going to cut-down third-party dependencies.

6. Panelizer Will Be Removed and Replaced

If you’re using Panelizer, it’s time that you should let go of this module as it is expected to be replaced by the Layout Builder in Drupal 9.

7. Drupal 9 Will Be Backward-compatible with Drupal 8

If you’re using the latest Drupal 8 version, you’ll enjoy features of Drupal 9 from day one. The majority of the Drupal 8 contributed modules will be fully compatible with Drupal 9.

8. Claro Will Be the Default Administration Theme

Claro will become the default administration theme once it is stable.

9. CKEditor 5 Will Be Implemented

The future version of Drupal may replace CKEditor 4 with CKEditor 5 as it will no longer receive security support with Drupal 9’s end-of-life.

10. Workspace Module Gets Implemented

Drupal states that “A workspace is the copy of the live site that exists in parallel to the live site. Use a workspace when you want to prepare multiple new content items that you want to go live at the same time, in a controlled manner.”

Drupal 9 Requirements that a Drupal Website Should Meet

So, now when you know about Drupal 9 features, how would you ensure that your Drupal site is Drupal 9-ready?

Here are 5 important steps to follow to ensure a smooth Drupal 9 upgrade:

  • Make sure your website is compatible with Drupal 9: PHP 7.3, MySQL 5.7.8, Drush 10
  • Keep your Drupal 8 website up-to-date with the latest minor versions of Drupal 8 as soon as they get released. You’ll enjoy a fast upgrade to Drupal 9 only from Drupal 8.8. and Drupal 8.9
  • Make sure all your contributed modules run on their latest versions
  • Remove all deprecated API from the Drupal site that you’re using
  • Keep your Drupal core updated to Drupal 9

Final Word

Call it a minor change or a new approach, or just something that differentiates Drupal 9 from its predecessors, the powerful Drupal 9 features will definitely encourage Drupal 7 and 8 users to move to Drupal 9. However, if you’re using the Drupal 7 website, it is better to first upgrade to Drupal 8 and then to Drupal 9 for a faster and smooth upgrade. If you need to upgrade to Drupal 9 from Drupal 8 or any other platform, you may hire Drupal developers from a reputed Drupal development company that can help you get the job done.

Drupal India is one of the most trusted Drupal development companies that provide a complete suite of Drupal development services ranging right from design to implementation. Our proficient Drupal upgrade and migration experts have already helped many enterprises to move to Drupal in a smooth and secure way. If you’re looking for fast and secure Drupal 9 migration and upgrade services, we are the place to be.

FAQs

When is the right time to upgrade to Drupal 9?

NOW is the right time to upgrade to Drupal 9. As both Drupal 7 and Drupal 8 will reach end-of-their-lives in November 2021, meaning that these platforms will no longer receive security support from the community, it is wise to upgrade to Drupal 9 as early as possible.

How can I easily upgrade to Drupal 9?

We, at Drupal India, make sure you have the easiest upgrade and migration to Drupal 9. If you’re using Drupal 7, we advise you to first upgrade to the latest version of Drupal 8, and then to Drupal 9.

How much do you charge for upgrading to Drupal 9?

The cost of upgrading or migrating to Drupal 9 will depend on the complexity of your website, size of the database, experience level of the Drupal experts, and many other factors. To know in detail about the cost of Drupal 9 upgrade and migration, get in touch with our Drupal experts today.

Drupal 9 vs Drupal 8 – Should You Upgrade Your Drupal Site to D8 or D9?

Are you planning to upgrade your Drupal site and wondering which Drupal version will work best for your Drupal site? This article gives a complete comparison of Drupal 9 vs Drupal 8 which will give you an idea which approach will be more suitable for your Drupal upgrade.

With the release of the Drupal 9 version on June 3, 2020, both Drupal 7 and 8 will soon reach the end-of-life by November 2021. Drupal depends on the vendor support lifecycles of PHP and Symfony which will no longer receive security patches and upgrades. So, if you’re planning to migrate to the newer version of Drupal, here’s what you need to consider for your Drupal website development.

Drupal’s Dependence on PHP and Symfony

Drupal is dependent on PHP and Symphony and therefore, every move Drupal makes largely depends on the release cycles of these two key elements. Symfony releases a new minor version at an interval of six months and a major version every two years. To ensure compatibility with new Symfony’s releases, Drupal also releases minor versions on month after every Symfony release. And since Drupal 8 depends on Symfony 3 which will soon reach its end-of-life in November 2021, Drupal 8 also has to end its life by November 2021.

Similarly, the latest PHP version 7.3 is supported by Drupal 8.7, however, this PHP version will also stop receiving security patches by November 2021, thereby leading to the end of Drupal 8 as well.

A Quick Drupal 9 vs Drupal 8 Comparison

Should You Migrate to Drupal 8 or Directly to Drupal 9?

