Top 5 Drupal sites in the World You Should Consider While Developing Your Website

Drupal is one of the top open-source platforms for website content management systems (CMS). It has a large impact on changing and working things to make it better for all the Drupal website development. The open-source content management system of Drupal enables complex websites to provide a large amount of information.

It ensures keeping the utility and speed of the websites intact. The standard features of Drupal such as reliable performance, content authoring, and security are some of the largest assets that make this CMS the best choice for renowned NGOs and enterprises. Drupal website development gets easier if you are following the application of these features.

Top 5 Drupal Website Development 

The following article intends to talk about the top Drupal websites which have marked their strong impression in the overall digital transformation.

Tesla

  1. Tesla

Tesla, a renowned car company, founded in 2003 is continuously focusing on the revolutionaries on sustainable energy. The company concentrates on infinite scalable clean energy generation. Therefore, to reach its goal, Tesla manufactures a set of Powerwall, energy solutions, and storage products. So, there is a huge amount of product page information required to maintain their website. Feature-rich Drupal has a crucial role to play here.

Rainforest Alliance

  1. Rainforest Alliance

Rainforest Alliance is considered to be a non-governmental organization where biodiversity is conserved and sustainable living is promoted by following different practices such as consumer behavior and how people are using the land. The NGO has been working for decades and has been set up in more than 76 countries that are aimed at conserving natural resources.

Rainforest Alliance fundamentally addresses 5 major issues such as forests, food and farming, climate, wildlife, and people. This big NGO runs on Drupal 8 as their fundamental site and Drupal 7 as their site for conducting businesses. The navigation has been made easy and the information is also accessible by the visitors of the site.

NASA

  1. NASA

NASA has always enhanced the limitations of the planet and provided extensive knowledge of space. NASA has not only created wonders by landing on Moon and studying planets but has also contributed significantly in other fields such as medicine, transportation, industries, and health. NASA is built on Drupal and is one of the biggest examples of best websites.

Red Cross International Committee

 

  1. Red Cross International Committee

ICRC stands for the International Committee of Red Cross which is considered to be an independent organization. The organization is intended for humanitarian protection and to provide help for the victims who suffered violence and armed conflicts.

You will be surprised to hear that ICRC chooses Drupal for their website as it enhances their website with easy management and other powerful features. The features incorporate flexibility, reliability, and a great user experience for the end-users.

Care International

 

  1. Care International

CARE is an international NGO that commenced in the year 1945 in the United States. It works for the poor in 79 countries to provide them with a better life. CARE NGO also focuses on enhancing the lives of women as they play a great role in fighting against poverty.

CARE organization has helped more than 100 million women, and other poor and vulnerable people to fight for their rights and provide food and other security. CARE uses Drupal CMS as it enriches the end-user experience in a great way.

Final Thoughts

The above-mentioned websites are amongst the top and biggest websites across the world that are using Drupal. This acknowledges the fact that Drupal provides flexibility, digital innovation, high speed, easy implementation, scalability, and other powerful features.

  • Drupal enhances the overall end-user experience which makes it a powerful tool
  • Drupal provides a great web experience
  • Drupal is regarded as a customer-centric CMS which is great for providing a customized user experience
  • Drupal is SEO friendly and provides third-party integration.

What does a Drupal developer do?

A Drupal developer is someone who writes a lot of PHP and other server side languages. They write custom modules, automated tests, consume web services, automate deployment etc. They may also be know as “backend Drupal developers”. They may also get involved in some of the more advanced side of the theme layer as well.

What skills does a Drupal developer need?

Experience building user interfaces for websites and/or web applications.
Extremely fluent with HTML5/XHTML and CSS.
Experience working with PHP, JavaScript, and jQuery.
Ability to write JavaScript with and without the use of frameworks such as jQuery.

Is Drupal better than WordPress?

If you have a web app, or any type of web project that requires user permissions, Drupal’s functionality is hardier than WordPress. Drupal is also more flexible when it comes to API development and its default caching features are more robust out of the box.

Why You Should Consider Drupal Web Development for Digitization

With digital becoming the mainstream business platform, the need to build websites and apps turned more pressing than ever in 2020. Many business owners who have not been enthusiastic about digitization were forced to embrace it. Even the most traditional types of businesses rushed to have a digital solution. And that’s what prompted a massive surge in demands for Drupal web development and similar services. Websites and web apps today are more popular across industries than ever.

