Develop Drupal 7 end of Life Landing Pages with concise library of resources

I'd like to officially recommend Retrofit as a tool: https://github.com/mglaman/retrofit-drupal

I'd Like to recommend 31 days of Drupal migrations by Mauricio Dinarte (dinarcon) as starting guide for Migration from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9+.

Should this focus on migrations to D10, or include not-really Drupal alternatives (BackdropCMS) or not-Drupal at all choices ?

I think technically it should, but maybe we have an organizational policy about this ?

re #5: migrating to non-Drupal systems is definitely a category of information we want to officially collect. I'd hope that Drupal is still a good fit. But if we are being realistic and good trusted advisors, we should try to share the whole picture. If that means moving off Drupal, then let's provide good curated information on how to do that.

re #4: I yes, I think that is a good starting point. It needs some dusting off as Mauricio would be quick to acknowledge, but that list of articles is probably the single best all-in-one-place source of information on Drupal migrations in existence.

Hi,

This is more for developers than for customers, but just in case it's helpful, I'm posting it anyways.
I'm trying to build a youtube channel that can help Drupal developers with various subject, one of them being migrations (more specifically migrations from D7 to D10, but not stictly). Since this is a big subject, I'm trying to release smaller videos that can help others, instead of long videos with a lot of information.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQe_4_0KvMEJVeYRcsY5COA

I'm also looking for video suggestions in the community tab.

Audit tools

Three major modules are available now for site audit. The goal of initiative is to improve and extend them to decrease time that site owners and developers spend on technical site audit

• D9/10/11 Upgrade Status: https://www.drupal.org/project/upgrade_status
• Site audit: https://www.drupal.org/project/site_audit
• Backdrop Upgrade Status: https://www.drupal.org/project/backdrop_upgrade_status

"Easy upgrade" tools for site builders

• “One-click upgrade” in D9/10 in core using Migrate Drupal UI module
• Feeds module (in beta now, targeting stable release in the fall of 2023)
• Migrated Plus Feeds module (in development now, targeting alpha in 2023)
• Drupal 7 to 8/9/10 Module Upgrader (in development now)
• “One-click upgrade” in Backdrop module (in development now, targeting alpha in spring 2023)

Reviewing the pages:

• most of the the DIY resources page is raising questions but does not lead to answers, eg. it could connect the questions to the tools that help answer them
• also the new vocabulary introduced on the DIY page is unnecessarily complex IMHO and misleading as nobody else is using those terms are they (verbs, nouns, etc.)?
• finally the alignment of the images and CTA in the three columns are well, not aligned and don’t look too good IMHO, if that can be improved that would be great (same size images help a lot already)

I found a typo on the now launched landing page. I came across this issue through a search and hope that this is the right place to report!

On https://www.drupal.org/about/drupal-7/d7eol/partners#type-simple , there’s a sentence that reads the following:

If your need is truly a node code solution that can be as basic as a simple online brochure

Shouldn’t it be “no code” instead of “node code”?

I don't know if this is the right channel to talk about this - because, I can't find another one.

But why are we suggesting Wordpress and other platforms that have an even smaller footprint than Drupal?

As a small Drupal shop, I've found fantastic success using Drupal for small clients, building sustainable and also easy to use products for my cients. And I also get a LOT of business from people moving on from Wordpress because of all of the problems it has in its ecosystem and fundamental architecture challenges.

This suggestion that people move to Wordpress, Joomla, Typo... WIX?!? feels like a slap in the face from the association.

I now have to compete even harder, against the recommendations of the Drupal association as a whole?

(To be clear I know there are good WP sites out there, but i'm not competing against the good ones.)

What was the rationale about pushing the audience AWAY from Drupal?

Clarifying thoughts

In another medium, someone mentioned "the $1000 D7 sites built 10 years ago..."

First, that should be a testimational to the value of the software that its lasted that long hack free, right? And it was built to do that job with an even weaker "module" or "plugin" ecosystem then what exists today in both WP and Drupal.

Regardless -
This isn't the client scope we're talking about.

The client who paid $1000 ten years ago for a D7 site isn't reading drupal.org. But the business leaders who are in the $10k, $20k, $50k range might be, and if some WP developer shows them guttenberg and says it costs $5k, you know they're going to jump on that, and low and behold, There's a page on Drupal.org suggesting that you should use WP instead of Drupal.