Yes, you can directly upgrade to Drupal 9 before Drupal 7 and 8’s end-of-life (Nov 2021). However, if you plan to run on Drupal 7 or Drupal 8, then you need to make sure you update your PHP version for better performance and security support. You could also hire Drupal developers or vendors who will provide you with extended support for your Drupal 7 or Drupal 8 website even after their end-of-life.

Furthermore, if you’re planning to start a Drupal project in Q3 2020, it’s best to directly upgrade to Drupal 9 and thrive on this new platform in one fell swoop.

Advantages of Upgrading to Drupal 8

• Easy Upgrade to Drupal 9

It is always best to keep up with the latest Drupal version to ensure the best performance of your Drupal site. Drupal 8’s minor version upgrades require no rebuild of the entire websites Drupal 9 is very similar to the Drupal 8’s last minor version. However, Drupal 9 eliminates deprecated code and updates any third-party dependencies. Therefore, upgrading to Drupal 9 from Drupal 8 will be as easy as a pie.

• Enhanced Contributed Modules Compatibility

Drupal 7 comes with the largest number of contributed modules while Drupal 8 has the most number of popular and high-performing modules in core. The Drupal community promises to make contributed modules more compatible with both Drupal 8 and Drupal 9 provided they do not use any deprecated APIs.

• Now is the Time!

As both Drupal 7 and Drupal 8 will end-their-lives in November 2021, you should consider upgrading directly to the Drupal 9 version. Migrating large-scale complex Drupal websites takes significant time and effort, and so, it is recommended to start your Drupal migration process to Drupal 8 for now and then upgrade to Drupal 9. This will lead to a much faster and easier migration process. You still have a few months in hand, so do not delay anymore! Hire Drupal developers from a professional Drupal development company and start migrating to the latest Drupal version today!

Like any other CMSs, Drupal CMS has also evolved over the years and now provides a more structured roadmap that can help you overcome most of its common hindrances. With every new release, Drupal is getting better by eliminating deprecated codes and other outdated or unsecured elements. Today, any Drupal 9 vs Drupal 8 comparison will have 2 major differences – 1.) Different approaches to Drupal upgrades, and 2.) Different versions of the underlying technologies. However, when it comes to deciding which Drupal version you should upgrade to, you need to consider your business goals, website size and complexity, budget, and time constraints. Drupal India is a stellar Drupal development company in India and our Drupal consultants can help you make a better decision for your Drupal site. So, what are you waiting for? Hire Drupal developers at Drupal India and take your Drupal site to the uppermost level.

FAQs

How much time it will take to migrate to Drupal 9?

The time take to migrate to Drupal 9 will depend on the current Drupal version that you’re using, the number of webpages, complexity of your website, and the size of your database. To know more in detail, get in touch with our Drupal experts today!

Do I really need to upgrade my Drupal 8 site to Drupal 9?

Drupal 9 is quite similar to Drupal 8 and will offer backward-compatibility. Since Drupal 8 will end-its-life in November 2021, it is wise to upgrade to Drupal 9. Moreover, if you’re running your website on the latest version of Drupal 8, the migration process will be much easier and faster.

Can you help me migrate to Drupal 9 if I’m using a different platform?

Yes, of course, we can. Our competent Drupal experts can provide seamless migration to Drupal 9 regardless of the CMS you’re currently using. Get in touch with our experts today!

Why Should You Consider Building a Travel Website on Drupal?

Are you planning to create a travel website? Wondering which CMS will fulfill all your travel business requirements? You should consider building your travel website on Drupal as it is has emerged as one of the best CMS for a travel and tourism website. Unlike other normal business websites, a travel website includes multiple features for facilitating interactions, community, a listing of hundreds of tourist spots, a separate section for reviews and rating, a travel blog that can be managed by multiple authors or even travelers, a photo and video gallery, slideshows, and many more.

A travel website can be treated as a complete ecosystem for travelers and guests and therefore, you must be careful in choosing a CMS for your travel website. A reliable CMS not only provides a robust structure for your website but also has all the necessary components to ensure long-term maintenance of your website. Besides, an ideal CMS also offers a diverse range of customizable themes or design templates that can be easily tailored to meet your business needs. Drupal, being one of the oldest and most popular open-source CMS, is believed to be a premier choice for the travel and tourism industry.

Top Reasons Why You Should Build Travel Websites on Drupal

Whether you’re planning to create a new travel website or migrate your travel website to a different CMS, you wouldn’t like to miss what Drupal has in store for you. Drupal is highly flexible and malleable in nature and this is the reason why Drupal CMS has emerged as an ideal choice for business associations, non-profit websites, government agencies, and Fortune 500 companies. Some of the prominent websites that are running on Drupal include eBay, Tesla Motors, The Economist, Grammy, and Pfizer. When discussing travel websites, Fiji Travel, Princess Cruises, and Seychelles are some of the travel websites on Drupal. With Drupal, you can create a highly interactive, user-friendly, feature-rich, and robust travel website that will boost your business growth and revenue.

