Drupal 10: The Best and Newest Updates

1. Introduction to Drupal 10

Drupal 10, officially released in December 2022, represents a major evolution from its predecessor, Drupal 9. The new version brings a host of enhancements designed to modernize the platform, improve user experiences, and streamline development workflows. Drupal 10 builds on the solid foundation of Drupal 9 while incorporating the latest technologies and best practices in web development.

Key Objectives of Drupal 10

• Modernization: Drupal 10 aims to modernize the platform by leveraging up-to-date technologies and practices, ensuring that it remains relevant in the rapidly evolving digital landscape.
• Improved Usability: Enhancing the user experience for both administrators and content creators is a primary goal of Drupal 10. The platform introduces a more intuitive and user-friendly interface.
• Enhanced Performance: Performance improvements are central to Drupal 10, focusing on speed, efficiency, and scalability to meet the demands of modern websites and applications.
• Future-Proofing: Drupal 10 is designed with the future in mind, incorporating features that ensure the platform remains adaptable and sustainable for years to come.

2. New and Improved User Interface

The Olivero Theme

One of the most noticeable updates in Drupal 10 is the introduction of the Olivero theme. Olivero is a modern, accessible, and responsive default theme that replaces the older Bartik theme. It offers a fresh, clean look with a focus on usability and accessibility, ensuring that websites built with Drupal 10 provide a seamless experience across devices and screen sizes.

Key Features of Olivero:

• Accessibility: Olivero is designed with accessibility in mind, adhering to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. This ensures that websites are usable by people with disabilities, providing a more inclusive experience.
• Responsive Design: The theme is fully responsive, meaning it automatically adjusts to fit various screen sizes and devices, from desktops to mobile phones.
• Customizable Layouts: Olivero offers flexible layout options, allowing site administrators to easily customize the appearance of their sites without needing extensive CSS knowledge.

The Oliver Admin Theme

Alongside Olivero, Drupal 10 introduces the Oliver Admin theme, which enhances the backend user interface. The Oliver Admin theme provides a more modern and streamlined administrative experience, improving usability for content editors and site administrators.

Key Features of Oliver Admin:

• Improved Navigation: The new admin interface features a more intuitive navigation system, making it easier to access frequently used tools and settings.
• Enhanced Visual Design: Oliver Admin offers a cleaner and more visually appealing design, reducing clutter and improving the overall user experience.
• Customizable Dashboard: Administrators can customize their dashboard to display relevant information and quick access to essential tools, improving workflow efficiency.

3. Updated Content Editor: CKEditor 5

Drupal 10 integrates CKEditor 5 as the default content editor, replacing the older CKEditor 4. CKEditor 5 introduces a range of new features and improvements that enhance the content editing experience.

Key Features of CKEditor 5:

• Modern Interface: CKEditor 5 features a more modern and intuitive user interface, making it easier for content creators to format and manage their content.
• Real-Time Collaboration: One of the standout features of CKEditor 5 is its real-time collaboration capabilities, allowing multiple users to work on the same document simultaneously.
• Advanced Rich Text Editing: The new editor offers improved rich text editing features, including support for complex content structures, enhanced media embedding, and better handling of multimedia content.

4. Enhanced Performance and Scalability

Drupal 10 introduces several performance and scalability improvements to ensure that the platform can handle the demands of modern websites and applications. These updates focus on optimizing performance, reducing load times, and improving overall efficiency.

Symfony 5 and 6 Support

Drupal 10 is built on Symfony 5 and 6, which provides a more modern and efficient foundation for the CMS. Symfony is a powerful PHP framework that enhances Drupal’s performance and scalability.

Benefits of Symfony Integration:

• Improved Performance: Symfony 5 and 6 include performance optimizations that contribute to faster page load times and better overall site performance.
• Modern PHP Practices: By leveraging Symfony, Drupal 10 adopts modern PHP practices and standards, ensuring that the platform remains compatible with the latest PHP versions and technologies.
• Enhanced Security: Symfony’s security features help to protect Drupal 10 from potential vulnerabilities and attacks, contributing to a more secure CMS.

