It is said that Drupal 8 is more of a gift to the content authors - as these are the people who are actually using Drupal websites in their day to day experience.
Out of the 15-years-long successful history of Drupal in the dynamic world of web, the trusted content management platform spent about 5 years in developing the latest innovation named "Drupal 8". Better, bigger and brighter, Drupal 8 has undeniably raised the new standards of digital experience for the wide variety of businesses. Right at the time Drupal 8 was announced, the buzz created the much speculated "Osborne effect". While the CMS nearly took 5 years for the release of Drupal 8, it seems like the wait was well worth it.
Soon after the announced of Drupal 8, there was a lot of buzz about the potential capabilities and performance of this CMS. Will it be easy to develop modules for Drupal 8? What will be the various benefits of Drupal 8 to a site builder or administrator? How is it going to diversify the digital experience of a user? While such concerns are quite protruding to the behavioral acceptance of a new technology and now that Drupal 8 has been successfully released, the prominent efforts to accelerate Drupal’s most widely used modules has started in full throttle.
Still thinking why you should migrate your Drupal (or non-Drupal) site to Drupal 8? What are the various reasons that support the migration now? Give clarity to your thoughts with these 7 reasons to migrate to Drupal 8:
Reason 1: Drupal 8 has most of the needed functionalities “in core”
Along with many other in core functionality, Drupal 8 is now multilingual in the core. Drupal 8 has broadly streamlined the entire functionality into four broader modules: Language (providing it a multilingual support), Configuration Translation (quite similar to internationalization in Drupal 7 where blocks, menus, and views becomes translatable), Content Translation (Similar to Entity Translation of Drupal 7 where nodes, taxonomy terms, and comments are translatable) and Interface Translation (similar to Locale Core Module of Drupal 7 where the entire user interface becomes translatable).
Unlike Drupal 7 and its contributed modules, Drupal 8 powers a lot of "in core" functionalities that are readily available off the shelf in Drupal 8 core. For the very first time, you can find a CMS with almost 59 in core modules. While CKEditor, Entity API, JQuery Update and internationalization are a few major modules in Drupal 8, you might have Viewed as a "critically acclaimed" module. As a CMS with upgraded modules and functionalities, there are about 36 modules in Drupal 8 that have been under the renamed/obsolete categories. Some common modules that had their functionalities replaced and/or included in Drupal 8 (a.k.a no longer needed) are Path redirect, Global redirect, Meta tags quick, Page Title, Addressfield, ImageAPI, and so on.
Reason 2: Drupal 8 has the needed documentation
From object-oriented conventions used in Drupal to understanding user interface, storing and retrieving of the critical data (through different entities, fields, configuration API, State API, views, etc.) and knowhow of all the essential APIs, Drupal 8 is one of the best platforms to provide a pleasing "developer experience", and Drupal 8 focuses on making this experience easier through knowledge transfer and thorough understanding to its users. With in-depth documentation and ready-to-access Drupal handbook, the CMS extends conceptual explanations and detailed examples of using different APIs.
Reason 3: Upgrading Drupal modules to Drupal 8 is easier with the “Module Upgrader”
The Drupal Module Upgrader is nothing but a proactive command-line script that scans the source of a module created in the previous version to upgrade the code to Drupal 8. Any code that requires upgrading is identified and flagged by the Drupal Module Upgrader, pointing relevant changes wherever needed.
In simple words, you can automatically convert your Drupal 7 code to Drupal 8 version. Drupal Module Upgrader works on the simple mission to hit the most widely used Drupal hooks, ensuring some proper coverage to all of them. With modules like Drupal Upgrader, the CMS ensure the best-practice migration process, so you could migrate to Drupal 8 easily.
Reason 4: Drupal 8 "Module Acceleration Program" funds the most important modules
A few months ago when Drupal 8 was released, the Drupal community decided to implicitly take a simple promise from the wide-ranging 1 million plus Drupal website owners, developer, and authors. They wanted to ensure these users will trust Drupal as an innovative CMS platform for about three to five years in coming times. The promise was then carried forward through the Acquia’s funding initiative named "Drupal 8 Module Acceleration Program" that included more than 20 critical modules that the community relies on to build large-scale websites. The funding program includes modules like Panels, Panelizer, Search API, Entity Embed, Field Collection, Metatag, Recaptcha, and so on.