Here are the top 8 reasons why you should consider building your travel website on Drupal:

Mobile Responsive Layouts

Mobile compatibility is one of the major concerns for every business these days. A study reveals that nearly 50% of your online traffic is generated from mobile devices. You wouldn’t like to ignore this huge traffic and rather use this opportunity to generate more revenue. Today, with everything happening right at our fingertips, it is very important for you to allow your customers to access your website for general information, how-to guides, coupons and offers, read reviews, browse listings, and also make bookings right from their smartphones.

The Drupal framework allows you to create websites that are mobile responsive and scales all the functions present within the CMS to perfectly fit the different screen sizes. With Drupal, you don’t have to worry about creating different design layouts. You may use the pre-designed layouts as long as you require certain customizations that are not available with Drupal CMS. If you need website customization according to your unique needs, you should consider approaching a Drupal development company and take advantage of their Drupal development services.

Cutting-edge Travel Booking Engine

A booking engine on a travel website is responsible for making your website function optimally. Travelers should be able to search for destinations of their choice on your website and even make bookings and payment easily if they want.

The power of a CMS depends on its ability to support multiple add-ons, modules, and plugins. This is what drives the Drupal CMS to integrate the travel booking engine according to your needs. In the case of Drupal, you have two options:

Easy Booking

After installing the EasyBooking extension within your Drupal CMS, you can enable your visitors to make room bookings, contact hotel staff directly and avail special offers and discounts directly from your travel website. This extension is further driven by the other two powerful Drupal extensions namely Drupal Rooms and Drupal Commerce.

The main features of EasyBooking include:

  • Checking for the availability of rooms online
  • Easy online booking with payments
  • Calendar facility monitored by Admin
  • Mobile responsive and liquid design templates
  • Compatible with web browsers
  • Seamless integrations of multiple payment gateways and processors

BAT

BAT is another effective booking and availability management tool for travel websites on Drupal.  Since its user interface is minimal, you need to hire Drupal developers to leverage the full potential of the interface. They can help you integrate commerce and payment functionalities, or help travelers to make bookings on their own. BAT for Drupal is powered by a standalone PHP library, developed by Roomify, who are the original developers of BAT. You can also build a separate direct online booking system by using this Drupal module. Incorporating these modules into your website will allow you to operate 24×7 by enabling travelers to book travel destinations directly from your website at any time of the day.

100% Customizable Themes and Layouts

Drupal CMS already comes with an unending list of pre-built themes and templates that are completely customizable as per your business needs. You can choose from a wide range of Drupal themes that suit your brand and accommodates all the features that you want on your travel website. If you need more customizations, you can hire Drupal developers who can help you customize the basic structure of your website and enhance its functionality by adding more features and functionalities. A capable Drupal development company can help you create an attractive, intuitive, robust, and feature-rich website.

Open Source CMS

Drupal is a free, open-source, PHP-based content management system. Drupal engineers simply have to download the installation files from your Drupal website, upload them onto your FTP server, and then execute the installation program. This way, you can have the basic website structure functioning within a couple of hours.

Besides, Drupal CMS is constantly evolving as thousands of developers in the Drupal community are developing modules and add-ons to enhance the functionality of the Drupal CMS. So, you can leverage the most advanced version of your Drupal CMS.

Multi-author Website

The content on your travel website can be easily managed by multiple authors. To secure your top position in the search engine results and create a remarkable online presence, your content team can write and publish interesting content on your travel website.

With Drupal, you’ll be able to save different versions of your documents. These documents can be individually tracked based on your writers, authors, contributors, and editors. The Admin can assign different roles to different guest contributors who can be either simple reviewers or well-known travel writers.

Super-easy Website Navigation

With time, your website may accumulate thousands of links of your webpages, blog posts, and online forum threads. Therefore, you will need a high-end navigation system to allow your visitors to access relevant information conveniently on your website. Whether you want your visitors to find relevant information or travel destinations using an in-built search engine or create an intuitive interface for your navigation system, Drupal CMS can do everything to facilitate your visitors to access the relevant information on your travel website conveniently.

Enhanced Scalability

The Drupal framework offers highly-optimized source code so you can easily scale-up or scale-down your travel website according to your needs or traffic. Drupal is capable of handling too much traffic easily during festive or holiday seasons.

Multilingual Support

Drupal eliminates the language barriers instantly so you can easily take your local travel business beyond your country’s boundaries with just a single Drupal installation. Travelers from all over the world can access information on your website, interact, and make payments in their preferred languages. Drupal 8 offers core modules that facilitate complete translation of every section of your travel website.

Conclusion

Are you excited to enjoy these exciting benefits by building your travel website on Drupal? You will need to approach a professional Drupal development company that offers excellent Drupal development services to meet your unique business requirements. As a leading Drupal development company, we have worked on a diverse range of Drupal installations including travel and hospitality websites. Hire Drupal developers at Drupal India and get maximum returns from your travel business. If you’re interested in knowing how we can help you build a successful travel website on Drupal, feel free to contact us today.