I have often had conversations with potential clients who have a limited budget - and I have ABSOLUTELY told them to go make a squarespace or a wix site, because the $500 or even $2000 they have to spend isn't going to get them much. And I'm sure many people here would say that won't even get you much of a WP site either, even if it is "CHEAPER" to build on (I disagree with that value statement anyway).

MANY of those conversations have lead to real business for me 12 to 24 months later, when that client, feeling educated about their choices, comes back to me asking for the website they need, not what they hoped to pay for it...

I'm not robbing my clients for a $100,000 "blog", I provide competitive pricing in my market segment, and my reputation for quality of service and support is often why I get a phone call out of the blue... and MANY of those conversations will have the potential client saying something like...

"Well, we're also looking at wordpress ..."

And I get to use my reputation and my portfolio of work to demonstrate why their $25,000 or $35,000 project is worth being built on Drupal...

---

If anything, this section of the document needs to be heavily edited to communicate the value statement of why you may or may not want to use Drupal - and not blindly just shove off a valuable segment of the market that a LOT of us small shops make their lively hood on.

I think thats a big improvement from my perspective, Hestenet. Thank you very much!

That's a good change of text but I would suggest that we do not recommend closed source options as a matter of principle.

Is there a better way to show who can help with Drupal 7 -> 10/11 migrations (certified partners?) feels like repeating the same companies because they do mid size and large? A dedicated page? a filter on the marketplace?

This page should have not been soft launched before covering mid sized and small migration partners, I know a few companies that haven't had any reply from the DA at this respect.

Thanks Tim, I don't think wix and alike are free at any tier tbh.

I might not be understanding your feedback here - https://www.drupal.org/about/drupal-7/d7eol/partners is already a dedicated partner page?
Or do you mean a dedicated page for each different level?

Is it right then that there's repetition between the enterprise grade and the mid-sized project?

As far as I know - everyone who has reached out to us has been given every thing they need to complete sign up, but I can talk to the partner team. Feel free to send me an email with anyone who still needs a response.

Something is going on because I know at least 2 other companies that have signed up and received no answer. I'm forwarding them your comment so they can reach out.

FWIW I didn't receive an answer either, but I only submitted the form on what appears to have been the second send as I never got the first one AFAICS. I'm not listed on the "Freelancers and small shops" section, which is still empty, so maybe not done yet ?

Although, not sure whether it's related, but I noticed a couple of "Migration" fields on my company profile which weren't there earlier.

@pcambra

Thanks Tim, I don't think wix and alike are free at any tier tbh.

Both Wix and Webflow have free (as in beer, not speech) plans that are good for brochure sites (esp. Webflow IMHO). Duda and Squarespace only have free trials. To me, that seems like a fair representation of the proprietary commercial space: we need to mention those for these tiny no-budget projects, and really must not provide one of them with a specific advantage by not listing at least a competitor. Wix/Webflow for 0$, Duda/Squarespace for low budgets.

@fgm why would be the reason of officially recommending from drupal.org proprietary solutions to migrate small sites? can we vouch for them? shouldn't we just mention a generic description of free site builder tools rather than naming them? they could disappear, turn their TOC into predatory conditions, or just remove the free plans, for example, I don't see any in wix right now, the lowest starts at $5, webflow does have a free plan today but maybe not tomorrow.

Do we want to maintain a marketing tool on their behalf?

@pcambra : that's a larger issue, that is not the one I've been addressing. My point is that, if we want to list proprietary solutions (and IMO for that limited use case of tiny sites which Drupal does not serve well, and with the appropriate warnings like those you mention, we definitely should, but that is not the question here), these four are representative of the market.

Not sure why you do not see Wix free offer. I've attached a screen capture here, showing both the no-cost and at-a-cost offers with its URL

Ah the wording is super unclear to me for wix, quite the UX choice there :).
I understand that they are market leads but I would not recommend proprietary solutions as they are easily discoverable by their own marketing expense.

I think we should tweak a bit the description on the https://www.drupal.org/about/drupal-7/d7eol/diy page, in the featured resources part:

Considering Backdrop CMS? Learn about the upgrade path

"Backdrop CMS has a built-in upgrade path from Drupal 7. It will run on the same database as your current Drupal 7 project, so any customizations you’ve made to your Drupal 7 site will not be lost when you upgrade to Backdrop. More than 70 Drupal 7 contributed modules are included in Backdrop core: Views, CKEditor, Pathauto, Redirect, and Token. Just to name a few."

