Drupal 8 End of Life: What You Need To Know

Drupal 8 reaches its end of life today, November 2, 2021. We caught up with Senior Developer Joe Cardella, to talk about what this means for sites built on Drupal 8, what to expect with upgrading your site to Drupal 9, and a few of the advantages of this latest Drupal version.

Why is Drupal 8 being sunsetted?

The primary reason for this sunsetting has to do with Drupal’s dependency on the Symfony application framework. Drupal 8 is dependent on Symfony 3, and support for Symfony 3 ends in November. In Drupal 9, that dependency was updated to Symfony 4. As Symfony deprecates portions of its API, Drupal in turn needs to keep pace.

What does this mean for sites built on Drupal 8?

Sites built on Drupal 8 will be moving outside the support window as of November 2nd. The biggest impact will be that security updates will cease.

Will the transition to Drupal 9 be challenging to implement?

There are really two stories here. If you're up-to-date on Drupal 8, transitioning from 8 to 9 should be easy. This transition is much easier than the transition from 7 to 9, for example, more akin to a minor version update of Drupal 8.

However, there are a few things to consider. First off, the state of whatever modules you’re using for your projects. Most widely-used modules have been made compatible with 9. If your project is dependent on modules that have not been made compatible, it will be a bit more challenging. Consider contributing to the project to update the module, or otherwise find an alternative compatible module. 

Another issue to consider is the state of custom code in your project. There are API changes and code deprecations that will need to be updated in your project. Most of the time these updates are minor.

Finally, you may have certain considerations to take into account based on your hosting environment - you may find that you’ll need to update some core technologies such as the PHP version, your database, and search platforms.

Does this have implications for sites built on Drupal 7?

Drupal 7’s support window was extended until November 1, 2023. This was done in recognition that a majority of all Drupal sites are still relying on Drupal 7 and will require security support throughout the extended transition period.

You can transition from Drupal 7 directly to Drupal 9, and Drupal 9’s core migrate module contains support for that transition. Even with that support, it’s a significant effort. You have more runway with the extended support window, but you should be starting the process sooner rather than later.

What are some advantages or new features of Drupal 9?

There’s a new admin theme and a new frontend theme with better accessibility support. One of the great advantages of the changes brought about by Drupal 8 and continuing on into the future of Drupal 9 and beyond is the predictable and frequent release schedule. This makes keeping up with platform changes easier to plan for and implement, and it makes major version transitions like this much easier to handle than it was pre-Drupal 8.

Do you anticipate more frequent sunsetting for newer Drupal versions moving forward?

Drupal core development has become more frequent and predictable over the course of Drupal 8, and that is expected to continue. This creates an environment that enables and accelerates innovation within the platform. For example, Drupal 10’s first beta release is expected the week of September 12, 2022.

How is Phase2 helping its clients and partners transition to Drupal 9?

We’re definitely being proactive. 

We’ve pushed a number of Drupal 9 updates live over the course of the year. We knew about the sunset date far in advance and we prepared our clients for the transition and initiated a planning process, and in some cases we were able to complete the transition as part of normal sprint work. Each project has unique needs and some require more work to complete the transition, but overall I’d say it has been a very manageable process.

We’ll always be forward-looking with our clients and make the necessary recommendations to keep projects well-positioned and successful.