Drupal 7 End of Life is finally here to stay after several extensions of its launch. On February 23, 2022, Drupal made an important announcement that it would be extending the End-of-Life for Drupal 7 until November 1, 2023. Then, they made another announcement in June 2023 that Drupal 7 would reach its End of Life on January 5, 2025.
In as much as webmasters have more time before the Drupal 7 support ends, some specific areas of the platform like security and maintenance will be shut down in August 2023. So, they still have time to implement important changes that need to be done on their site to avoid any security risks and issues that might arise.
In this article, we will explore what you can expect before 2025 and the risks of running Drupal 7 on your website after the release of its End of Life. So, keep reading to learn more!
Drupal 7 EOL Date has Been Announced Officially, and there will be no further extensions
It’s been a long time coming with Drupal 7 End of Life. The initial release date of Drupal 7 EOL was November 2021. This is coming after the launch of Drupal 9 and 10, years after the release of Drupal 7. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic struck and altered the release date of Drupal 7 EOL.
In February 2022, the Drupal team announced that it was extending the release of Drupal 7 End of Life by one year to November 1, 2023. This two-year extension helped site owners move their sites to other platforms.
The Drupal team made another announcement about extending the release of Drupal EOL in June 2023. This is coming after it extended its release twice for different reasons. Now, the final extension date for the Drupal 7 EOL is January 5, 2025. The reason for the last, and final extension is that Drupal 7 has a large user base and it needs a robust platform that can accommodate these users. Additionally, the final extension will allow the Drupal Security Team more time to improve the quality of support provided to users.
What to expect and what you can do before 2025
The Drupal team is set to make important changes to Drupal 7 before it gets to the End of Life. These changes will help the Drupal Security Team fix some security issues and provide support where it is needed. Additionally, it will allow organizations and webmasters to upgrade their existing Drupal 7 sites. Here are what to expect before 2025:
D7 modules and themes marked with unsolved issues will remain unsupported
From August 1, 2023, all Drupal 7’s batches of contributed modules and themes won’t get maintainership again. The reason why the community might not step in to offer long term support for these modules is because it runs the risk of problems that might arise due to unmaintained code.
From August 2023, the Drupal Security Team will no longer release security advisories for any unsupported libraries that any Drupal 7 contributed modules or themes rely on like CKEditor4.
We will strongly advise you or your client to adopt a project if there are Drupal 7 modules or themes that you rely on.
Non-critical problems may be disclosed to the public
From August 2023, the Drupal Security Team may decide to push out moderately critical and less critical issues that might be affecting Drupal 7. They will put the issues out there as long as users don’t mass-exploit them. So, the security team has to weigh the risks and push out less critical issues.
This issue is peculiar to Drupal 7. Drupal 9 and above do not have this problem. For example, when there’s a security issue for both Drupal 7 and 10, the Drupal 10 security advisory might be released with a Drupal 7 fix.
Security patches will be released only for PHP 5.6 and above
Drupal 7 will no longer support PHP 5.5 and below. As for PHP 5.6 and above - they have already reached the End of Life. You can do an upgrade to PHP 8 if you’re having issues with using PHP 5.5 and below. However, this might be hard for several Drupal 7 sites, depending on how much they rely on custom or unsupported modules that might support PHP 8.
Windows-only issues will no longer be fixed
From August 2023, users who have Windows-only issues will no longer get security fixes for Drupal 7. The best way to resolve this issue if you’re running a Drupal 7 site on Windows is to migrate to another operating system like Linux or Mac OS.
Third-party libraries could be marked as unsupported
From August 2023, third-party libraries will no longer be supported on Drupal 7. In case you don’t know, Drupal doesn’t come with built-in editors. However, it allows users to use different third-party editors like CKEditor and TinyMCE. As it stands now, Drupal 7 may discontinue the use of these third-party libraries before the release of the Drupal 7 EOL.
The best way to resolve this is to review how often you use third-party libraries on your Drupal 7 sites.
What will happen after Drupal 7 end-of-life?
The release of Drupal end-of-life in January 2025 will impact thousands of users who depend on Drupal 7 for different purposes. If you’re among the users who depend heavily on the Drupal site, it’s time you brace up and know what to expect once Drupal 7 End of Life launches.