But choosing the most suitable development framework has never been an easy undertaking for business owners. Especially if you’re comparatively less tech-savvy. And that’s obvious. There are so many out there. Most of them look similar—at least to nontechnical eyes. We will discuss what sets Drupal web development apart from others, and why that’s crucial to your business. Let’s dive in.

Why Choose Drupal CMS for Your Digital Solution?

For businesses, especially SMEs, Drupal offers a glamorous array of advantages that most other platforms cannot offer. For web developers, too, the Drupal framework is easier to use. It’s crucial since you need to hire Drupal developers for building a solution on top of it. Besides, Drupal also significantly reduces your cost of ownership. Below are some of the most striking features of Drupal.

Easy Development & Upgrades

Drupal is a PHP-based open-source development framework. It’s known for improving the beginner experience of developers and end-users alike. More importantly, Drupal enables you to prioritize backward compatibility and as a focus area of your project. In contrast, for example, WordPress “strives to never break backward compatibility.” That means, with Drupal web development, it becomes easier for you to update without any hassle.

With this backward compatibility, web development, even beginners can build an efficient solution. For Drupal development experts, it enables quick and seamless updating every time a new version arrives. However, there’s one downside to this. Maintaining backward compatibility can lead to codebase cruft that creates a confusing array of APIs.

With Drupal, developers can also choose to focus on cutting-edge architectural innovations and best practices. it’s enabled by the incompatibility between major Drupal versions. Your Drupal web development project can, therefore, choose the latest technical standards like PWA development.

Unmatched Beginner Experience

Several types of beginners could be involved in a Drupal development project. From web developers using the Drupal framework to site builders and end-users, beginners get a smooth experience. Site builders can seamlessly assemble and configure modules. Besides, they can also customize structural components like content types. For end-users, advanced content editors make the site management experience incredibly hassle-free.

Drupal’s Position as a Content Management System

Content management today is unrecognizable today from what it was a decade ago. And the Drupal CMS has evolved well with shifting market trends and demands. Below are some of the most noteworthy content management capabilities of Drupal.

Well-Structured Data Engine

Drupal enables you to use rich metadata and make content available as reusable components. Using structured data, you can create a framework for all other capabilities that make a modern CMS. When data is structured as atomic components, you can publish content into different frontends. Whether it’s a direct RSS feed for a blog or a GraphQL query, Drupal development makes everything seamless.

Robust, Reliable APIs

Drupal APIs offer complete feature parity between APIs and administrative UIs. With Drupal, exposing the capabilities of a CMS is the basis of creating seamless digital experiences. In such approaches, the CMS manages the data, but one or more data-display endpoints are built as separate frontends.

Smooth Dependency and Configuration Management

The Drupal CMS allows users to manage dependencies and the site’s configuration in a way that is reproducible. These include both third-party libraries and defined roles and permissions.

Drupal development focuses on app-centric experiences with low time before the First Contentful Paint. App-based experiences provide a remarkably more responsive and user-friendly digital solution.

Wrapping Up

With the release of Drupal 9, the CMS platform has been now around for over 20 years. From a basic CMS of the early 2000s to a cutting-edge platform in 2021, Drupal has come a long way. As demands for everything digital reach record-setting levels, its applications will likely grow remarkably. At Drupal India, a Drupal web development provider, we use the platform’s most advanced features to build results-focused web solutions. You could hire Drupal developers to make custom business solutions.

Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What is Drupal used for?

Drupal is a content management system (CMS). It is used to develop websites and web applications. Drupal has impressive features, like easy content authoring, reliable performance, and excellent security. Its flexibility and security set Drupal aside from others.

Q. What is the programming language for Drupal?

Drupal is a PHP-based web development framework.

PHP supplies the logic and MySQL provides the database. The operating system installed on the server to power this process is Linux. The Apache software handles the requests for pages and publishes them.

Q. How does a CMS work?

A Content Management System (CMS) is a Graphic User Interface (GUI) that enables the interaction with a website’s database. CMS is the entirety of the web application, from database tables to admin panel to front-end display.

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

The development cost for a Drupal website depends on what kind of website you need. Costs are lower for a website with basic themes and features. If you need a high-performance site with more advanced features, the cost will be different. Drupal India offers competitive pricing for every kind of website and CMS development.

