As Drupal 7 nears the end of life on the 5th of January 2025, website owners need to consider the next steps for their site.
Frequently asked questions
A migration moves existing content and functionality from an old system (often an older Drupal version, or a different CMS entirely) onto a new Drupal build, using Drupal's migration API and tooling to bring data across in a structured way. A rebuild-only approach without migration means manually re-entering content, which is rarely practical at scale.
The number of distinct content sources and types, the amount of custom functionality in the old site, and how much the new information architecture and content model differ from the old one. A migration that also re-architects information architecture (as opposed to a like-for-like lift) takes more effort but avoids simply carrying forward old structural problems.
The clearest trigger is approaching end-of-life for the current Drupal version (Drupal 7 reached EOL in January 2025, and each subsequent version has its own timeline). At that point, security support stops, making migration a security necessity rather than just an upgrade opportunity, and a good time to also address accumulated content and IA debt.
Insights
Case study
Morpht delivered a user-focused rebuild of the Reef Knowledge System that prioritised a streamlined information architecture, improved search functionality, and a more intuitive user journey.
Case study
Morpht rebuilt the Reef Guardian School site on GovCMS SaaS, introducing a secure teacher resource library, topic-based content structure, and streamlined webforms for schools to submit action plans and news.
Article
A guide on how to set up content migrations on GovCMS SaaS where the requirements fall outside what is usually handled by the Migrate module.
Article
A guide on how to start up a greenfield GovCMS site which requires a complex migration from a legacy site.
Case study
AER embarked on a transformation journey, where Morpht rolled outa rigorous approach that encompassed extensive discovery phases, detailed content modelling, and the migration of numerous data sources.
Case study
Morpht was able to provide IPEA with a new website on the GovCMS SaaS platform, upgraded to Drupal 9 and allow site editors to import all reporting data without the need of external help. The site also has a greatly improved page speed and a new design and interface which maximises the findability of Parliamentarian expense reports.
Article
Strategies for successfully migrating sites with many bad links leading to an end result where the broken links are healed and content successfully migrated.
Case study
The TGA are now celebrating a brand new site on GovCMS. With a contemporary look and feel underpinned by consistent structures and familiar patterns, this site is now the foundation for the next stage of the digital transformation the TGA is undergoing.
Case study
Redfern Legal Centre (RLC) is a not-for-profit community legal centre dedicated to increasing access to justice and advancing human rights. Morpht supported it by rebuilding their site in Drupal 9 with a new design and improved content models and editor tools.
Article
A tutorial on how to preserve the hieracrhial structure of book pages during a migration from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9.
Article
IPEA is a government authority tasked with the management and reporting of parliamentarian expenditure. In this case study we will show how the Migrate and Solr modules were used to solve scalability and performance challenges by providing a user and editor friendly solution.
Article
Drupal 7 to Drupal 9 migration tips and tricks covering typical hurdles you may face during a migration journey.
Case study
A Drupal 8 build involving migration of content from a legacy CMS system and developing a technically challenging fail-safe data update functionality from a third party SOAP data feed.
Article
Learn about how to use the Migration API to massage and migrate source data into Drupal. A presentation by Kelvin Wong at DrupalSouth 2019.
Article
One of the trickier aspects of any data migration is migrating users and ensuring that the authentication details which worked on the legacy site also continue to work on the new Drupal site. This article shows how it is done for .Net to Drupal 7.
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