Drupal

Is Drupal a digital experience platform? Drupal started as a content management system for creating websites. However, today, it is rapidly transforming into a cutting-edge digital experience platform. How will Drupal help in enterprise modernization? One of the world’s most preferred and trusted platforms for content management, Drupal is an enterprise-ready solution to aid your digital transformation journey with new-age digital technologies. How well can Drupal be integrated with your MarTech stack? The unparalleled flexibility of Drupal lets you integrate it with your other ERPs like Google Analytics, Eloqua, Pardot, Salesforce, Marketo, and many more. You can plug Drupal in with a wide range of your MarTech tools. How will Drupal help digital transformation initiatives? Drupal isn’t just a tool you can use for building websites. It offers you the functionality to make your projects scalable and create immersive digital touch points to foster positive customer relationships through outstanding digital experiences. What is the difference between Acquia and Drupal? Drupal is a free and open-source content management system that lets you create hyper-customized websites. Drupal also provides DXP capabilities if you want to enrich customer experiences online. On the other hand, Acquia is commercial enterprise that offer a set of cloud based SaaS solutions on top of Drupal. Dries Buytaert, who created Drupal, is the founder of Acquia, and Acquia is one of the top contributors to Drupal, but is not the only company working in the domain. Drupal for Enterprise Web Development

Why is Drupal 10 releasing so soon? Symfony 4 will reach its End-of-Life (EoL) in November 2023. Post that date, security bugs in Symfony 4 will not get fixed. Drupal 9 heavily depends on Symfony 4, which puts it at an increased security risk. There arise the need for Drupal to adopt Symfony 5 (or later) at the earliest. Drupal 10 will be using Symfony 6.2. Why is there a delay in the release of Drupal 10 from the planned release date? The release of Drupal 10, which was originally scheduled to release in June this year, was further pushed back to December, and Dries announced the decision in DrupalCon Portland 2022. One of the biggest news about the Drupal 10 is that it will have the upcoming CKEditor 5, with its vastly improved authoring experience and an array of plug-ins. There is more work to be done on integrating it with the Drupal 10, which has caused the delay from the planned release date. When is the new target release date of Drupal? The finalized release date for Drupal 10.0.0 is December 14, 2022, which gives site owners 11 months to update from Drupal 9 to Drupal 10. It will be the easiest upgrade in Drupal’s history. What is included in Drupal 10? Some of the new features that are included in Drupal 10 take our excitement about Drupal 10 to another level.Drupal’s new frontend theme (replacing Bartik) - OliveroDrupal’s new backend theme (replacing Seven) - ClaroFurther improved Media functionality and Layout Builder.Better decoupled developer and site builder experiences, particularly for menu and URL handling.Replacement of some uses of jQuery with modern JavaScript components.The new custom theme creation process using the Starterkit toolsSymfony 6.2 (replacing Symfony 4) and PHP 8.1.CKEditor 5 with a vastly improved authoring experience (replacing CKEditor 4). How do I prepare for Drupal 10? For Drupal 9 users:The best right now is to help automate the process towards Drupal 10 if you are on Drupal 9. Keep a watch on functionalities that will be deprecated on Drupal 10 and ensure that you follow the best practices in maintaining your Drupal 9 website so that the Drupal 10 migration will be as smooth as possible.For Drupal 8 users:One must update to Drupal 9 immediately, as Drupal 8 already reached its end of life in November 2021. If you are looking for support to migrate from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9, we are happy to help.For Drupal 7 users:Drupal 7 has an end-of-life date in November 2023, nearly a year since the release of Drupal 10. Though Drupal 10 will include migration tools from Drupal 7, the contributed projects one uses that are likely available for Drupal 9 may not be ready shortly after the Drupal 10 release. So, one shouldn’t wait to migrate to Drupal 10 directly but start updating to Drupal 9 soon. Updating Drupal 10 from Drupal 9 will be easier than from Drupal 7. How long will Drupal 9 be supported? The end-of-life date for Drupal 9 is when Symfony 4 reaches its end of life in November 2023, as Drupal uses a lot of Symfony code. Will the upgrade to Drupal 10 be easy? The module developers can start adopting any new APIs immediately as new functionality for Drupal 10 is added to Drupal 9 releases. The upgrade to Drupal 10 should be easy though removing deprecated code breaks backward compatibility. What do you recommend for Drupal 6, Drupal 7 and Drupal 8 site owners? If you are maintaining a Drupal 6 or Drupal 8 website, we recommend an immediate migration to Drupal 9 as both these versions have already reached the end of life. Although Drupal 7 users will get time till November 2023, it is advisable to plan your migration right now.We have developed a tool to help you assess the complexity of your Drupal 7 to Drupal 9 website migration.9 Please contact us for more information. Drupal 10: Frequently Asked Questions