Why Do you Need to Upgrade to Drupal 9 & Features to Expect?

Drupal 9 has finally hit the marketplace and all set to provide new features and functionalities to enterprise websites. All those who are still running their platform on the previous versions of Drupal 7/8, might not find the need to upgrade. It is because of the fact that several companies think that upgrading to a new platform is time-consuming, needs more investment, and unnecessary when an earlier version is working smoothly. All the more, few enterprises do not entertain such thoughts as they have already availed Drupal 8 development services sometime back.

So, why there is a need to upgrade to Drupal 9?

The answer to this question lies in the deadline imposed by the Drupal community about the End of Life of Drupal 7/8 anytime soon. Earlier, it was decided till November 2021. But looking at the prevailing conditions brought in by the pandemic, the deadline has shifted to November 2022.

EOL (End of Life) simply means the Drupal community will no longer work on the previous versions and there will be no free support from any side. It does not mean that your Drupal 7/8 website will stop working. But, it will not be receiving any technical support and security that is used to experience.

So, the only viable option that lies in front of website owners is upgrading the platform from Drupal 7/8 to Drupal 9.

Some Major Issues that Business Might Face:

* Security is at Risk: After the End of Life for the Drupal 7/8 platform, any kind of security vulnerability will not be entertained and fixed by the Drupal community. This leads to your website being at great risk.

* High Operating Cost: Getting the support of the EOL version of the Drupal website could be really expensive. As only a few organizations will provide the necessary support at a high cost.

* Incompatibility: You might have a compliance issue if you utilize the earlier versions of third-party integrations like payment gateway, social media connect, and more. It will be essential for you to upgrade to the latest version of the Drupal platform.

Why should you Upgrade to Drupal 9?

With the end of life duly approaching fast, it will not be a feasible option for enterprises to run Drupal 7/8 having security, feature-related, and other issues.

3 Reasons to Consider Upgrading Site to Drupal 9

* The Drupal security team will not help you longer in terms of providing an optimum level of support and protection.

* After the end of life, Drupal 7/8 will be flagged as insecure in 3rdparty scans that will make the integration with third-party tools go difficult.

* Especially for Drupal 7 website developers, popular hosting providers will draw their support leaving them without having too many options.

What’s New to Find in Drupal 9?

From the above information, you must have understood the fact that it’s time for you to hire Drupal web developers and finally upgrade to Drupal 9, without wasting much time.

But before doing this, let’s take a closer look at some of the prominent features of Drupal 9 that will surely make a difference.

1. Backward Compatible

Drupal 9 is backward compatible with its predecessors Drupal 7 and Drupal 8. The new version uses the modules, configuration, and data created on the previous versions in a hassle-free manner.

To preserve this function, Drupal 9 does not experience any kind of historical baggage, performance issue, and the system remains unaffected. In this way, Drupal module development will be clutter-free, fast, and efficient.

2. Better Performance

There is no doubt in the fact that performance-wise Drupal 9 is much better than its predecessors. And, it is best reflected in the following manner.

* Content Workflow helps to define multiple workflows.

* BigPipe increases the page view performance and supports faster initial page loading.

* It offers multi-lingual capabilities.

3. Clean Code Base

Drupal 9 does not support depcrated code that helps in making a cleaner version of the code. And, it helps Drupal 9 fully compatible with Drupal 9. This is required to make the end-result to be more nimble and improves the overall website performance to an optimum extent.

4. Headless CMS

Drupal 9 capitalizes on Headless CMS to enhance the user experience with the powerful front-end of the website. It further provides the following essential features.

* Create once & publish anywhere
* Front-end freedom
* API-First approaching
* Easier resourcing

Final Analysis

Upgrade your enterprise website to Drupal 9 to have complete community support, optimum level of security, and upgraded features. At last, it is all about making an impact with your website to reach the targeted audience, offering an enhanced level of user experience, and advanced services. Get in touch with a reliable Drupal development company like Drupal India to hire developers and get upgraded to the new version of the CMS before the end of life.

Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is Drupal?

Drupal is one of the topmost Content Management Systems (CMS) preferred by large, medium to small enterprises to manage content and information effectively. A majority of business owners who are already accessing the Drupal 7 and Drupal 8 versions of the CMS can now upgrade to the all-new and feature-rich Drupal 9.

