OPTASY: Drupal Web Development Agency Toronto
(416) 243-2431Drupal SupportRequest A QuoteQuote

Main navigation

  • Home
  • Services
    • Digital Strategy
    • Design
    • Web Development
      • Drupal
      • WordPress
      • Magento
      • Laravel
      • Shopify
      • Sharepoint
      • Contentful
      • Gatsby
      • Next.js
      • Node.js
      • React
      • AngularJS
    • Mobile & App
      • IOS
      • Android
      • Augmented Reality
      • Artificial Intelligence
      • Virtual Reality
    • Maintenance & Support
      • Drupal Maintenance
      • Wordpress Maintenance
    • Staff Augmentation
  • Portfolio
    • Web
    • Mobile
    • Ar
  • About
    • Who we are
    • Values
    • Events
    • Awards
    • News
    • Careers
    • Partners
      • Acquia
      • Google
      • Pantheon
      • Shopify
      • Wordpress
  • Blog
    • Drupal
    • Drupal 8
    • HTML
    • CSS
    • Javascript
    • PHP
    • Microsoft
    • Web Design
    • Design
    • Tips
    • News
  • Contact
(416) 243-2431 Drupal Support Request A QuoteQuote

In light of the recent COVID-19 pandemic - OPTASY would like to offer DRUPAL website support for any Healthcare, Government, Education and Non-Profit Organization(s) with critical crisis communication websites or organizations directly providing relief. Stay Safe and Stay Well.

Drupal 8

Drupal 8 is the Future of CMS

by Adrian Ababei on Feb 24 2015

At OPTASY we’re big fans of Drupal. While we remain a technology agnostic firm and believe in matching organization needs with the best technology available, we believe Drupal is an excellent platform that addresses a wide range of web requirements. Now, with the recent beta version release of Drupal 8, the future of Drupal is incredibly bright.

Drupal 8, which is currently in beta mode and slated for full production release sometime in 2015, represents a large-scale reimagining of the core Drupal application. The result of this grand effort is a much more cohesive, flexible and integrated platform on which to build websites of the future.

Some folks have come to us and are already considering the move to Drupal 8 and are interested in becoming early adopters. However, before we get into specifics about Drupal 8, we want to highlight two key reasons we will likely continue to build on Drupal 7 for all of 2015 and into 2016:

  • The true power of Drupal lies in the community modules that are available, and it will be at least 3-6 months until a critical mass have been upgraded and are production ready for Drupal 8. This timeline starts once Drupal 8 is released into production.
  • In community development right now are a set of migration tools that should significantly ease the process of migrating from Drupal 7 to 8 at the appropriate time. This significantly reduces the reason to build on Drupal 8 out of the gate, and the majority of sites to start using 8 are likely to have been migrated from 7.

We would not support Drupal 7 if it was not a best-in-class application. That said, in building websites on 7, we have spent much time over the years on activities such as turning off unneeded features, applying a group of our favorite modules to streamline and improve the admin interface, and tieing in an array of symbiotic third-party tools for caching and performance. While this knowledge is great for an agency that works with Drupal constantly, it can be harder for non-expert Drupal users to get up to speed. The inclusion of many strategies we use for Drupal 7 natively into Drupal 8 will be great for getting sites up to speed quickly. We have also written about some of our other Drupal implementation best practices which may be interesting to those looking for a more technical experience with Drupal.

Drupal 8 Features We Love

1. Manage your site's content...from your phone. Anyone that’s ever administered a website knows that it’s best done while using a desktop or laptop. Much of the backend functionality simply doesn’t work, or doesn’t support mobile platforms. Enter Drupal 8, which is being built from the ground up with a focus on multi-device support. The core themes available for Drupal 8 will utilize responsive design, on both the front and back-end. Not only will visitors to your site have an optimized viewing experience for every device, your administrators will be able to manage the site from mobile devices as well.

2. Add new features to your live site with ease. Prior versions of Drupal store virtually all configuration settings in the Drupal database, alongside all site content (such as pages, menus, blocks, metadata and users). This approach greatly complicates deploying your updated site (e.g. code with new features) to your live site, as you can’t simply overwrite the live database without erasing your latest content and user activity in the process. In Drupal 7 we use the Features and Strongarm modules to build exportable packages of settings, Drupal 8 now stores these settings in files found in your library directory. This greatly simplifies deploying configuration changes such as new content types, fields or views from development to production.