A list of frequently asked questions on Drupal custom theme development. What is the difference between Drupal 7’s and Drupal 9’s architecture? While Drupal 7 runs on the PHPTemplate as its default theme engine, Drupal 9 uses Twig (which replaces the PHPTemplate as the default theme engine). What is the difference between a Drupal base theme and a starterkit? The Drupal Starterkit theme is a command line tool that allows developers to start a new theme from scratch or from a template. On the other hand, in Drupal base themes, the sub-theme extends the base theme, and the base theme is used in runtime as part of your theme. What is the best theme for building micro websites on Drupal? This is a needs-based decision. You can use the Micro theme module on Drupal to create microsites on Drupal for the specific needs of your industry, as micro websites for a product or specific project may need to incorporate the brand elements of the parent website. Is it possible to use a Drupal 7 theme in Drupal 9 or Drupal 10 website? No, it is not possible to use a Drupal 7 theme in Drupal 9 or Drupal 10 websites. Drupal 7 uses PHPtemplate as the theme engine, whereas the latest versions of Drupal use twig theme engine. As Drupal themes uses HTML and CSS, it is possible to extract the HTML/CSS components from the Drupal 7 theme and reuse them in the Drupal 9 themes or Drupal 10 themes. I am using Drupal 8; can I use the same theme in Drupal 9? Technically it is possible to use a theme created for Drupal 8 in Drupal 9 with minor changes. If there are lots of customizations, specifically theme preprocess functions, a Drupal 9 compatibility check needs to be done to enable the code to support Drupal 9 before using it there. Is it possible to maintain a Drupal 9 theme compatible with Drupal 10? Yes, it is possible to maintain a Drupal 9 theme compatible with Drupal 10 by replacing all the functions that are deprecated in Drupal 10. If the developer closely follow the Drupal 10 releases, it will be easy to maintain a theme that is supported by Drupal 9 as well as Drupal 10 and when Drupal 10 get released, the theme can be used in a Drupal 10 website without any change. Will Drupal support component-based theming? (Atomic design, patternlab, Storybook, etc.) Yes, Drupal will support component-based theming that will enable atomic design with the help of the Patternlab development environment through Twig.  Should I go for a custom theme or off-the-shelf theme? An off-the-shelf theme is used when you need to get a website up and running quickly or want to show a proof of concept or prototype, or if the budget is really low. If you are looking to build a digital experience platform that should stand for the long term and support all the customer journeys you define and be unique to your brand, the best option is to go with the custom theme development. Drupal Custom Theme Development

Looking to hire Drupal developers? Zyxware's FAQ provides insight into the hiring process, required skills, and finding the best fit for your project Why hire Drupal Web developer from Zyxware? Building and maintaining over 200 Drupal-based platforms, and deep engagement with the Drupal community has helped us in developing protocols and best practice guidelines for doing Drupal right. Our Drupal developers resonate this ethos to the fullest. Which industries do we serve? Our clients from media, retail, education, and public services own and operate Drupal sites that offer best in class experiences to their customers and other internal and external users. Platforms built by our Drupal experts have stood the test of time and continue to leverage the community's new contributions, including new modules, security updates, and bug fixes.  What’s an indicator of our commitment to Drupal? 91,000 hours have been spent on Drupal 8/9 by our expert developers so far. That is a lot of time; we like to think of it as 'time well spent.' How to hire a Drupal developer? You can get in touch with us with your requirement. Our technical manager will get back to you to understand the skill set needed for your specific requirements. Once we agree on the skillset, we will delegate suitable JDs along with resumes of developers and rate cards. If required, we can organize a session with the developer. If the developer or team we provide meet your expectation, the contract can be signed, and the project can begin at the mutually agreed time. What does a Drupal developer do? There are 3 types of skills a Drupal developer possesses:Sitebuilding - Primarily deals with configuring the content types, views, and other elements to implement the WebCMSDrupal theme developer - This is the frontend developer who will implement the HTML/CSS into a Drupal themeDrupal module developer - These types of developers are familiar with the Drupal internal APIs and can create the custom features required.There is another category called Full Stack developers who have expertise in sitebuilding, theming, and module development. Where can I find Drupal developers? You can hire drupal developers full-time from online job portals or with hiring agencies, but if your core business is not software development, we do not recommend hiring directly from the open market.You can always leverage hiring organizations like Zyxware for your requirements. We can provide you with full-time developers or a team per your needs. You will get your project done worry-free with our 15+ years of expertise in Drupal. FAQ: Hire Drupal Developers