Zero-Day Exploits
The Drupal Security Team will discontinue the support or security advisories it provides for Drupal 7 core or contributed modules, themes, or other projects. So, Drupal 7 site users should not expect the Drupal Security Team to coordinate/publish fixes or push out their releases to the public again.
There will no longer be Trusted Announcements
Most people rely on the Drupal Security Team to release updates about vulnerabilities and risks on their Drupal 7 sites. So, even if a developer publishes a fix for a vulnerability - it’s not official because it’s not coming from the Drupal team. You must vet releases from unauthorized sources before adopting them.
No Commits or Releases
Commits or releases for Drupal 7 sites will also be discontinued. As a result, when a vulnerability is found, you’ll have to find a solution yourself.
No Community Support
The Drupal community will also stop providing support for Drupal 7 once it reaches the End of Life. We know how much the open-source community contributes to the growth of Drupal 7 by providing timely support and updates to users.
Once the Drupal 7 End of Life launches, every team will solve their problems alone without depending on the security team. This will leave a big vacuum in any team because no team will be able to replicate what the Drupal Security Team does easily.
What are the risks of running Drupal 7 on your website after its end of life?
Here are some of the risks of running Drupal 7 on your website:
Security Vulnerabilities
Drupal is one of the most secure CMS tools out there. Thanks to the solid contributions of its security team who ensure that security issues are resolved quickly. However, once Drupal 7 reaches its End of Life - support from the Drupal Security Team will no longer be available, which may leave the site vulnerable to exploits. Hackers might take advantage of the loophole in the security architecture to launch an attack on your site.
Integration Risks
Besides security risks, another risk that might arise when you run your Drupal 7 website after it reaches the End of Life is related to integration. You might encounter issues if your Drupal site is integrated into another platform. For example, an important API on the platform your site integrates with might get deprecated because one of its modules is no longer supported. You may need to update the module and a new custom module has to be introduced to keep the integration going.
Functionality Risks
After the launch of Drupal 7 End of Life, the Drupal community will limit the activity on the Drupal 7 core and contributed modules. You won’t get access to those “free” updates again. This is peculiar to bug fixes. As a result, you might be forced to keep using them or fix them - or hire a Drupal agency to help you out. Remember the person you hire might not be as familiar with the project as one of the experienced maintainers would be.
Migrating from Drupal 7: What are the options?
Drupal website owners have different options available for them after Drupal 7 EOL. Their choice will depend on the current status and the Drupal version they are currently on. Here are some of the available options:
If you have a Drupal 7 site
The best option for users with a Drupal 7 site is the full upgrade of your Drupal 7 website to Drupal 9 or 10. However, doing a full upgrade requires a lot of time and dedication to the course. Here are the steps that will help you upgrade your Drupal 7 site to Drupal 9 or 10:
- Do your site audit to understand the issues on the new site
- Plan how to go about the migration
- Change the visual design and theme of the new site
- Test all the features to ensure everything is working perfectly
- Do a Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- You can roll out or launch once you’re sure everything is set
If you have a Drupal 8 site
Drupal 8 users are also at risk because Drupal 8 is no longer supported again. So, they have to upgrade to a new Drupal version - Drupal 9 or Drupal 10.
As a Drupal 8 user, use the Drupal Check to check your site’s compatibility with Drupal 9 or 10. Also, check for any functions that are no longer supported in your Drupal 8 site.
If you have a Drupal 9 site
Drupal 9 site owners have nothing to worry about if their website is updated to the latest Drupal 9.5 version. The latest Drupal 9 version is supported till November 2023. So, you can upgrade to Drupal 10, if you want to access the latest features of Drupal.
Don't let Drupal 7 end-of-life find you unprepared. We can support you every step of the way.
The Drupal team gave a timeline for Drupal 7 to reach its End of Life - January 2025. Smart business owners are already making plans to migrate to the latest Drupal version before the estimated date. However, migration can be demanding for users who have a large volume of information to move to Drupal's latest version.
You have nothing to worry about migrating to a new Drupal version because OSWorkshop.com is here to help you every step of the way. It is important to work with a team of experienced professionals like us at OSWorkshop.com because we have a track record of helping our clients migrate seamlessly to different Drupal versions. So, why not book a consultation with us today to get your new Drupal site up and running.
