Drupal 10: Are Its New Features Worth The Upgrade?

Drupal is a great CMS to transform the digital strategy of your company. It can be used to meet all sizes and shapes of demand.

Drupal is the best CMS available today.

What is Drupal used for?

Heres a quick introduction to Drupal. Drupal is an open-source content manager system (CMS) with a global community of developers and users.

This CMS is free and easy to use by many business models and organizations, including Harvard, Red Cross and NBC News. On January 15, 2001, Drupals first version was released/online presence. This date is more than twenty years old. If you want to hire drupal programmer you can visit developers.dev

When Drupal 10 Released?

Drupal 10 released on December 14 2022. Drupal 10 will be released less than three years after Drupal 9. Drupal 9 was released in June 2020.

Drupal 8 was released on November 19, 2015, while Drupal 7 was released on January 5, 2011.

Drupal 10 is closely following Drupal 9s lead due to the advancement of third-party components like Composer and PHP.

CKEditor and Symfony are some of Drupals most important dependencies. Drupal 9, which was built within Drupal 8, made it easy to migrate the last major Drupal project. Drupal 9 was built within Drupal 8.

This will make the transition easy. Drupal 10 will be an improved version of Drupal 9.

What is Drupal capable of? What makes Drupal different from other CMSs?

Drupal development services is one of the most popular CMSs, and many other systems have chosen Drupal as their CMS.

If you want to hire drupal developer you can visit developers.dev. These are the reasons Drupal is so popular:

1. Reliability.

   Drupal is the most widely used content management system in the world.

   Drupal has a long history.

   Although Drupal is still in its infancy, it is stable.

   Drupal 8 is now available, while Drupal 9 will soon be released.

   You can rest assured that Drupal 8 will continue to be supported for at least five years.

   The resources will continue to be available for goods.

2. All resources. Nearly everything you can do with Drupal has been done before, and it works perfectly. Another great thing is that almost all the most important modules (Drupal Add-ons) are available to the Drupal community. This is a great advantage in CMS, where you must pay for certain features. You, as a user, have greatly benefited from the efforts and experiences of others.
3. A huge dedicated community. Drupal is a large and dynamic community that has been around since 2001. Drupal.org is an essential resource for both newbies and experienced developers. You can find learning materials, news, and support from other contributors.
4. Simple and robust. You can be confident that the source code used to build your Drupal sites was written and designed by Drupal experts. If you are planning to do more complicated or advanced work, it will be easy to modify the system. This gives users an advantage over other CMS.
5. Flexibility. Drupal is the most flexible CMS. We believe that Drupal can be used to create any function or colorful content. Seriously. Sites allow you to create any type of content. Anything can be customized to your liking. Any type of website can be created.
6. Scalability. Scalability refers to the ability to extend the Drupal core at a higher level using a variety of Drupal modules. The best thing about Drupal modules is their integration with Drupal core. They can also be used to connect with other modules very efficiently. This is despite the fact that many modules may be completely different. This is due to Drupals natural structure and built-in system. This allows you to extend your Drupal website. This is Drupals core strength compared to other CMS. Drupal is open-source. If the modules you are looking for dont exist yet, you can create them, modify an existing one, or hire someone else to do the job.
7. Security. Drupal is rigorously tested by Drupal contributors and experts to ensure that it adheres to all security requirements. Drupals security features are strong. Drupal will lock down any directory that is installed. This makes it impossible to access configuration files or data. Drupal is used by many large sites,

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What are Drupals uses?

Drupal can be used in any way you want, thanks to its extensibility and flexibility. These lists in wide range will show you the many things Drupal can create:

1. Websites for individuals or companies
2. Portals for Communities
3. Intranet/Corporate Sites
4. Blogs, art, portfolio, music, multimedia sites
5. Forums
6. Sites that offer multilingual websites (international sites)
7. E-commerce websites
8. Resource directories
9. Social networking sites

Read More: Why Drupal is More Suitable for Startups or Small Business

Drupal 10 Features and Improvements

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   CKEditor 5 offers a new way to edit text

Drupal 10 is a major upgrade to CKEditor 4. Although the two versions look very similar, version 5 is more modern and refined.

The interface is simple, and UX design simplicity is the best way to achieve sophistication. Version 5 doesnt rely on right click menus making it easier to use touch devices than version 4.

CKEditor 5 has fewer options for editing images and links than version 4. CKEditor 5 is more suited for content editors than for site-builders.

This is our view of the future.

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   Meet Olivero, a new design for Drupal 10

The Olivero theme is responsible for representing Drupal to new users. It also gives Drupal a face and a brand. This theme is more modern than its predecessor.

Its great that Olivero offers excellent accessibility features, as Drupal core is the industry standard for contrib.