3. Improved performance capabilities through modernization. As part of the overall transition to the Symfony framework, Drupal 8 offers an alternative to the unique "hook" system for attaching modules to Drupal core. Through the Symfony Event Dispatcher, application components can communicate with one another, allowing the system as a whole to run much more intelligently. What this means for the end user is that unlike the default with prior versions of Drupal, the system does not need to load every enabled module with each page request. And as many core Drupal hooks have been replaced, Drupal as an application is well on its way to potentially replacing hooks altogether in Drupal 9.

4. Integration capabilities significantly improved. Already one of the most flexible platforms when it comes to integrating with third-party applications, Drupal 8 takes the possibilities to an entirely different level. Using the new Rest & Serialization APIs, site builders will be able to output serialized data as JSON and XML from Drupal, almost as easily as they can normal HTML output.

5.  Take your website around the world. Drupal 7 supports multi-lingual functionality, but not at the level that Drupal 8 will. Imagine translating your site’s content to any one of the 110 different supported languages with a few clicks. You’ll be able to not only translate a page’s content for a specific language, but also build views and determine what blocks should appear for that language. Translation updates will also be pushed to the site automatically to make sure your site has the latest dictionary.

Why We Love Drupal in General

 

1. Site management made easy with Drupal content types. One of the keys to getting the most benefit from a CMS lies in the separation of content from design and layout.  The greater extent to which you can isolate these two site components, the more your graphic designers and content authors/editors can be freed to do their jobs without interference from one another.  Drupal bakes this concept into its very core by making it quite easy to create numerous individual content types, each with its own collection of fields and possible field types.  Gone are the days where authors are presented a blank slate for each page via a single rich text area. With Drupal, your designers can easily ensure these fields get styled correctly and displayed in the right orientation, while authors are presented with simple fields to fill out and edit.

2. Scalability and flexibility galore. Drupal is one of the most flexible platforms on the market right now and allows virtually unlimited customization in the front-end, backend, and everything in-between. The key lies in the thousands of excellent off-the-shelf modules available at drupal.org. While some may require customization, they can be added on to core Drupal with relative ease. This ensures your site can grow and change as your organization does the same.

3. System administrator automation via Drush. Freely available for download and immediate use on all Drupal sites, Drush provides an awesome command-driven interface for managing Drupal.  Admin tasks that require many clicks and page refreshes are easily reduced to a single command. For example, we find Drush most useful in the creation of new user accounts (especially if you need to create many at once), generation of system backups, application of core and module updates, and migration of content from other systems.

4. Robust security and overall support options. Software companies typically have dozens, or at most hundreds of developers working on support, bug fixes, new features, integrations. The Drupal community comprises over 180,000 active contributors. This facilitates rapid advancement for Drupal and establishes a very large population of modules and integrations.

Share the article

Development

We do Web development

Go to our Web development page!

Visit page!

Do you want a website

or app developed?

 

Get a Free Quote

and let's make it work!

