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Shall we Drupal 8? Hint: it's not a verb, but the 8th version of Drupal

New version of open source CMS debuts, but migrations may be tricky

The 8th version of open source content management system (CMS) Drupal is upon us.

This time around, Drupal folk are talking up tooling for “the post-browser era”, which apparently means lots of people now read stuff on devices

Dries Buytaert, creator and project lead of Drupal and also CTO at Drupal-wrangling firm Acquia reckons the new edition “... provides a modern development framework, a reimagined user experience, and tools that empower builders to create digital experiences that are multilingual, mobile and highly personalized.”

Responsive interfaces are pervasive, so you can wield the CMS or create content on just about any device that takes your fancy. Improved accessibility features are front and centre, as is security thanks to more granular control over user roles. Exporting content between Drupal instances, or between test and production rigs, has been improved.

The API-happy among you will appreciate the four RESTful web services provided, namely Serialization, Hypertext Application Language (HAL), and HTTP Basic Authentication. The effort also promises content can be output as “as JSON or XML almost as easily as HTML.”

Drupal has some impressive users such as The White House and Australia's Federal Government. Even open source CMS rival Joomla likes it!

The news isn't all good, however, as the Drupal Foundation has announced that Drupal 6 will go end of life on February 24th, 2016. After that date only commercial support will be available.

Migration from Drupal 6 to 8 is “an experimental feature” in the newer version, so version 6-using laggards probably need to contemplate a move to Drupal 7 first. A guide to upgrades can be found here. ®

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