2. Why It is Necessary to Upgrade Drupal Website?

As per the information shared by the Drupal community, Drupal 7 and Drupal 8 will soon witness the end of life of the cycle after November 2022. After that, there will be no community support, security features, and will have several compatibility issues. So, to make sure your website runs efficiently and effectively, it is necessary to upgrade to Drupal 9.

3. How Much Cost is involved in Drupal Website Development?

The estimated cost of developing a Drupal CMS for a particular website relies on several conditions like price, features, functionalities, nature & scope of the project, complexity, and more.

How to Create Drupal Custom URLs Using Pathauto Module?

The best content management system is the one that helps to create custom URL addresses of several subpages. Drupal being the popular CMS platform has a Pathauto module to automate the creation of page aliases. A crucial part of Drupal development, customized URL addresses increase the search engine ranking of a website.

In this blog, we will look at the step-by-step process of creating automating page aliases simply and effortlessly.

But before starting the same, check out some information about the Pathauto module of Drupal.

Background Information

Pathauto for Drupal module development was released way back in February 2006 as an add-on to Drupal 4. After that, the Stable 1.0 version was launched and the current module from the 8.x1.x branch is the new one to evolution.

It is one of the essentials extensions for a Drupal website that is already used by 640 thousand pages and 32% of them are on Drupal 8 and Drupal 9 respectively.

The primary purpose of Pathauto is to create URL aliases for individual subpages. You can do it by following a step-by-step process mentioned here.

#Step 1: Download & Install Pathauto

The first step is to download Pathauto just like any other Drupal module and install the same. You can refer to any of the 4 methods mentioned below to install the module.

A. Using UI

1. Navigate to Manage<Extent

2. Once installed, then click on “Enable new added modules”.

3. Search for Pathauto in the list of modules, select and click on install.

4. For the rest of the methods, simply navigate to the root directory of your Drupal site, $ cd/var/www/html/drupal-8.4.4

B. Using Composer

1. Add Pathauto package using the composer

2. Enable the module by navigating to Manage<Extend

C. Using Drush

Download and enable the module using Drush

$drush dl pathauto

$drush en pathauto-y

D. Using Drupal Console

Download and install Pathauto from the Drupal console

$drupalmodule:download pathauto
$drupalmodule:install pathauto

#Step 2: ADD URL Patterns

Now, the next step is to start adding the URL patterns to ensure easy customization.

Navigate to Manage<Configuration

1. You can select the pattern to content.

2. Give a proper Path pattern. In this, Tokens allow you to create dynamic URL patterns.

3. Provide a label to this URL pattern, then check Enabled and click on Save.

4. Other URL patterns can be created in a similar fashion.

#Step 3: Create Bulk URL Aliases

Create bulk URL aliases for already created content, taxonomies, and users.

Follow the below-mentioned steps.

1. Navigate to Manage<Configuration<Search<Metadata

2. Select the entities to generate URL aliases.

3. Select appropriate paths for which URL aliases to generate.

#Step 4: Delete Bulk URL Aliases

Same like creating bulk URL aliases for your Drupal website, you can also delete the same.

1. Navigate to Manage<Configuration<Search<Metadata

2. Select entities that need to be deleted.

3. Check only delete the automatically generated aliases and prevent manually delete the created aliases.

Summing Up

Pathauto is a useful Drupal module for creating and deleting URL aliases efficiently and effortlessly. Create customized URLs to increase the search engine ranking of the platform. Stay away from the cumbersome manual process and create URL patterns automatically. Simply hire Drupal developers to make necessary changes to your website proficiently. Drop at Drupal India to find the ideal expert assistance at a low-cost.

Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is a Pathauto Module in Drupal Website?

Pathauto is like any other module of the Drupal website that brings additional functionality to the platform. It is particularly to create customized URLs for the website to increase ranking, improve SEO, and significantly increase business growth.

2. What is the Benefit of Creating Custom URLs in the Drupal Website?

Customized URLs of a Drupal website help web browsers to properly address the pages, increase their traffic, make improvements in ranking, and more. Ultimately, it helps to enhance your online platform and widen its reach across the targeted set of audiences.

3. How Much Does it Cost to Develop a Drupal Platform?

There is no such fixed cost estimation of developing a Drupal platform. Every single business organization has different sets of requirements, budgets, nature of the project, and features to call for. Depending on these factors and after considering the same, the development cost will be decided accordingly.