Through the funding program, it is planned that a budget of $500K will be directly awarded to the external maintainers and expert Drupalists in the community. Needless to say, the "Drupal 8 Module Acceleration Program" ensures the least pause and lag in the D8 adoption. With such accelerating programs funding some famous modules, Drupal 8 undoubtedly becomes the most "desired" CMS solution for any website.
Reason 5: You can now learn Drupal 8 easily through vibrant learning resources
When it comes to Drupal 8, there is nothing hidden or way-too-much technical about this platform. With each version, Drupal has planned to make the approach less technical for editors and site admins, providing a convenient user interface for foundational tasks (such as installation, data modeling, the architecture of information, front end, landing page, etc.).
So when it is about Drupal 8, you are never alone in the reigns of information and insight. The CMS platform has been widely discussed, tested, and documented for the best user experience. You can anytime switch to some powerful Drupal 8 learning resources like Acquia Academy, BuildaModule, Drupalize.me, etc. to enhance your knowledge and understanding about the CMS platform. Drupal 8 has readily accepted some of the significant API changes and such changes are special because they are now according to the modern standards of the web world. You can learn about the change and shift with the help of learning resources available through various sites. These active publications will not only enhance your Drupal 8 experience but would also keep you ahead of time.
Learn Drupal Easily: Your Guide to the Main Online Resources
Reason 6: Drupal 8 is "Effortless" in more than many ways
Themed with the flexible PHP-based innovation "Twig" and implemented with a mobile-first approach, there are many things about Drupal 8 that makes it effortless and sheer convenient for developers, site builders, and end users.
Powered by the latest PHP-based theming innovation called "Twig", Drupal 8 guarantees an updated and more secure theming layer. Since much of the templates are written using the "less-complicated" syntax (and not through the PHP template), Drupal 8 is also about a safe CMS experience.
All the inbuilt themes of Drupal 8 are responsive, as they also come with an admin theme that wishfully adapts screens of different sizes. Similarly, the "Back to Site" button allows the movement for back to the front page. As all the themes are responsive, the tables and toolbar allow easy fit-in to any screen size. With Drupal 8, you can enjoy a more powerful HTML5 for writing web markup that gives ultimate access to input fields (such as of date, email, address, etc.) and makes the entire setup successful through mobile and handheld devices.
As Drupal 8 uses modern software methodology, components, and architecture, it brings the best combination of features and modules for a website. It brings CKEditor WYSIWYG editor that supports some extra features like editing image captions, easy linking and so on. From in-place editing to the newly redesigned content creation page, everything with Drupal 8 is easy and convenient for the Editor/Developer.
Reason 7: Now is your chance to contribute to Drupal 8
You can be an incredible sportsman like Alex Ovechkin or Leo Messi, but only your genius is not enough to win something really big like Stanley Cup or FIFA World Cup. Such achievements should be a collective effort - an effort where each and every part of the team is a vital contributor. So if Drupal 8 is right on the track for winning these tournaments, it is more certainly because of the vast community that backs the development process in the most undisputed manner.
The vast Drupal community has been backing the course of innovation and easy to implement modules for Drupal 8. Nevertheless, your contribution to the ever-evolving Drupal ecosystem will be inactive if you haven’t decided yet to build/migrate your existing Drupal site to Drupal 8.
Migrate to Drupal 8: Vardot Conclusion
The development of Drupal 8 started in the year 2011 and finally launched in November 2015, spending a comprehensive span of 5 years in the development phase. Within this span of 5 years, the world of applications and frameworks has changed magnificently. It demands a "one-in-all" development platform that provides API completion, feature completion, cleanup, beta, and release candidate (RC) phase with bated breath. As a unanimous content management framework, Drupal 8 is a much-desired solution for both users and developers. From content presentation to the user interface, data architecture, APIs, multilingual capabilities and mobile-friendliness, every aspect of Drupal 8 is a delight in itself.
At Vardot, we have already started developing projects for our clients on Drupal 8, as we believe Drupal 8 readiness is almost complete. This way, we are contributing our special bit in the success story of Drupal 8 and at the same time, we are driving, upgrading and building functionalities that we face along from real cases.
Varbase Distribution (i.e. our in-house innovation of "Drupal bundled with necessitates") is all set to launch a full Drupal 8 distribution release by the end of May this year. The idea of enhancing Drupal distribution with the mandatory dose of necessities as in features, configurations, and modules is a close concern for us.
Are you willing to upgrade your website to Drupal 8 today?
Contact us NOW to analyze your existing Drupal website and its readiness for Drupal 8 migration! Migrate to Drupal 8 easily with Vardot!