FAQs

How long does it take to build a travel website on Drupal?

The estimated time for building a travel website on Drupal will depend on the design complexity, the number of features and customizations you want within your travel website, the number of integrations, whether add-ons, plugins, payment gateways, or any other functionality, the experience level of the developers, and many other factors. You may request a quote to know what would be the estimated time for the complete development of your project.

How much does it cost to develop a Drupal-based travel website?

The estimated cost of building a Drupal-based travel website will depend on several factors including the complexity of your project, the number of customizations you require, the number of features you want add to your website, payment integrations you need, the experience level of Drupal developers, and more. To get an estimated cost of your travel website project, you may get in touch with us to request a free quote.

Can you help me in migrating my website to the Drupal CMS?

Yes, of course. We can help you migrate your website to the Drupal CMS effortlessly. All you need to do is hire Drupal developers from us and they will get the work done in a quick time.

Have more questions about our Drupal development services? We’ll be pleased to answer all your questions.

What You Need to Know About Headless Drupal CMS as a Marketer

If you using the right CMS for your website, you can easily create marketing campaigns, drive huge traffic, and narrate your brand story to the world. However, making content accessible to users on any device is one of the biggest challenges faced by marketers. Headless Drupal can be an ideal solution for marketers as it helps content reach users regardless of the device they’re using. Decoupled or Headless CMS is gaining popularity these days. The main reason why users prefer the Headless Drupal CMS is that it allows users to write content only once and access it on any device.

To better know what the Headless Drupal CMS entails, let’s get a quick insight into Headless Drupal.

Headless Drupal CMS Overview

What is a Headless CMS?

A headless CMS is a system that stores, maintains, and edits content, but does not display the content on various devices or platforms. It is referred to as headless or decoupled CMS because it slices off the display part of the CMS. Such CMSs use APIs to deliver content on any device. The RESTful API is one such API that serves as a communication channel between the headless CMS, backend, and users’ devices.

Just like any other Software as a Service (SaaS), the Headless CMS serves as Content as a Service (CaaS). As a host, Drupal manages the content and offers Content as a Service to help users to access content on multiple apps or sites easily. If you have a Drupal website or you’re involved in Drupal website development service, you should consider knowing about the Headless Drupal CMS. When thinking of normal installations, Drupal offers effective ways to store, monitor, and display content. On the other hand, the Headless Drupal, an API is used to deliver content on any device. Users using the Drupal 8 platform may be aware of the RESTful Web Services module existing in the core which features a plethora of powerful modules including Views and Paragraphs.

How Can Headless Drupal Help Marketers?

Drupal website development helps in creating highly-responsive and fast-loading websites to ensure enhanced user engagement and achieve business objectives. These are the major reasons that contribute to the worldwide popularity of Drupal website development. As a Drupal development company, you should consider exploring what the Headless Drupal CMS entails to helps businesses as well as marketers.

  • For marketers and users, a headless CMS offers a dynamic, flexible, responsive, and highly-engaging user experience. With the release of various devices every now and then, marketers often face a major challenge of making content accessible on multiple devices. A headless CMS can handle this problem easily.

  • Besides, the Headless Drupal functions faster than normal Drupal, which makes it yet another major reason for its popularity among marketers and Drupal website development This is possible because it reflects logic on the front-end interface which helps in streamlining the backend CMS functions. The back-and-forth interaction within the CMS is carried out in real-time in the browser.

Why All Marketers are not Happy with Headless Drupal?

As a Drupal development company, you already know why Drupal is one of the most preferred content management systems for various industries. Drupal offers a wide spectrum of functionalities that enables users to manage their content efficiently without any hassle. If your clients want to switch to headless CMS, you should educate them about the pros and cons of the Headless Drupal CMS to facilitate better decision-making.

Although headless Drupal offers certain benefits for users and marketers, it also comes with its own set of drawbacks.

  • Implementing the Headless Drupal CMS can affect or evade the value of content delivery. Moreover, as a lot of functionalities will be lost, you will have to recreate those functionalities on the front-end to ensure good user experience. This will lead to higher costs and an increase in Drupal website development time.

  • Another major issue faced by marketers with the Headless Drupal CMS is Drupal SEO. Going with the Headless Drupal CMS affects the SEO functionality of your site that you’ve used to rank your website higher in the search results pages. With the Headless Drupal CMS, all your SEO efforts will go in vain.

  • Code maintenance is another major reason that is decreasing its user adoption. If you encounter any issue with your Drupal site, you need to get it resolved with the support of the IT team. When it comes to security concerns, you have to manage it on your own.

Is the Headless Drupal CMS Good for SEO?

No. The Headless Drupal CMS has a lot of potentials to hurt your website’s SEO.  If you’re hunting for an effective way to make your website highly responsive, fast, and user engaging, you may consider choosing the Headless Drupal CMS for your Drupal website. However, if you focus more on enhancing the features, functionality, and security of your website, you should think twice before you switch to Headless Drupal. You need to hire Drupal developers and marketers to make your website SEO-ready.

