Like every month, we’ve prepared an overview of the top Drupal-related news & articles from the previous month. We hope you enjoy revisiting our picks from July!
Drupal Business Survey 2024
We’re starting with a post from the Drupal Association announcing the 2024 edition of the annual Drupal Business Survey which investigates trends of service providers involved with the Drupal DXP.
The post also includes highlights from last year’s survey, citing security, flexibility and reliability as Drupal’s most powerful selling points. Drupal’s open source nature also remains a key priority, and the demand for Drupal talent continues to be high.
You’re free to share your feedback anonymously in this year’s survey which is open until September 4th, with the results being discussed at the 2024 DrupalCon Europe.
Read more about the Drupal Business Survey 2024
Announcing the Drupal Starshot Advisory Council
Next up, we have Dries’s announcement of the Drupal Starshot Advisory Council. The council’s chief goal is providing strategic input and feedback to help make sure that Starshot is aligned with the needs of stakeholders and users. On top of that, it will also play a key role in the communication regarding the project.
The advisory council holds monthly meetings to receive updates on the progress of Drupal Starshot. It is composed of diverse members of the community, including members from the Starshot team, the DA staff and Board of Directors, Drupal Certified Partners and Core Committers, and also people representing the target users of Starshot.
Read more about the Drupal Starshot Advisory Council
Continuous forward compatibility checking of extensions for Drupal 12, 13, etc
In the next article, Gábor Hojtsy presents a new solution for checking the forward compatibility of Drupal extensions for future versions of Drupal. Namely, together with other members of the community, they integrated Upgrade Status checking with integrated native GitLab CI integration into the Drupal.org GitLab templates.
Gábor details the process of developing this solution, making sure to credit everyone who has worked on it. He also provides a comparison table for the OPT_IN_TEST_NEXT_MAJOR variable which runs tests on the next major version, and recommends that both of them should be used in tandem for the best forward compatibility.
Read more about forward compatibility checking of Drupal extensions
Introducing Ripple Makers: our revamped Individual Membership program!
Moving on, we have an announcement from the Drupal Association about the reworking of the Individual Membership program into Ripple Makers, which aims to increase communication and transparency, creating more opportunities for engagement.
This transformation is centered around Drupal’s commitment to fostering deeper connections with community members and recognizing the invaluable role they have played in Drupal’s success. The new Ripple Makers program will be more inclusive and communicative to reflect this appreciation and create a culture of belonging.
Trial experience for Starshot update
We continue with Matt Glaman’s update on the Trial experience for Drupal Starshot. The track has three phases: first, evaluating and deciding on the best approach for a Starshot trial experience; next, adding the ability to export trial websites; and last, smoothing the transition from the trial experience to one or more hosting providers.
The plan for the track is to have Phase 1 beta ready for DrupalCon Europe in Barcelona and Phase 2 by the launch of Starshot. Phase 3 will be the most complex one due to specifics of different hosting providers, and so a standard format will be required to handle the integrations.
Read more about trial experience for Drupal Starshot
Why time is of the essence for a Drupal 11 migration
The next July article comes from Four Kitchens’ Shanice Ortiz who wrote about important considerations for a Drupal 11 migration. Right away she highlights the importance of starting to plan for the upgrade as soon as possible, despite the two-year support that Drupal 11 will be receiving.
While new features will largely be arriving in the minor releases of Drupal 11.1 and beyond, planning for the upgrade now will help companies avoid unnecessary complications down the line. What’s key for stakeholders to know is that this will be more of a maintenance upgrade that will allow for leaner and better positioning in the future.
Read more about the importance of planning a Drupal 11 migration
Getting ready to run your first migration
Another article dealing with migrations comes from Michael Anello / ultimike of DrupalEasy who provides a helpful guide to setting up and running your first basic Drupal content migration, focusing on configuration entity migrations over plugin migrations.
The example that Mike’s article demonstrates is importing a small portion of user data from a Drupal 7 site into a Drupal 10 site. He goes into detail on each step, from creating a custom migration module to specifics and tricks for running the migration.
In the final section, he also includes a list of additional resources to expand upon the basics learned from this article.
Read more about running your first Drupal migration
FAQs About Drupal 7's End of Life
Finally, we have one more article from the Drupal Association, this one going through frequently asked questions about the end of life of Drupal 7 coming early in 2025.
Namely, starting this month, unsupported Drupal 7 modules and themes are no longer eligible for new maintenance. From January 5th of next year, no further official security advisories or updates will be provided, and extended support from commercial vendors will be needed for sites that remain on Drupal 7.
The article also includes other key information such as PHP version requirements, and concludes with a breakdown of different options for D7 site owners to move forward.