Get a Quote

Recommended Stories

DrupalDrupal 8Tips
How Can Web Accessibility Grow Your Website

How Can Web Accessibility Grow Your Website

  Accessibility for disabled individuals is extremely important because they use multiple assistive technologies that often require accessible websites and mobile applications to function properly. Web accessibility is not just for people with physical limitations; it has real business value too! Read on to learn seven important benefits of creating an accessible site for your business. According to a survey of around 500 U. S. business executives and developers, most of them admit that making websites accessible requires too much time and financial investment. We're here to let you know that creating an accessible website isn't hard at all, will greatly improve the user interface, and will most likely prevent you from facing any legal issues. Laws regarding web accessibility  In the United States, laws are being updated to make sure that websites are accessible to everyone. The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) was first passed in 1990 and has been amended several times since then. The ADA applies to public accommodations, including businesses, educational institutions, government agencies, libraries, museums, and other organizations that provide goods or services to the general public. It also covers places of entertainment such as movie theaters, restaurants, hotels, amusement parks, sports stadiums, and concert venues. As of 2020, there are no federal regulations requiring websites to be accessible to users with disabilities. However, some states have their own laws that apply to websites. For example, California's Business & Professions Code Section 5412(a) says: "All persons shall have equal opportunity to obtain employment, housing, and commercial transactions without discrimination or segregation based on disability." This means that if you operate a business in California, you must ensure that your website is accessible to people who use assistive technology. If you don't comply with this law, you could face fines up to $2,500 per violation. 7 Benefits of Making Your Website Accessible Improved conversion rates. It's true that accessibility only helps the visitor but if you improve the user experience and make it accessible for everyone, you're planting the seeds for:   More visitors means more sales. Better user engagement Improving SEO ranking Higher conversion rate   Legal complications are less likely when you invest in web accessibility. With increasing legal requirements surrounding web accessibility becoming stricter, making your website accessible has become an absolute necessity unless you want to be fined. Be aware of the various web accessibility requirements and ensure that your website complies with them. Bigger customer base. Accessibility means addressing the needs of larger audiences, which may lead to you attracting more people who are likely to interact with your business on a long-lasting basis. Invest in accessibility so you can attract more people who are likely to interact with your business on a longer-lasting basis. An innovative business mindset: an entrepreneurial one By building accessible websites, you challenge yourself to deal with unforeseen issues and so put your creative juices into action. Adaptability means that you need to be able to adapt your designs by incorporating accessibility tools into them. To stay competitive in today’s fast-paced digital world, you need to be innovative and always ready for change. Boosted SEO efforts. You can improve your website's accessibility by including alternative text for any image tags, making sure that your content is easy to read, or choosing a clean and clutter-free design. These steps also mean good SEO practice. By creating an easier-to-navigate website, you're also helping it become more SEO-friendly. You may be familiar with the importance of investing in strong SEO strategies in modern times. It's all about whether your site ranks at the top of search results and how visible your site appears on Google. Improved brand reputation. It’s important to ensure accessibility for your business because it promotes your brand image. Ensuring your web site has a universal interface makes sure everyone who visits your site gets equal access to your content and raises awareness for your company. Today, having an inaccessible website is the digital version of putting up a big "Keep Out" notice outside of your business. Fast page loading times. If you improve a page's accessibility, you'll increase its performance score. To meet the demands of modern web users, you need to improve your site's load time. By implementing features that are accessible to people who use assistive technology, you're making your website a better place for everyone. You can use several different methods to improve the accessibility of your website. For example, if you're designing a web page for blind users, they might be able to use a text-to-speech program to read out loud any important information on your site. Hopefully, this post helps shed some insight into the importance of web accessibil­ity for your business and how making your website more accessible can positively affect your brand. If you'd like to learn more about how we can improve the usability of your website, please contact us today.   Photo credit: Unsplash. ... Read more
Raluca Olariu / Sep 08'2022
DrupalDrupal 8Tips
Why Do You Need Drupal Website Maintenance?

Why Do You Need Drupal Website Maintenance?

