When a new product rolls out, it raises a lot of interest. The Drupal 9 release is no exception. This interest is easy to understand because new versions of Drupal bring new digital opportunities. Today, interactions with potential customers have shifted into the virtual sphere, so websites have an especially important mission to perform.
Whenever you have questions, our Drupal development team is ready to provide the answers! We offered you a Drupal 9 upgrade checklist for website owners, and now that Drupal 9 is out, it’s time to take a new look at it and answer all your questions in our Q&A session.
Drupal 9 release: Top Questions and Expert Insights
Question: What was the release date of Drupal 9?
Answer: Drupal 9.0.0 was released on June 4, 2020.
Question: What are the new features of Drupal 9?
Answer: The Drupal 9.0 release is not game-changing in terms of features. It is very similar to Drupal 8.9, but cleaned-up from obsolete code and furnished with the latest versions of third-party dependencies. One of Drupal 9’s outstanding capacities is super easy upgrades.
When it comes to features, from Drupal 8.0 all the way to Drupal 9.0, Drupal has been growing and evolving in many aspects. This will continue in Drupal 9. It is significantly easier to use for marketers, content editors and designers. New Media and Media Library, Layout Builder, Content Moderation and Workflows, and Workspaces have transformed the editing processes forever. Drupal’s API-first nature with JSON: API in the core makes websites more open to third-party integration and multi-channel reach.
The Drupal creators will keep inventing more interesting features based on the strategic tracks — better editor-friendliness, compliance with website accessibility standards, integration, and more. For example, the new default front-end theme Olivero planned for Drupal 9.1 ships with the best web accessibility practices included. And it’s just the beginning of Drupal 9’s forward movement.
Question: What are the updated dependencies in Drupal 9?
Answer: Among the major third-party libraries and components in Drupal 9 are the template-making engine Twig 2, useful components of the high-level framework Symfony 4.4 (with Symfony 5 in plans), the modern content editor CKEditor 5 in plans, and many more.
Question: What are the benefits of the updated dependencies in Drupal 9?
Answer: Modern versions of dependencies make websites faster, more efficient, and more secure. Their code gets much cleaner, which leads to easier website maintenance, more efficient development, friendliness to search engines, and so on.
Question: What are the reasons to upgrade to Drupal 9 from Drupal 7?
Answer: Drupal 7 is getting outdated in its digital capabilities. Between Drupal 7 and Drupal 8/9, there is a technological abyss, but you can cross the bridge to the other side.
You will get a version with all features of both Drupal 8 and Drupal 9. Multilingual options, third-party integrations, mobile-friendliness, better accessibility, outstanding changes for content editors, and improved configuration management are just a few examples.
Question: What are the reasons to upgrade to Drupal 9 from Drupal 8?
Answer: Drupal 9 has huge plans for innovative development. In addition, an upgrade from D8 to D9 is very easy and requires actions you need to take anyway.
To move from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9, you will need to clean up the deprecated code from your site and update it to the latest minor version of Drupal 8. You need these updates in any case to use all the new features that have appeared from Drupal 8.0 to Drupal 9.0, as well as to get more security for your website.
So the question “Why upgrade to Drupal 9 from Drupal 8?” need no extra explanation — this is just your simple, natural, and effortless move to the future.
Question: How do I prepare for Drupal 9?
Answer: The key requirements are to update your website to Drupal 8.8 or 8.9, update your modules and themes, check your site for deprecated APIs and functions and replace them with new alternatives, and make sure your hosting server uses PHP 7.3 or higher. Some of the useful tools to prepare for Drupal 9 are the Drupal Check command-line tool, the Upgrade Status module, the Drupal-rector tool, the Upgrade Rector contributed module, and the Drupal 9 Deprecation Status page.
Question: How long will it take to upgrade from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9?
Answer: A well-prepared site makes the upgrade instant, so the answer depends on the state of your website’s readiness. This includes how long ago you made updates between the minor versions (maybe you are still on 8.1 or something), how many custom modules you have that need to be cleaned up from obsolete code, and so on.
Upgrade to Drupal 9 with us!
The above questions about the Drupal 9 release are the most commonly asked, but our Drupal team will be glad to answer any of your questions. Of course, we will seamlessly upgrade you so you can enjoy the latest Drupal version. Our prices are affordable and a quote is free. Contact us for a new digital era of your website!