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Tips To Consider For Hassle-Free Drupal 8 Migration

Drupal 8 comprises remarkable features including greater flexibility, fast loading speed, and scalability, which turns out to be a remarkable CMS for website development. It has grabbed the attention of enterprises and they are migrating to this powerful CMS. Drupal 8 migration is not an easy task to perform if not executed properly As several complications regarding data migration and module shift occurs. A perfect approach to lower the troubles is to prepare in advance. If you hire Drupal developer, the migration process will be simple, they will help you move in the right direction.

In this blog, the important tips regarding migration and its advantages are discussed. The benefits are present by default as it is built with new technologies including Symfony and Twig. Apart from being a secure and flexible CMS, it is projected as a far more scalable version.

Tips For Smooth Drupal Migration Process

  • Environment Set Up

The first and foremost activity is to make a backup of the live website. Never perform any migration activity on a live site, as it is not safe a practice to do so. If something goes unexpected, you’ll not have to panic as backup is always present. Simply go back to the earlier version and find out what went wrong.

  • Get Your Basics Right

Remember, it is a complicated approach. Hence, it is crucial to involve the Drupal development company right from scratch. They will provide better assistance, to finish the migration hassle-free. They are proficient and expert in the upgrade process to perform everything smoothly as planned.

  • Identify The Core Modules

Have knowledge of how your website is built, and this should cover details of the exact inventory of the implemented Drupal modules. Go to Administer > Site building > Modules, for the details. These updates may come in handy in the later stages of the migration process.

Advantages of Drupal 8 Migration

  • New Website Theme

With Drupal 8 migration, your website theme will get a complete makeover. Your website will appear completely different after the migration from the way it appears earlier. The major reason for such a change is that the old website is based on a different theme. A majority of Drupal websites are not responsive as it was not in the craze. However, with Drupal 8 migration, the website becomes responsive too.

  • PHP Native OOPS Features

Drupal is an Object-Oriented Paradigm (OOPS) based CMS. It is a relevant feature included within the design system to make the web development work best in class. Drupal 8 version focuses more on the OOPS features by giving more importance to the PHP. There are numerous constructs in Drupal that are referred to as “objects.” Some of the more recognized components that can be measured as objects are modules, nodes, themes, and users.

  • Updated Architecture

Migrating to the latest architecture will improve the productivity to build more innovative web applications. Though it seems a difficult task, it is the perfect opportunity to update the information architecture crafted earlier. This update in the information architecture is a big asset for the Drupal 8 development. It gives features to audit the fields and modules to streamline the development task. The update does not make the older version useless. It basically means, the older version is duplicated into Drupal 8 and then fixes are done as per the new requirements.

  • Mobile-Friendly Web Applications

The Drupal websites that are not mobile responsive lacks popularity among users. Drupal 6 and Drupal 7 versions were designed mostly to support desktop websites. However, Drupal 8 comes with a mobile responsive feature as it is largely implemented with a mobile-first technique. Most of the users nowadays prefer mobile gadgets to open websites and perform day to day tasks. Drupal 8 is not only a bonus for the developers but also for brands looking to expand the business. The UI & UX design must be perfect for a mobile user’s needs. The themes are also selected in relation to the mobile-responsiveness of the website.

  • Faster & Better Performance

With the introduction of a new cache feature in Drupal 8, the page loading is quite faster than earlier versions. With the cache tags, each section of the page is cached separately within the database making fast loading of the page. This works perfectly with content delivery networks (CDNs) for removing the pages when content gets changed. Drupal 8 provides a strong base to firms for delivering better web, mobile, and social experiences to the end-users.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do I migrate to Drupal?

To start the migration:

  • First, download the files to your desktop.
  • Upload the files to your new server.
  • Next export your old database.
  • You’ll need to export your database like SQL.
  • Import to the New Database.
  • Select the file that you exported and tap “Go” to import it into the new database.

2. How do I backup my Drupal site?

  • Sign in to PHPMyAdmin.
  • Choose your database from the dropdown button on the left.
  • Click the “Export” tab.
  • Click “select all”
  • Click the “structure” and “data” checkboxes.
  • Checkmark “Save as File” desktop.
  • Click the “Go” button and save the .sql file to your desktop.

3. How long will Drupal 7 be supported?

Drupal 7 will be supported until November 2021

4. How often does Drupal update?

Usually, Drupal updates are released once in a month but when any case of security vulnerability an immediate release is done. Make sure to enable the update status module and check for new releases every week.

Conclusion:

Most updates and upgrades offer multiple advantages. But, Drupal migration is always a challenge for website owners as there are several concerns of data loss and bad customer experience, particularly, during the migration process. Hence, it becomes crucial for the application owners to first find the needs and benefits, as well as challenges, before the migration process. An upgrade will no longer be a choice but it will be advantageous since its a complete revolution. If you are looking for quality Drupal migration services, look for a reputed web development company having expertise in migration, development and customization work.