  If you're new to Drupal web development and maintenance, it may seem like an overwhelming task. However, once you get started, things start to run smoothly. Building and optimizing a website is similar to buying a new house—you start out by making sure everything works fine, then you fix any issues that come up, and finally, you keep an eye on it, so nothing breaks down. The perfect time to clean up your website doesn't exist, so you might want to start as soon as you feel like it should be done—improve its performance, optimize it for search engines, and refresh it. If you do it yourself, you might even be able to increase your potential market value by 50%. First, it's important to understand why regular maintenance is crucial, how to tell if you need Drupal maintenance, what Drupal maintenance includes, and what happens during Drupal Maintenance. Read this article to find out more about why you need regular Drupal maintenance.  Does regular maintenance help keep your site running smoothly? Yes, regular maintenance can help with plenty of aspects of your web strategy. Security Website maintenance used to be an option. It wasn't something that had to be done every month or even every week. You could just let it sit there and not touch it at all for months at a time. As the digital landscape continues to expand and become more vulnerable to cyberattacks, Drupal support is essential for maintaining a secure security posture. While Drupal is known for its high level of security, this only applies if you keep up with the latest security updates and patches. If you don't stay current on the latest security updates and modules, then you're putting yourself at risk for a breach. Updating Drupal core modules regularly helps protect websites from attacks and security breaches. Fixing errors If you want your site to perform well and meet the needs of the modern digital user, then it’s important to fix any bugs and errors. These malfunctions may occur due to rushed coding and deployment, inadequate testing, or miscommunications. They may affect your website's performance and loading speed or even alter its functionality. Because users don't want to wait more than four seconds for websites to load, they won't pay attention to fixing bugs if they're not there. Stay up-to-date by adding new features to your site One reason why Drupal maintenance matters so much are because it allows you to scale your site as your business grows. With Drupal 8, integrations are much cheaper than they were before, so if you haven’t upgraded yet, you may want to talk to a Drupal agency to help determine whether an upgrade is the best option for your business. User behavior has changed drastically in the past year, so content creation, new features, and improvements allow brands to remain fresh and aligned to this changing environment. SEO optimization It’s important to maintain good SEO practices so that your site stays relevant. A great Drupal maintenance team includes SEO experts who perform Drupal SEO audits and optimizations. “Good SEO only gets better over time; it’s only search engine tricks that need to be constantly updated when the algorithm changes.” -Jill Whalen. To know when you need Drupal maintenance, ask yourself these questions: Do you get error messages? If you aren't already convinced that you need Drupal Support and Maintenance Services for your website, here's an indicator that you can't delay it anymore without hurting your business: You have been getting error messages like "404 Not Found" or "500 Internal Server Error". These errors mean that your site isn't functioning properly. Your site might be down or slow to load. Your visitors will leave your site immediately if they see these errors. The solution is simple: hire a professional Drupal developer to do the job for you. We at Optasy have a team of expert developers who specialize in Drupal development. Our team of dedicated professionals will ensure that your site is always working smoothly. Check this page for more details. Photo credit: Unsplash. ... Read more
Raluca Olariu / Aug 09'2022
DrupalDrupal 8Tips
How to Migrate to Drupal 9