Source: https://backdropcms.org/drupal-alternative

The issue is that we are probably slightly misleading people using the same words from the Backdrop CMS page, because Backdrop has a number of limitations, which are not presented at first glance (and therefore "clickbaiting" users). Users need to make 3 additional clicks to reach the page about Backdrop limitations when migrating from Drupal (and you need to know where to click). These main limitations are:

• It only supports MySQL/MariaDB (e.g. it is a no-go for companies using PostgreSQL, which is not a small number)
• You need to update your codebase and especially the templates/themes, which changed the most (it is not a drop-in replacement)
• Can be tricky to set-up if you used a multilanguage site (with entity translation for example)

I propose to extend the paragraph mentioned above with short info about these caveats. It is the responsibility of the Drupal community to provide accurate information / facts. Everyone can read the "promo" text on the website of the specific CMS afterwards.

Then maybe we can consider also adding a quick guide for migration from Drupal to Wordpress - https://kinsta.com/blog/drupal-to-wordpress/ ? Just to be fair to the 800+ milions of Wordpress sites.

Other than that, I think the resources looks good, thanks!

@poker10, the goal of this page https://www.drupal.org/about/drupal-7/d7eol/diy is to provide general guidance. I am not sure if it is responsibility of DA to provide specific references for migrating from Drupal to Wordpress - there are so many very good articles on this point. Same with details of BackdropCMS - if somebody wants to migrate off Drupal they need to do more research outside of Drupal.org.

Thanks for giving overall positive feedback for this page!!

I understand that the page should provide general guidance. That is also a case, why personally I am not feeling OK with the text used in the accordion section of Considering Backdrop CMS? Learn about the upgrade path.

For example, I think this text on the Find migration partner page is OK:

Alternately, you could consider migrating to another open web solution:

• Backdrop CMS - An independent CMS project based on Drupal 7, offering a direct upgrade path.
• Wordpress - A CMS without all the capabilities of Drupal, but with a strong focus on backwards compatibility and low cost of ownership.
• And more - Joomla and Typo3 are other open source CMS alternatives, that might be a good choice depending on your needs.

It is neutral, short and concise. On the other hand, the text I have mentioned in #36 is some kind of "marketing" text taken from Backdrop CMS website and it has possibility to misguide some of our users, which we are responsible for. Let"s see:

Backdrop CMS has a built-in upgrade path from Drupal 7

This is a true statement.

It will run on the same database as your current Drupal 7 project

This is not true if you use DB engine other than MySQL/MariaDB.

any customizations you’ve made to your Drupal 7 site will not be lost when you upgrade to Backdrop

This is not true if you are using multilanguage site or other more complex setups.

Therefore this is why I have proposed to update the text a bit and put the key points (caveats) directly to this text (see #36).

I think that we are not obliged to advertise any CMS on Drupal.org using "marketing" texts, but we should put facts on the table, as the primary goal should be to help users with the next steps (and help as much as possible).

Regarding Wordpress, I do not think we need to add a concrete reference to the migration (that was just an example), but probably add one other accordion section similar to the Backdrop one (here: https://www.drupal.org/about/drupal-7/d7eol/diy#drupalcon-migrate-api), because Wordpress has a huge market share.

Hopefully I have explained this a bit better now :) Thanks!

With regards to planned post for the Announcements module about D7 EOL, I propose some changes to the accordion section of https://www.drupal.org/about/drupal-7/d7eol/diy.

Old text:

Considering Backdrop CMS? Learn about the upgrade path

"Backdrop CMS has a built-in upgrade path from Drupal 7. It will run on the same database as your current Drupal 7 project, so any customizations you’ve made to your Drupal 7 site will not be lost when you upgrade to Backdrop. More than 70 Drupal 7 contributed modules are included in Backdrop core: Views, CKEditor, Pathauto, Redirect, and Token. Just to name a few."

Source: https://backdropcms.org/drupal-alternative

New proposed text:

Considering Backdrop CMS? Learn about the upgrade path

Backdrop CMS is an independent CMS project based on Drupal 7, offering a direct upgrade path. There are some notable changes in comparison with Drupal 7, therefore it is recommended to evaluate the list of items to review on the Drupal 7 site, which can help to inform how much effort it will take to convert your site.