It features a smart dropdown menu system, which, unlike previous Drupal core themes, ensures that menu items do not disappear beyond the browsers edges. These features are described in this Smashing Magazine article.

We dont like the RSS link that defaults to the "Social bar". Is there anyone who still uses an RSS reader today?

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   Claro is a modern admin theme

Drupal 10 comes with a new theme you will actually use. The Olivero theme can be used as a placeholder for most projects by project managers.

However, the admin theme will be where you spend most of your time.

Verdict Claro is a major upgrade in both user experience and making Drupal seem modern. Claro replaces the "Seven" theme.

The new admin theme is a welcomed change. Take a look at the side by side comparison.

Heres a secret: Claros design team maintains a sub-theme called "Gin" Drupal core is not compatible with the Gin theme.

It features modern, cutting-edge features that are just too cool. You can check out the Gin project to see it for yourself.

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   Project Browser allows you to find modules right inside your website

Drupals project browser initiative is another initiative that is open to small-business users. The project browser provides an interface for Drupal websites to search and install contributed themes and modules.

This functionality has been available for WordPress for some time, but Drupal now checks for incompatibilities and dependencies automatically.

This would be a huge win for Drupal, as clashing and crashing WordPress plugins is a common frustration.

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   Drupal ten is simpler out of the box

This chart is based upon a UX research project which found Drupal had the lowest approval rating among novice users but the highest among expert users.

Dries Buytaert, Drupals founder, was inspired to create an initiative for the "beginners".

This initiative combines three modules, Media, Layout Builder and Claro, to make it easier for beginners. These modules were already available in Drupal 9, but they can now be enabled by default in Drupal 10.

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   Automatic Updates

Drupal has always been controversial about automatic updates. Its not something that large enterprise sites want, but small users don't want to spend their time and money on Drupal core updates and all the other modules that are added to Drupal sites.

This initiative will not be available in time for Drupal 10.0.0. This is the most difficult Drupal ten improvement, both technologically and in aligning with the Drupal community.

These features are developed in a contrib module you can use today. Its limited in its use, as it only promises to update the Drupal core and not break your site. It is still experimental to update other modules or themes.

Small-business Drupal websites could benefit from automatic, unattended security updates due to the fact that most websites dont install security updates.

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   Drupal Rector makes it easier to migrate from Drupal 9 into Drupal 10

Major Drupal version upgrades used to be something to be afraid of. It is no longer true. The reason for this is partly because Drupal 8+ was updated from Drupal 7.

Drupal 8 Plus was released. This made it easier to update in the future. Drupal 8+s architecture is advanced enough to allow this.

Drupal rector is the other. Drupal Rector was available before Drupal 9, but we have included it because the tool has become more mature.

Drupal rector is now much more efficient and can automatically generate the majority of the changes required to migrate your custom modules from Drupal 9 to Drupal 10. This will make this major update much easier and save you time.

We are not creating a starter kit theme that can be used as a base theme for sub-themes but rather as a template to be used in a new theme.

Lauri Eskola, Starter Kit Initiative Lead

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   New workflow for Drupal 10 e-commerce

This is a significant improvement for the Drupal front-end development process, especially for those who are just starting out with Drupal.

You want to make sure that the CMS you are using is customized to your branding and design business requirements. Myself has over two decades of experience in customizing CMS softwares front-end and can recall times when it was really painful.

Drupal 10 has a new feature: instead of sub-theming Drupal 10, you can copy the starter kit theme and customize it.

This allows you to no longer rely on the old, boring base theme that is stored in Drupal core. Its great for developers because they don't have to search the theme and copy the files into their theme. Instead, all files are stored in their customized theme folder.

Symfony 6 has just been released Symfony 5 without the two-year-old code. Symfony 6 does not have any new features or major changes.

Everything is there.

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   Symfony 6, PHP 8.2 and Symfony 6. Deliver better backend performance

You would expect new features, considering that Drupal 9 will be upgraded to Symfony PHP. Symfony 6 will be a spring cleanup.

Symfony 6 removes a lot of old, obsolete code. We must update the Symfony APIs in our themes and modules. After we have completed our spring cleaning, our sites will be using the latest PHP and Symfony features and should perform better.

This will provide a faster experience for our users.

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   Work in progress: Improve front-end performance with the removal of jQuery

Drupal has finally removed jQuery. jQuery was, for a long time, the best friend of front-end developers. Javascript was made easier by jQuery, which allowed us to do more heavy lifting using fewer lines of code.

Javascript has seen a tremendous improvement since jQuery was released in 2006. This is what one would expect after 16 years.

jQuery is no longer needed as most of the features it provides are already part of Javascript. Native functions will do much more of the heavy lifting that jQuery was doing, so it is no longer necessary.

The removal of jQuery is ongoing from Drupal 10. Prioritizing the easy removal of jQuery plugins before moving on to a full cleaning up of jQuery code, the core team is working hard.