The Bottomline

With the Headless Drupal CMS, you have to be prepared for additional time and cost for Drupal SEO development. As a leading Drupal development company, we provide the best-in-class Drupal development services to help you thrive in the industry. With our complete suite of Drupal development services, we deliver an end product that is powered with the right functionality.

FAQs

Why should I use a Headless Drupal CMS?

One of the major advantages of using the Headless CMS is the flexibility that it offers. As marketers need to display content on multiple devices, the Headless Drupal CMS helps them to deliver content to any type of device with the help of an API. The Headless Drupal CMS provides control and flexibility to create a customized, responsive, and unique UI/UX without using templates and themes.

What is a RESTful API?

A RESTful API is an application program interface that works by processing HTTP requests to ‘GET’, ‘PUT’, ‘POST’, and ‘DELETE’ data. It is also termed as RESTful web service or REST API. This API follows a representational state transfer approach to facilitate interactions in web service development. Unlike Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) technology, REST uses less bandwidth which makes it suitable for efficient internet usage.

What is the cost of Drupal website development?

The cost of Drupal website development depends on the design complexity of your website, the number of features you want to add, and development time. Drupal India offers world-class Drupal development services at an affordable price range to help businesses of all sizes and types.

How JSON API Enhances Drupal Commerce & Other Enterprise Websites

Drupal is wildly popular – both as a CMS and an eCommerce platform. As demands for innovation in web development rise, developers are looking for more ways to attract users. An API-first approach gives developers immense scope for creating new features and enabling flexibility. Most Drupal Commerce developers use it as a front-end and back-end tool to create web solutions. So, an API can dramatically change the look and functionality of a web solution.

Today, more and more people visit websites from a mobile device than a desktop. Hence, your business website must be responsive to all kinds of devices and operating systems. That’s where APIs come into play. The developers of Drupal have identified the immense potential of APIs in web development.

Why APIs Are Important in Web Development 

An API is an agreement of request and response between the developer (vendor) and the user (client). APIs are used mainly for exchanging data. They connect the front end with the back end of a software solution. APIs also define the accessibility of resources associated with software development.

API-first web solutions enable flexibility in terms of interacting with different kinds of devices and systems. This means your business website can much more than just being a traditional website. API-first websites can easily embrace different channels. Drupal Commerce developers have advocated this approach for a long time now.

Integration of JSON API to Drupal 8 Core 

The idea of JSON: API became widely popular in the JavaScript community. JavaScript Object Notation, or JSON, is the most common data exchange format for web solutions. This API has replaced XML due to advantages like its lightweight nature. Besides, JSON is compatible with almost every modern programming language. So, whether it’s a website development or Drupal migration services, the API is always useful.

Advantages of Implementing JSON API to Drupal Websites

JSON: API allows programmers like Drupal Commerce developers to make their solution more versatile. They can decide how the API should interact with the web solution’s data model. In Drupal Commerce solutions, the API enables the creation of customized resource routes, among other benefits. Here’s a list of key advantages of using JSON API specifications.

1. Consistent Structure 

JSON is incredibly consistent in terms of its structural behavior. It helps front-end developers to make the designs and layout more attractive and responsive. Consistency goes a long way when it comes to developing Drupal Commerce solutions development.

2. Cross-platform compatibility 

JSON: API specifications are widely supported across platforms and operating systems. Besides, the API makes the implementation of client libraries easier. Since it’s compatible with virtually every programming language and web development framework, developers love this API.

3. Productive web development

Designing and developing an API is often a time-consuming and complex process. JSON provides you with a set of specifications to design API without any hassle. It makes the web development team more productive. Also, developers can focus on the creativity and flexibility of the solutions they build.

How JSON Improves Drupal Web Development

The JSON API specifications help developers in many ways. They simplify sophisticated technical processes and development pathways. Here’s how it changes your website.

No configuration needed

Once you implement the JSON specifications, it makes the resources accessible with relevant verbs, endpoints, and development fields. The API doesn’t allow any modification to the configurations. This makes the deployment of a web solution simpler and quicker.

“Relationships” object

With “relationships” objects, you get all the required information related to the development resource. The resource could be the author, image fields, entity references, etc. Developers usually need to make additional requests to get access to the information. But with JSON in place, you can add a request parameter “include” to specify the required fields.

Filtering resources 

You can apply filters to selectively retrieve the required resources. Theses resources can further be added using the “filter” parameter. Developers need to specify the field on which they want to do the comparison.

Paging, sorting, and more 

JSON also enables you to use paging. It’s a technique to divide the long listing of items into different pages. Developers can also use a “sort” parameter to specify the field and the sort direction.