What’s New Changes Drupal 8.8 Update Brings?

A number of major changes have been introduced with Drupal 8.8 latest release. The update was released in December 2019 and before the release of Drupal 9, it is a great move by the Drupal community. The release mostly focused on improving the management that will help the Drupal 8 developer in building a secure & smooth enterprise website.

Let’s have a look at the features of Drupal 8.8

1. Media Embedding with WYSIWYG

This update is the much-awaited in this latest release. For website developers, this WYSIWYG integration is a decade long wait. The earlier poorly handled media embedding has become simpler for the content creators who wish to build and integrate the media embedding. Another benefit is that this feature comes with complete media management capabilities.

2. New Admin Theme

Claro is the latest Drupal admin theme with an improved look and better interface. On top of this update, the theme will bring a new refreshed design to Drupal 8. This UI change has been long in demand by the Drupal community. However, with the latest release, these requests are finally coming on board. The clean, concise and advanced look adds to the web accessibility feature.

3. JSON API Module

The Drupal 8.8.0 update empowered and fixed the below issues:

  • The include paths are now fixed for every resource in the resource collection.
  • The normalization of the resource is no more shared or leveraged.
  • The resourceTypeRepository computes ResourceType value objects on every demand.

This change is a big boost to the growing ecosystem of contributed modules and hence, the JSON: API can develop faster working and communication by removing the necessity for an ad-hoc code.

4. Complete Composer Support

The composer has helped Drupal 8 development to become more streamlined with the PHP standards. The bonding between the Composer and PHP had started to build more with the Drupal 8 release. Now, Drupal 8.8 comes with more Composer plugins.

  • Drupal-composer-scaffold

The new plugin will be in charge of automating the Drupal composer scaffolding in the right place. On top of that, this will offer a number of options for the setup approaches.

  • Drupal-vendor-hardening

This plugin task is to eliminate some of the useless folders that are present in the vendor directories like tests or documentation. This is an important process when the vendor folder is comprised of the doc root.

  • Drupal/recommended-project

This composer template helps in building the Drupal project structure which follows the suggestions presented in Drupal 8.8. These suggestions state that the vendor folder should be out of the doc root.

  • Drupal/legacy-project

This template is used to generate a Drupal project that follows the old structure. But using this will not be suggested for Drupal 8.8.0 and further.

5. Customized Browser Support

Websites can run properly with the modern browsers that support CSS and JavaScript. While some browsers are getting outdated with time. But with Drupal 8.8 release the browser policy has been changed.

It supports the latest release of browsers for both desktop and mobile browsers:

  • Google Chrome
  • Firefox
  • Opera
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Safari
  • Safari for iOS

In addition to that the latest release is also supported by the desktop and mobile browsers:

  • Internet Explorer
  • Firefox ESR
  • Chrome for iOS
  • Samsung Internet
  • Chrome for Android
  • UC Browser
  • Opera Mini

6. End of Life for jQuery UI

In the method of switching to JavaScript solutions, the Drupal core is eliminating jQuery UI which allowed the developers to add experience components within the code. This collection of widgets is being eliminated for now and will be completely removed in the upcoming Drupal 9. The modules and themes dependent on it will have to search for a replacement contributed to the project.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How often does Drupal update?

Usually, Drupal releases updates on a monthly basis but when any security issue is observed an immediate release is also done. Make sure to enable the update status module and check for new releases every week.

2. Is Drupal front end or backend?

A Drupal developer is someone who codes in the PHP and other server-side languages. They code the custom modules, consume web services, automated tests, automate deployment, etc. They are also known as “backend Drupal developers”.

3. How long does it take to customize a Drupal website?

An enterprise-level website needs a lot of time to customize in comparison to the small websites. Overall the time required for the customization completely relies on the requirements and nature of changes required within the website.

4. What is Drupal 8 good for?

Drupal is the first choice of developers and business owners who need to build enterprise-level websites. It is a powerful CMS that is not only open-source but also offers high-level features to maintain the online branding image.

5. What features Drupal 8.8 offer to developers?

Drupal 8.8 offers multiple features that were missing in the earlier versions and were in huge demand for a decade.

  • Composer Support
  • Browser Support
  • JSON API Module
  • Claro Admin Theme
  • Media Embedment

Wrapping Up:

Drupal 8.8 update brings out a collection of features and quality of the life improvements that will definitely make the life of the site builders and content creators simpler. This release is an important release giving a clear indication for the arrival of Drupal 9. if you own a website or looking to build a website from scratch it is the perfect time to avail the services of this latest version. Drupal Development company can be consulted to build an engaging as well as secure enterprise website. They have all the resources to build, customize and migrate a Drupal website.

Why Drupal 8 CMS is Perfect To Build Travel Business Websites?

To drive potential customers, all travel industries need a website to offer multiple services. You may own a transportation company offering bus booking, travel websites, airlines, tour operators or hotel booking services. So to build such a website multiple content management systems are available in the market. Here in this blog post, we are going to talk about Drupal 8 and how it manages the website content and assets in an effective manner.

