The release of Drupal version 9 on June 3, five years after the arrival of Drupal 8, allowed us to complete our final usability tests of the new version. Since September 2020, all new projects have been based on Drupal 9. The first one is even already in production.
A small project for a first experience in production
There’s nothing like a functionally simple project to test the new release of Drupal. We had this opportunity through the design and deployment of a small transitional site: polyvia.fr. Polyvia is the Union of Polymer Processors. Created at the initiative of the inter-regional plastics industry trade unions, Polyvia will represent plastics and composites manufacturers throughout the country starting December 31, 2020.
The Drupal 9 site polyvia.fr was therefore launched in production in September 2019. It has a lifespan of only a few months, as it will be replaced by the association’s main site on January 1, 2021.
The project objective
The goal of the project is to inform members, users, partners, and institutions about the creation of a new entity, Polyvia, with a new brand environment. The tasks focused on:
- Simplified interface design and deployment using Atomic Design;
- Drupal site configuration and development;
- Integration of the site’s different templates and paragraphs;
- Testing, quality control, and user acceptance before launch.
What's new in Drupal 9
In concrete terms, Drupal 9.0 does not include any additional features for the user or contributor. Version 9 is part of a broader approach that makes updates easier and drastically increases its lifespan. Drupal 9 is based on Symfony 4 (PHP framework) and Twig 2 (template engine). These updates provide users with greater security and stability, and allow Drupal 9 to keep its source code up to date.
As for modules, here is a selection of the main functional innovations already included in Drupal 9 core or coming soon:
- Media Library (stable since 8.8) replacing Media Entity – This module allows you to manage images, audio files, documents, videos, as well as remote videos;
- Workflow (stable since 8.4) – Already present in Drupal 8 modules, this allows for managing content states (draft, pending review, published, archived) and their transitions from an interface;
- LayoutBuilder (stable since 8.7), which enables page building through an advanced site builder interface;
- JSON API in core (stable since 8.7);
- Workspaces (still experimental), which allows you to work on different Drupal instances from a single backend;
- Claro, Olivero, and Gin (still experimental), which will soon replace the current back and frontend themes respectively.
Ongoing projects with Drupal 9
We currently have about ten projects in development with Drupal 9, such as:
- The extranet of the Association Les Petits Frères des Pauvres;
- The development of the training platform for Polyvia;
- The revamp of the site conf-plus.com – Drupal 9 / ReactJS decoupling;
- The overhaul of the ENSOSP website;
- The redesign of the Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur Régie Lignes d’Azur website;
- The redesign of the University of the Antilles library website.
We have also begun major upgrades of sites currently on version 8.9.10 to Drupal 9. The good news is that no Drupal developer has complained so far. Neither has any contributor. That’s a relief.