Here are some of the recent progress:

1. Removed the "jQuery one" plugin
2. The core core has almost all of the jQuery UI plugins removed

We have to remove plugins, but there are still challenges. These include replacing jQuerys AJAX and event handling features with plain javascript.

Its easy to make Drupal 10 not load jQuery for anonymous visitors. This is the most important thing. It may take several years to completely remove jQuery from editors and site builders.

Read More: How Drupal 8 is Beneficial for your Business

Drupal vs other Content Management Systems: Top 5 Advantages

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   Community

Drupals open-source model encourages innovation and continuous improvement through the passion and support of the Drupal community.

Over 1.4 million Drupal users are active in 230 countries and are dedicated to Drupals success. A pool of experts from so many different backgrounds is constantly working to improve Drupal. This allows for exceptional digital experiences that go beyond what any one development team of software developers could imagine.

To ensure the best Drupal experience, people and organizations from all over the world contribute their time and resources to review code, create documentation, test, and incorporate feedback directly from users to make every Drupal release a success.

You can see why Drupal is better than any other CMS by reading our eBook Why to Move to Drupal.

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   User Experience

Modern Drupal is a digital experience platform for marketers and developers that can be used to create memorable customer experiences.

Drupals latest versions have placed a high priority on user experience (UX), empowering everyone, from site editors to content writers, to create powerful customer experiences. The following are some improvements to Drupals user interface:

1. Layout builder. This page builder allows content authors to create pages quickly and easily without the need for a developer.
2. Claros administrative theme. Offers a simpler interface for site configuration, administration, and authoring.
3. Mobile responsive web features. Mobile apps responsive themes and responsive images are available.

Organizations seeking the fastest and easiest way to launch and design their websites can also use. This low-code tool has a dynamic user interface that makes it easy for non-developers, such as web designers, to create experiences on the front end.

Cohesions reusable parts can be used to add new features to all of their digital properties. A major consumer health pharmaceutical company combined the power of Cohesion with Cloud platform to relaunch more than 1,500 websites in multiple languages onto a single digital platform within a little over a year.

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   Scalability

Drupal is a robust and future-proof CMS that allows brands to scale according to their requirements. Drupals flexible API architecture allows for rapid content growth across multiple sites.

Drupal supports a variety of caching modules, which allow for faster page loading, optimized bandwidth, and more robust web performance in high-pressure situations. The site saw a 7,000% increase of traffic last year after the Drupal-powered Justice.gov webpage published Robert Muellers long-awaited investigation into Russian interference in the U.S.

elections. The site was able to function without interruptions or issues. Drupal allows web teams to feel confident that their site can handle high traffic spikes, even when the entire world is watching.

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   Security

Security is the number one priority when it comes to creating digital experiences that people trust. In highly regulated, public-facing sectors like healthcare and government, failure to adhere to digital security standards can cause damage to consumer relationships and result in large legal fees.

Drupal is the most secure CMS. Drupal is trusted by organizations like The State of Georgia and Steward Healthcare.

The Drupal Security Team is a group of security professionals from all over the globe who work together to identify potential vulnerabilities in Drupal core and related Drupal modules.

Before any new model can be released to the public, it must first be reviewed by a team made up of Drupal core administrators. Open-source software can be more vulnerable than proprietary models. Drupals dedicated open-source community allows millions of developers to spot bugs and report them.

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   Accessibility

Drupals commitment is to accessibility standards. This ensures that all users have an accessible web experience.

Any new module or feature that is added to the core must be accessible.

Drupal makes sure that all of its functions and features conform to the World Wide Web Consortium guidelines WCAG and WAI-ARIA.

Drupal 8 and Drupal 9 will include the following accessibility features:

1. Optimized Font Sizes and Color Contrast Themes
2. Alt Tag Defaults
3. Control Tab Order
4. Mobile responsiveness
5. Aural Alerts

Accessibility is an important concern for verticals such as higher education. They have to provide opportunities and knowledge to students of all backgrounds.

Drupal is currently the CMS of choice in 70% of higher education institutions, including North Dakota State University. Drupal is committed to providing accessible information and positive digital experiences for everyone, regardless of their circumstances.

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Conclusion

Staying informed is the best way to prepare for Drupal 10. Businesses are less likely not to delay making the transition to Drupal 10 now that Drupal CMS is flexible in its update process and has simplified migration procedures.

Drupal CMS offers flexibility and cost savings, grows naturally at a speed and can be connected to content across multiple platforms and campaigns.

Regular website updates provide security and business continuity. We can also avoid significant work by migrating to the latest Drupal version.

Get Drupal up and running today. If you want software services we have a software application development company we are happy to help you.

References

1. 🔗 Google scholar
2. 🔗 Wikipedia
3. 🔗 NyTimes