Challenges and Opportunities in the Upcoming Drupal 8 Upgrade

Challenges and Opportunities in the Upcoming Drupal 8 Upgrade

by Julia White

An object-oriented approach lowers the barrier to entry for new developers

Drupal 7 and all previous versions used a procedural approach to scripting. This means that code is executed the same way every time the script is run. Procedural scripts are more reliable, but less customizable. Reliability is good, but in order to capitalize on it, developers must be intimately familiar with exactly what procedures are occurring, and in what order. This depth of knowledge gave Drupal 7 its famous steep learning curve.

The object-oriented approach used by Drupal 8 means that the execution of scripts will be much more dynamic. Functionality is treated like mutable objects, able to be modified programmatically. With object orientation, Drupal will operate more like a true API. Newcomers will appreciate this, since the framework will more closely resemble popular imperative languages such as C++ or Javascript.

Having a lower barrier to entry for new developers means that the Drupal community will grow even faster. This is good news for everyone, since it means more Drupal projects will be created, more Drupal jobs will be available, and the labor pool for Drupal development will be even larger.

"Twig" reduces front-end programming, makes it easier to develop site themes

Theming is a huge part of Drupal. It's what separates the look and feel from the functionality of a site. Previously, Drupal used its own PHP framework for developing and executing theme files. Drupal 8 is integrating the Twig framework from the Symfony library, giving frontend developers a new box full of rich and well-established tools. Twig doesn't reduce the capability of Drupal's theme engine, but instead makes it easier to accomplish the same tasks with fewer lines of code.

Since Twig is used widely among Symfony developers, the barrier to entry for newcomers will be lower here, as well. More developers creating themes more easily means that we'll see a real surge of high-quality themes moving into the future.

Streamlined content editing inspired by "Spark"

There are several ways to create content in Drupal 8. The default experience is simple and understandable, but not the most intuitive process. Starting with Drupal 8, the Spark framework will be fully integrated with Drupal core, enabling the following features:

• True WYSIWYG via drag-and-drop layout tools
• Powerful save tools: autosaves, drafts, and more
• Mobile content authoring and administration support

A more streamlined authoring environment means your content creators will spend less time fighting the interface and more time creating great content. Imagine a content authoring system that's more like Google Docs and less like Facebook Posts. This is the vision of Drupal 8.

Redesigned toolbar for centralized navigation

Good user experience begins with intuitive navigation, no matter the framework. Drupal 8 has a redesigned toolbar that appears at the top of the page for any content moderator - not just admins.

With the new "shortcuts" menu, authors will be able to bookmark popular content. This will be particularly useful during development - both of the site and of content in progress.

Accessibility options expand the audience for your site

Drupal 8 has several new accessibility options built into core, such as:

• Large fonts for the visually impaired
• Braille export for the severely visually impaired
• Screen reader export
• Better multilingual support

In the age of online content, the more markets you can reach with your message, the better. Drupal 8 is bringing content to a whole market segment that very few appeal to - the visually impaired.

In addition, Drupal will have dynamic multilingual capabilities including on-server translation. In areas where Google translate is not available, Drupal will offer to translate pages for users. If you have a dedicated localization team, you can optionally save content for a page in each language and have your team review it.

Simpler integration with third-party web applications

Part of the object oriented approach to Drupal 8 is its expanded support for RESTful applications. With the Web Services framework, Drupal will be able to seamlessly communicate with any web platform that uses the REST API. In additional, Drupal content can be serialized between formats such as JSON, XML, binary, and plain text. This enables tighter and more performane integration between different platforms.

Drupal 8's launch is still half a year away, but the developers at Propeople are already getting excited. Nothing scratches a programmer's itch like a truly flexible core, and Drupal 8 is all about flexibility. These changes come at the cost of familiarity, however. Instead of a scriptable core, we'll have a programmable core. Although the transition will take some time to get used to, we agree with Drupal creator Dries Buytaert that the big changes will be worth it.

The upgrade to Drupal 8 won't be easy, but as Dries Buytaert (the founder of the Drupal project) stated:

The reason Drupal has been successful is because we always made big, forward-looking changes. It's a cliché, but change has always been the only constant in Drupal. The result is that Drupal has stayed relevant, unlike nearly every other Open Source CMS over the years. The biggest risk for our project is that we don't embrace change.