Conclusion 

JSON API specifications change your Drupal website for better – both technically and aesthetically. In terms of functionality, it helps eCommerce websites with billing management, shipping, and various other areas. For business websites, the API specifications significantly improve flexibility and responsiveness across platforms. At Drupal India, we built a diverse range of enterprise-grade web solutions using the Drupal CMS. You can hire Drupal developers from us to build API-first and design rich websites.

FAQs

Q. What is a JSON API?

JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is an encoding scheme that is designed to eliminate the need for an ad-hoc code for each application. It helps to communicate with servers in a defined way. JSON API module exposes an implementation for data stores and data structures, such as entity types, bundles, and fields, among others.

Q. Is JSON a REST API?

The REST architecture allows API providers to deliver data in multiple formats such as plain text, HTML, XML, YAML. JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is an easy-to-parse and lightweight data-interchange format. It’s different from REST API.

Q. How much does it cost to build a Drupal website?

The costs of developing a Drupal website depend on several factors. Design complexity, development time, type of features, etc. play an important role in calculating the final cost. Drupal India delivers design-rich Drupal websites and eCommerce solutions at a competitive price.

Drupal Vs AEM- Which is a Better CMS for Website Development

The advancement in technology and the huge demand for delivering personalized content has made business enterprises to leverage the power of the web content management system. It begins starts from user engagement, lead generation, to analyzing overall revenue. However, it can be a tricky situation for the enterprises to select the right one as per the requirements on the basis of different features and potentials.

This blog is about the comparison of Drupal Vs AEM from the business perspective. Both these are highly popular and people face challenges while selecting for the development work. Here we’ll focus on factors including cost of implementation, scalability, security, and maintenance to check whether Drupal website development is better or the AEM.

Select Best for Your Organization

Identifying the particular requirement is the first activity on your to-do list. This will help you in making necessary decision to draw the conclusion.

1. Implementation Cost

Implementing any technology solution is always a complex job as it includes the operational cost. Though it is justified as CMS acts as a framework for the enterprise web application development, and further helps in digital transformation; the expenditure done is always beneficial. Using expensive CMS doesn’t make it competent enough for the enterprises.

In addition, migrating to new CMS is a complex task for any enterprise. So, this crucial step can be performed by Drupal Migration services for desired results. And once done, organizations drive engaging business results. The objective of the discussions is to complete the job in the very first time and ROI is a major factor to consider.

2. Licensing Fees

An important difference between AEM and Drupal is their availability charges. AEM is a paid version while Drupal is an open-source. AEM’s licensing fee is around 40,000 USD, with additional cost based on the organizations’ size and expected usage. And this is a continuous investment that goes on every year. On the other hand, Drupal is an open-source platform and is the first choice for enterprises having limited budget to build a web application.

3. Build vs. Buy

The way user demands are growing and market trends are changing enterprises does not to consider the deployment of CMS a good idea. They prefer an unconventional and innovative way which is to perform quick installation process and some content training, marketing, and full-fledged campaigns.

Here, Drupal CMS is a better choice as it is an open-source, developer-driven solution, and brands can easily hire Drupal developer for any customization job. Here is a catch that enterprises have to build from the scratch to set up a Drupal CMS, and it needs time & investment. On the other hand, AEM is ready-to-roll product with minimum set up but costly in nature.

4. Security

AEM is a secure platform having predefined functionalities to improve security administration. User identification can be easily managed this helps to identify the risk of inter-site forgery and access to data objects can be secured.

Contrary, Drupal performs better than other leading CMS in terms of securing websites from any external threats. With Drupal being an open-source platform, people consider it less secure in comparison to AEM. However, this is a complete misconception. Drupal has amazing security and customization features integrated like AEM. Dedicated modules are available for the identification, authentication, and access-based controls. Security is a major factor of comparison among Drupal Vs AEM for better decision making. This major parameter can’t be ignored in any scenario.

The database encryption boosts data security so that no unauthenticated user can access the security. Also, there is built-in security feature to allow teams to highlight and raise the security concerns within the large developer & expert’s community.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is Drupal better than AEM?

If you need an open-source web application development CMS, Drupal is better equipped to handle your needs. The user permissions are also more advanced than AEM. With Drupal, you have site admin, content editors, and individuals to access private content. However, selecting between Drupal Vs AEM completely depends on the business requirements.

2. Is Drupal CMS a good choice?

Drupal is the best choice for web beginners, though it needs minimum and some basic knowledge of HTML, CSS, and PHP just in order to manage the site.

3. Why Drupal is the best?

With over one million global users, Drupal is one of the best website solutions as it is robust and flexible in infrastructure having innovative design, with open-source modules. In addition organizations get access to numerous free tools and data to build right features and functionality design.

4. What is Adobe Experience Manager used for?

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) is a complete content management solution for building websites, forms & mobile apps. And it makes it simple to manage the content marketing and assets. Build lifetime value & deliver amazing experiences over the lifetime of your customer that build brand loyalty and drive demand.