Drupal is an open-source CMS known for creating digital experiences that engage consumers throughout their website journey, from navigating deals to booking. Drupal 8 is the latest version and takes website development work to greater heights from developers & end-users perspective. There’s more emphasis on user-friendliness, but the new ways to build data structures, create APIs, multilingual capabilities, and mobile responsiveness are some of the prominent features.

Why Drupal CMS for Travel Websites?

For a traveler, the website of yours shouldn’t appear like an information-brochure on the internet. Having an engaging website is not a simple job in the travel industry, where the competition is severe. The need for a perfect solution to integrate all the details is always in-demand.

1. Theme

Your website must possess content that is relevant to the whole booking process, but more than it should appear engaging & entice the travelers to navigate further. Therefore select a theme that syncs with the goals of your business. It has been found that engaging graphics influence the purchase decision of the website visitors. Tell your Drupal developers to implement beautiful themes on your website and provide a more accurate navigation process.

In Drupal 8, you can choose from thousands of themes built particularly for the travel industry and proficient to increase the conversion rate. Further, themes are completely mobile responsive and support multiple layouts based on your content. Whether you want to add 1 or 100 blog posts, images, reviews or videos on your website, Drupal CMS will never let you down.

2. Scalability

People love traveling during the holiday season and if you own a travel website the traffic might not be easy to handle. Even if you’re having an amazing digital experience with all the necessary features, it won’t matter if the website hit with lots of traffic. You have to check whether your website is able to handle the traffic smoothly or not. More than a million sites worldwide are powered by Drupal. This CMS has amazing scalability features meaning, even on the busiest days, your site will work spectacularly without facing any glitch.

3. Smooth Navigation

You don’t want your visitors to get lost between the menus & various buttons on the website. The main objective of your travel websites is to show your services and grow conversions. Whether it is with the implementation of the virtual tour, multiple tabs, and buttons, or their positioning. What matters the most is, whether the visitors reach their destination. The navigation must give your users proper control on the website. To make this practical, make sure the Drupal development company you outsource display details properly like tour package collections, itineraries, overviews, highlights and several add-ons.

4. SEO & Social Media Friendly

Most of the travel brands found that their bookings have grown with their presence on renowned social networking websites. When a user plans to avail of any service, reviews and user-generated content is very important. To catch the user’s attention, it is important to connect with different social media platforms and convert the user into a possible sale.

Drupal is a flexible platform having features to integrate third-party apps as per the business processes comprising CRM and ERP systems. Payment modules also ensure that you get the payment without redirecting the user to any third party website. SEO features of Drupal help a website to get good ranking on SERP.

5. Booking Engine

Online booking engines help business enterprises to generate money in a simple manner. But how does Drupal helping businesses?

Drupal provides two prominent booking solutions for your website:

1. BAT

BAT is a module for the complete solution for your travel website, it helps to build an exclusive booking engine for simple online bookings. Its strong online booking engine gets you multiple bookings for the zero commission straight from your website.

2. EasyBooking

It provides a set of options to the visitors to avail of different services regarding special discount offers, contact details, room reservations through various parameters like contact form or newsletter.

BAT and EasyBooking provide a complete solution to your travel website while taking several parameters into consideration. They offer you:

  • Information page
  • Pricing Calendar
  • Easy payment method

Drupal also provides other booking engines to ensure that your website can book quickly, make payment secure and manage traffic.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is Drupal used for?

Drupal is a free, and open-source software that is used by individuals or groups of users. People who are not strong in technical skills can also easily create and manage their Websites. The application comprises a content management tool and a development framework.

2. What is the purpose of using CMS?

A content management system (CMS) is a software application that is used to create and manage digital content in a systematic manner. CMSes are basically used for enterprise content management and web content management.

3. What language does Drupal use?

In Drupal’s case, the PHP programming language creates the logic and MySQL manages the database. Usually, the operating system present on the server to manage this process is the Linux, and Apache is the software handling the requests for pages and delivers them after they are designed.

4. Which type of CMS Drupal is?

Drupal is a free and open-source CMS written in the PHP language and distributed under the GNU General Public License. Drupal powers around 2.3% of all the websites worldwide ranging from personal websites to enterprise-level, political, and government sites.

5. What are the modules in Drupal?

A Drupal module is a collection of files having some functionality and is based on PHP language. Because the module code runs within the website context, it can use all the functions and access all variables and Drupal core structures.

Wrapping Up:

These are some of the most innovative & engaging features of the Drupal 8 that can be integrated to build engaging travel websites. It is the complete responsibility of the developers to build websites that are responsive, secure & engaging. If you are planning to build a website for your business enterprise, simply hire Drupal developer from a reputed development company. This will help you to integrate the best features on your travel website in the best possible manner. Share your requirements to avail of the best possible solution for your travel business.