Automated Updates and Dependency Management

Drupal 10 introduces automated updates and improved dependency management, simplifying the process of keeping the platform up-to-date and secure.

Key Features:

• Automatic Updates: Drupal 10 supports automatic updates for core and contributed modules, reducing the need for manual intervention and ensuring that your site remains current with the latest features and security patches.
• Enhanced Dependency Management: The platform’s dependency management system has been improved to handle module and library dependencies more effectively, minimizing conflicts and compatibility issues.

5. New Development Tools and Features

Drupal 10 includes several new development tools and features that enhance the development experience and streamline the creation of custom modules and themes.

Drupal Core Modernization

Drupal 10 has undergone significant core modernization, including the removal of deprecated code and the adoption of new coding standards.

Key Updates:

• Deprecated Code Removal: Drupal 10 removes deprecated code from Drupal 9, reducing technical debt and simplifying the codebase for developers.
• Updated Coding Standards: The platform adopts updated coding standards and best practices, ensuring that code is clean, maintainable, and consistent.

Better Composer Integration

Drupal 10 offers improved integration with Composer, a dependency management tool for PHP. This integration simplifies the process of managing modules and libraries and ensures that all dependencies are up-to-date.

Key Features:

• Streamlined Module Management: Composer integration allows for easy installation, updating, and removal of modules and libraries, streamlining the development process.
• Enhanced Compatibility: Improved Composer support ensures better compatibility with third-party libraries and tools, expanding the ecosystem of available resources for Drupal development.

Decoupled Architecture Enhancements

Drupal 10 continues to support and enhance its decoupled (headless) architecture capabilities, allowing developers to build applications where the front-end and back-end are separated.

Key Updates:

• Enhanced REST API: The REST API in Drupal 10 has been improved to support more advanced use cases and provide better performance for decoupled applications.
• GraphQL Support: Drupal 10 includes native support for GraphQL, a query language for APIs that allows developers to request specific data and improve the efficiency of data retrieval.

6. Improved Accessibility and Inclusion

Drupal 10 places a strong emphasis on accessibility and inclusion, ensuring that the platform is usable by all individuals, regardless of their abilities.

WCAG 2.1 Compliance

Drupal 10 is designed to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, providing a more inclusive experience for users with disabilities.

Key Features:

• Accessible Themes: The Olivero and Oliver Admin themes are designed with accessibility in mind, ensuring that all users can navigate and interact with the site effectively.
• Improved Accessibility Tools: Drupal 10 includes enhanced accessibility tools and features, such as better keyboard navigation and screen reader support.

Inclusion of Multilingual Capabilities

Drupal 10 continues to support multilingual capabilities, allowing organizations to build websites that cater to diverse audiences.

Key Updates:

• Enhanced Multilingual Support: The platform includes improved tools and modules for managing multilingual content, making it easier to create and maintain sites in multiple languages.
• Language Switcher Improvements: The language switcher functionality has been enhanced to provide a more user-friendly experience for site visitors.

7. Community and Ecosystem Updates

Drupal 10 benefits from a vibrant and active community that contributes to the platform’s ongoing development and improvement.

Expanded Contributed Modules

The Drupal community continues to develop and maintain a wide range of contributed modules that extend the functionality of the core platform.

Key Updates:

• New Modules and Themes: The ecosystem of contributed modules and themes has grown, providing developers with a diverse set of tools and resources for customizing their sites.
• Community Support: The Drupal community remains a valuable resource for support, documentation, and collaboration, ensuring that developers have access to the latest information and best practices.

Ongoing Development and Support

Drupal 10 benefits from ongoing development and support from the Drupal Association and the broader community.

Key Features:

• Regular Updates: The platform receives regular updates and improvements, ensuring that it remains secure, stable, and up-to-date with the latest technologies.
• Active Community Contributions: The Drupal community actively contributes to the development of new features, modules, and improvements, helping to shape the future of the platform.