Conclusion

Choosing the right CMS is a crucial decision, which will have a big impact on your business. Once designed & developed, the website will be a successful venture on the internet. Even a small glitch with website might put its stake at risk. Thus, selecting a CMS is an important step towards building a successful website. Based on the points of difference above, we can easily see that Drupal is a secure, fast and robust CMS with excellent features. In addition 24/7 Drupal support and maintenance team is available to guide the users in case of any emergency with the website.

Drupal 9 Release: How & When to Upgrade Your Web CMS

Developers and website owners around the world are gearing up for upgrading to Drupal 9. The new version of the web content management platform will be released soon. Drupal 9 will have all the features of Drupal 8 plus some significant improvements. Drupal migration to the latest version is not automatic. You must install and upgrade from Drupal 8 to 9. In this blog post, we’ll offer step-by-step tips for upgrading your web CMS solution without any hassle. Keep scrolling to get all the tips.

Installing the Drupal 9 Initial Release 

Many software experts would suggest you against installing the initial versions of major software releases. This is because many early versions don’t have all the features that will eventually be introduced. However, that’s not the fact in case of the forthcoming version of Drupal.

Since there’s no feature that you would miss by upgrading early, you shouldn’t wait after the initial release. Drupal 9.0 core code completely matches with the recent version, Drupal 8.9. The only major changes in terms of codes are the removal of deprecated code and third-party dependencies. Some other notable changes in the Drupal 9 include:

  • The requirement of more advanced versions of the PHP framework (PHP 7.3 and above) and databases.
  • Updated versions of libraries (for Symfony and Twig).
  • New libraries for jQuery and UI components of the CMS.

Useful tips for upgrading to Drupal 9

Before upgrading to the newest version of Drupal, make sure that your contributed modules are compatible. The upgrade path for Drupal 9, unlike its previous versions, is comparatively easier. So, if you work on Drupal website development, you can adapt to the new version quickly. Here’s a list of some other important tips for installing Drupal 9.

1. Update the Drupal Core

We have mentioned earlier in this blog that Drupal 9’s core code is similar to Drupal 8.9 except deprecated parts and third-party dependencies. If your website doesn’t have deprecated codes, the upgrade process will be easier. Since you don’t have to remove any code from the core, the upgrade wouldn’t take much effort.

2. Updated Modules

Keep your website modules updates to make sure that you don’t lose them after installing Drupal 9. Except for updated dependencies, Drupal 9 doesn’t have any major new features. If you are considering Drupal migration, starting with Drupal 9 would be great. But keeping your modules updated saves you from the risk of losing them. The new version will support various security fixes after the support for Drupal 8 ends. Drupal 9 upgrade for contributed modules will depend on module maintainers.

3. Custom Codes for Deprecation

If you own a customized Drupal platform, use the deprecation checking and correction tools to locally fix issues. Tools like Drupal Check and Rector are available for checking deprecated codes. Additionally, you can also use an integrated development environment to manage the deprecations.

What’s the deprecated code we’re talking about?

We have repeatedly mentioned the phrase “deprecated code” throughout this blog. We had to since it’s an important part of the Drupal 9 upgrade. Deprecated code is the functions or features of a software that are being replaced with better versions. Deprecated is still part of the software. It’s just that the deprecated part may be removed in the future to incorporate a newer and/or better version.

It is important to note that deprecated is just the status of the code created by developers. It indicates that a better version should be used instead of that code.

Conclusion: Gearing Up for Drupal 9

Besides removing the deprecated code of Drupal 8.9, you need to plan your installation and upgrade process. This includes, among other things, pre-installation auditing and code refactoring. Then you need to address third-party dependencies that require newer versions. If you use contributor modules or customized codes, you need additional efforts. Drupal 9 requires a new version for dependency. It’s better and wiser to plan everything beforehand so you can complete the upgrade process swiftly. You can also hire Drupal developers to make things easier and more efficient.

At Drupal India, we help clients to seamlessly upgrade as soon as a new release is available. With an experienced team of developers and Drupal experts, we address every web solution needs, be it Drupal migration, or website development. For years, we have helped hundreds of businesses achieve their goals with result-oriented Drupal website development services. Follow our blogs to stay informed about everything Drupal.

FAQs

Q. Is Drupal frontend or backend?

Drupal is a content management system. It enables you to manage the content of your website with an in-built templating engine. You can also use Drupal as a framework to design and develop your website. The best way to build Drupal websites is to hire Drupal developers according to your needs.

Q. How much does it cost to build a Drupal website?

The costs of developing a Drupal website depend on several factors. Design complexity, development time, type of features, etc. play an important role in calculating the costs. Drupal India builds impeccable Drupal solutions at a competitive price.

Q. How long does it take to develop a Drupal website?

There’s no predefined time for developing a Drupal website. It varies widely depending on the features of the solution and its design. The best way to know an estimated time is to consult development experts. We deliver flawless Drupal websites in short development time.

Drupal Vs WordPress- Which is a Better CMS for Website Development in 2020?

