Are you ready to upgrade to Drupal 10? Know how to prepare for the upcoming update!

Rajesh Bhimani
5 min readMar 24, 2022

Drupal 10 is coming soon. Are you ready for this new version? If you are wondering that Drupal 9 is quite new on the table, then why Drupal 10 is releasing? There are a few practical reasons for Drupal 10 early release, which we will discuss in this article. But before it arrives, we have to get prepared for it.

Drupal 9 came after a gap of almost 6 years (from 2015 to 2021) of Drupal 8, and we all learned helpful things while we updated or upgraded to Drupal 9. That skill will help us here in a smooth and straightforward execution. The Drupal community has helped us in all this process. They have assembled the cycles and tools for new upgrades also.

Let’s learn more.

Drupal 10 is arriving soon

Drupal 10 — How to plan for all the versions?

Drupal 9: If you are using Drupal 9, upgrading to Drupal 10 will not be a big deal. There are APIs available that can help you in the upgrading work. Also, you have Upgrade status on your Drupal 9 website; however, deprecated APIs will be there until Drupal 9.3.0.

Drupal 8: Drupal 8 end of life was November 2021. So, certainly, you might have updated and upgraded to Drupal 9. If not, then you should upgrade to Drupal 9 on a higher priority. Read our article ‘Drupal 9 readiness checklist — A complete guide to getting prepared’ to upgrade from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9!

Drupal 7: As we know, Drupal 7 end of life is in November 2022. So, very soon, you have to upgrade to Drupal 9 or 10. Then why not now? You should not wait to migrate to Drupal 10 but start upgrading to Drupal 9 to avoid any last-minute problems. Albeit Drupal 10 will incorporate migration tools from Drupal 7 but what if it will start creating issues after the Drupal 10 release. If you are on Drupal 9 before the Drupal 10 release, then the transition to Drupal 10 will be easier.

Drupal 10 is around the corner quite soon, isn’t it?

This is obvious; you are bewildered about the Drupal 10 release. You just updated to Drupal 9, and now you have to start working for Drupal 10. There are certain reasons why the makers have to release this version in 2022 only.

Drupal has dependencies and integration with many third-party elements to provide you with reliable technical developments.

Among myriad components, Symfony is perhaps Drupal’s most significant reliance. Drupal 9 requires Symfony 4, which arrives at its end of life by November 2023. Likewise, CKEditor and other third-party elements are also reaching their finish point. With those significant components arriving at the end of life, Drupal 9 will likewise be arriving at the end of life by November 2023. That is why Drupal 10 has to be on the table before Drupal 9 reaches the end of life.

Have Drupal 9 — Sit back and relax

If you are on Drupal 9, then your work is to only get prepared for Drupal 10. As we mentioned above, upgrading from Drupal 9 to Drupal 10 will be easier because the continuous innovation model simplifies the upgrade path. So, the new updates in Drupal 10 will be minor and will not need more engineering work.

Try to check the below updates for Drupal 10.

  1. Symphony compatibility is a must to check because of Drupal’s dependency on it. So make sure Symphony 6 is compatible with the latest Drupal version.
  2. Drupal core is switching to pure JavaScript solutions. So, jQuery UI components should get removed from Drupal core.
  3. The template engine for PHP, twig, also needs to get upgraded. Twig 2 is also reaching the end of life. So, with Drupal 9 upgrade to twig 3.
  4. CKEditor integration with Drupal 10 will provide an amazing editing experience to website owners because Drupal is coming with new modules to increase the functionality of CKEditor. You only have to move to CKEditor 5 and be stable. Don’t get surprised if CKEditor 4 will get removed from Drupal 10.
  5. Drupal has announced PHP requirements. PHP 8.1 will require in Drupal 10.
  6. APIs easy usage, error handling via exceptions, and to provide better support to HTTP standards, Guzzle has been added to Drupal core. Drupal 10 might need Guzzle 7.3.0.
  7. Eliminate all the deprecated modules to welcome Drupal 10.

A little work left to be all set for Drupal 10

We discussed above that upgrading from Drupal 9 to 10 will be much more straightforward because of the minor updates, and also tools like Rector is available to help you. It will assist you in updating code and designs. You will be able to upgrade from Drupal 9 to Drupal 10 with almost putting zero efforts.

Here is a check-list for you:

  • If you’re still on Drupal 7, then you should reach out for some professional help, like any Custom Drupal Development provider. They will migrate your content to Drupal 9 without any disturbance.
  • Perform regular site audits and make sure you are on the latest Drupal 9 version.
  • Upgrade all your projects to eliminate expostulations to help Drupal 10. When you update, it implies that you have all the recent libraries, components, and PHP renditions.
  • Congratulations, you are all set to start working with Drupal 10.

Wrap-up

Hopefully, our guide is helpful for you in this upgrading process. To avoid an eleventh-hour mess, you should start updating for Drupal 10.

Previous versions and their updates kept us on our toes, and we worked hard to match the pace. The Drupal community worked with Drupal 7 for a longer span. Unfortunately, it has to reach the end of life because PHP and MySQL are releasing their new versions. This is all, we already discussed that Drupal has dependencies on different components.

To append more features and functionalities to your designs, Drupal has to get all these updates. Thankfully now the update cycle will be quick and hassle-free.

Follow the above-mentioned points and wait for the all-new Drupal 10! If you require any help, you should hire Drupal Developers to ease your work.

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Rajesh Bhimani

Rajesh Bhimani is the Founder at Skynet Technologies, Website Design and Development Agency. He has 21 years of experience in Technology and Marketing industry.