How to Migrate to Drupal 9

  Drupal is a free open-source content management system (CMS) that allows you to create websites, blogs, and other web applications. It has become one of the most popular platforms for building custom sites. The process of migrating from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9 is no small task. There are several changes and new features that you’ll want to consider before moving forward. In this article, you'll discover some of the major changes that you’ll encounter when migrating from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9. As you migrate to Drupal 9, you’ll notice a significant change in the way things look and function. The biggest difference between Drupal 8 and Drupal 9 is the introduction of a completely redesigned user interface. This means that you'll need to rework your entire site from scratch. What Does a Drupal Migration Mean? A Drupal migration process involves taking an existing Drupal website or blog and converting it into a Drupal 9 installation. You can also perform a complete Drupal 9 install by starting with a blank slate. When you migrate to Drupal 9 from Drupal 8, you need to update your Drupal 8 website to the latest version of both core and contributed modules and themes. If you have any custom code, such as custom content types, views, and fields, you will need to convert them to Drupal 9 compatible versions. You may also need to upgrade your database schema to support Drupal 9's new data model. And finally, you should make sure that all your files are converted to Drupal 9 standards. What Is Drupal 9? Drupal 9 is the same as the Drupal 8.9 version but without the deprecated code available in the previous version. It's identical to the 8.9 version for editors, website builders, and developers and it is built with an API-first approach in mind. Drupal 9 improves structural tools and editorial workflows.  Key Drupal 9 benefits Drupal 9 brings forward a continuous innovation cycle that delivers all the best features of Drupal 8, plus updated system requirements that improve security support.  Drupal 9 provides feature additions twice a year, so you'll be up-to-date with the latest technology innovations. What is more, your developer team will most likely work very easily with Drupal 9, as the Drupal 8 experience is quite similar. Prepare your upgrade process and get a cleaned-up, consistent, API-based modern environment.  You might also like: Drupal 10 New Features and How to Prepare Your Migration. Migrating to Drupal 9: What do I need to know? Before you begin your Drupal 9 migration, there are three key areas where you'll need to take action: Update Your Site Core In order to successfully migrate to Drupal 9, your site must be updated to the latest version of Drupal 8 core. To ensure that your site works properly after the migration, you should use the same version of the core that you used during development. Upgrade Modules and Plugins When you migrate to Drupal 9 you'll need to upgrade all your modules and plugins to their respective Drupal 9 versions. For example, if you're using Views 7.x-3.0 then you'll need to upgrade to Views 8.x-2.1. Similarly, if you're using CCK 3.x-7.x then you'll need to move to CCK 4.x-4.6. Convert Custom Code If you've developed custom content types, views, or fields, you'll need to convert these items to Drupal 9 compatible versions so they work properly on your new site. How does a Drupal migration affect your brand reputation and business value? Upgrading to Drupal 9 comes with benefits like all system and software upgrades. To understand the business value added by such a migration, consider asking the following questions: Are your current features and modules secure and relevant for your business scope? How would you rate them? Do you clearly know the scope of a Drupal migration for you? How many resources like time and money do you plan to spend on this migration? Does your developer team have the necessary skill set to plan and complete it successfully?  How will your Drupal migration impact the content design and architecture on your site? Tools & Modules For Completing Your Drupal Migration Now that you've asked the right question, you might be ready to start your migration. If so, here are some tools and modules to help you in this process:  Core Migrate Module Suite: migrate your content and site configuration   Upgrade Rector: automate module updates for Drupal 8 sites of common deprecated code to the latest Drupal 9 compatible code Drupal Module Upgrader: scan and convert outdated code on your site Upgrade Status Module: provide information about contributed project availability 4 Steps to Prepare Your Drupal 8 site for Migrating to Drupal 9     Check out this to-do list before starting your migration to Drupal 9: 1. Check that your hosting environment meets the compatibility requirements of Drupal 9. 2. Update your contributed projects so that you resolve Drupal 9 compatibility issues gradually, keeping Drupal 8 compatibility at the same time.  3. Make sure to upgrade to the latest Drupal 8 version available (Drupal 8.8 and 8.9). 4. Edit your custom code by removing deprecated API use.   The transition from one version to another can be challenging, but the migration process is simple once you learn how it's done. If you find it overwhelming and want to opt for professional services, check out Optasy's services.  Our dedicated team of Drupal experts will support you in every step of your migration process and ensure that your website is up and running smoothly after the migration. Optasy offers assistance and custom migration to suit the specific needs of each business.   Photo credit: Unsplash.... Read more
Raluca Olariu / Jul 07'2022

Browse cities

×

Toronto

WordPress Development Services in Toronto
iOS App Development Services in Toronto
Drupal Development Services in Toronto
Magento Development Services in Toronto
Laravel Development Services in Toronto

Montreal

WordPress Development Services in Montreal
iOS App Development Services in Montreal
Laravel Development Services in Montreal
Drupal Development Services in Montreal
Magento Development Services in Montreal

Vancouver

Magento Development Services in Vancouver
iOS App Development Services in Vancouver
Drupal Development Services in Vancouver
WordPress Development Services in Vancouver
Laravel Development Services in Vancouver

New York

WordPress Development Services in New York
Laravel Development Services in New York
iOS App Development Services in New York
Drupal Development Services in New York
Magento Development Services in New York

Need a new Project?

Dare us to shape and boost your idea(s)!

Start a Project

(416) 243-2431

Contact

(416) 243-2431

contact@optasy.com

Toronto Downtown

First Canadian Place,
100 King St. W. Suite 5700, Toronto

Toronto West

2275 Upper Middle
Rd. E, Suite 101
Toronto

New York

1177 Avenue of the
Americas, 5th Floor,
New York

Newsletter

Get the latest OPTASY news, tips and how-to’s on the go, right in your inbox!
OPTASY
clutch
Pantheon Premier Partner
  • Drupal 8
  • Services
  • Contact Us
  • Partners

  • Drupal
  • Google
  • Magento
  • Shopify
  • Wordpress
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Drupal
  • Cities
  • Support

© 2023 All Rights Reserved. Built with Drupal