These days, website development is not a hard job to perform. Anyone can build a website with the help of online tools and technologies offered in 2020 without having any coding knowledge. Content Management System (CMS) is a platform which allows building fully-functional websites without coding. The platform is used to create and manage websites without any hassles. But there are multiple CMS available for development work. Drupal and WordPress are the most popular ones. This explains why Drupal vs WordPress are important before any selection.

Drupal and WordPress are used to build websites ranging from simple blogging websites to sophisticated E-commerce portals. When it comes to website building, people get confused which CMS they should prefer to build their sites. Many people find it difficult to make a selection. Are you one of these people? Then in this blog post, we will be comparing Drupal vs WordPress and understand whether you should hire Drupal developers for website development or not.

Introduction to Drupal

Drupal is old CMS serving person from last two decades but it has same importance in 2020 as well. It’s observed that over 3% of the global websites are Drupal CMS based while its community has 1.5 million members. Currently Drupal 8 is the latest version but in next few months Drupal 9 is going to be released for users.

Here are some notable sites based on Drupal CMS:

  • wmg.com
  • wholefoodsmarket.com
  • tesla.com
  • economist.com
  • whitehouse.gov

Introduction to WordPress

A major misconception among people regarding WordPress is that it’s mainly used for blogging purpose. While it was initially started as a blogging tool, but today you can build a website as per your requirement from scratch. Released in 2003, WordPress is used by over 60 millions websites including 35% of the top 10 million websites as per latest reports.

Here are some notable sites based on WordPress CMS:

  • time.com
  • techcrunch.com
  • thenewyorker.com
  • nationalarchives.gov.uk
  • sony.com

Now, let’s break down the differences between Drupal Vs WordPress CMS.

1. Ease of use

As compared to WordPress, Drupal seems perplexing due to a complex interface. In addition, installing Drupal is pretty simple as different hosts offer the option to install multiple CMSs including Drupal in the backend. With this platform, you will need to hire Drupal web developer to build a customized theme as building a custom theme is difficult without expert guidance.

It is quite simple to start from scratch and build a fully-functional website in WordPress. It is a perfect platform when it comes to build a website with limited knowledge. In fact, ease of use is a major reason behind it remarkable popularity. But seeing its popularity, the release of Drupal 8 version has helped non-developer, content authors to easily customize the website in 2020 as well.

2. Website security

Drupal is a highly secured and with less number of users, it is much securer than WordPress CMS. Security is a crucial feature for Drupal CMS. Its security is updated on regular basis by the Drupal Support & maintenance team. This makes it more powerful in terms of data security. However, there is some vulnerability that needs to be addressed.
Website security is a major concern for website owners. While every CMS offers a secure environment to build and manage websites. But WordPress is the prime target for most of the hackers. WordPress at its core is secure and robust but still it needs a lot of improvements.

3. Speed

When it comes to having an amazing user experience and higher ranking of site on search engine, a fast-loading feature is a must. Your website might be the most beautiful & engaging, but it’s not worth if it lacks fast speed. This feature is important in old days and in 2020 it has become a must. Drupal enables development of fast-loading and high-performing websites. The main reason behind its fast-loading is Drupal is not highly resource-intensive. You can outsource Drupal web developers to build websites with hundreds of pages with fast loading.

Speed is a major shortcoming of WordPress CMS. But it doesn’t mean that the websites can’t be fast. Several developers lack to optimize their website in the right manner that’s the major reason why websites lag behind in terms of speed. Using too many plugins, third-party themes, and lack of optimized websites are the major reasons for slow websites.

4. Development Cost

While both Drupal and WordPress are open-source, there are costs required with website development on both platforms. If you need to hire Drupal developers it will tend to be more costly than the WordPress developers simply because there are less of them.

Drupal has made numerous efforts to include frameworks like Symfony that are very common in the PHP community. PHP developers can easily learn Drupal now than they could in the past. This opens up the market for Drupal developers, making it more useful and ultimately reducing the costs needed for website development.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is Drupal better than WordPress?

If you need multiple page templates or content types, Drupal is better equipped to handle your needs. The user permissions are also more advanced than WordPress CMS. With Drupal, you have site admins, content editors, and individuals to access private content.

2. Is Drupal a good choice?

Drupal is the best choice for web beginners, though it requires minimum and some basic understanding of HTML, CSS, and PHP just in order to manage the site.

3. Why Drupal is the best?

With over one million users across the globe, Drupal is one of the top website solutions as it is robust and flexible in infrastructure with innovative design, and open-source modules. In addition organizations get access to countless free tools and information to build right features and functionality design.

Conclusion

Choosing the right CMS is an important decision, which will have a huge impact on your business. Once created, the website will be a successful venture on the internet. Even a single problem with website might put its stake at risk. Thus, choosing a CMS is an important step towards making a successful website. Based on the points above, we can easily see that Drupal is a secure, fast and robust CMS having several excellent features. In addition 24/7 Drupal support and maintenance team is present to guide the users in case of any emergency with the website.