Drupal 11 launched at the beginning of August—a milestone achieved through the contributions of 1,858 individuals from 590 organizations. This impressive collective effort highlights the talent and collaboration of Drupal’s community. Hats off to everyone who was involved!
Building on the strengths of Drupal 10, Drupal 11 offers more intuitive content management tools, improved site builder capabilities, and easier upgrades and maintenance.
According to Dries Buytaert, Drupal’s Founder and Project Lead:
"Drupal 11 is designed to empower ambitious site builders to build exceptional websites and to accelerate Drupal's innovation."
Read on to learn about some of the best Drupal 11 features, and what to expect from future versions.
Drupal 11 Features: What Stands Out?
Single Directory Components
Single directory components (SDCs) now have stable support in Drupal core. This feature empowers front-end developers to work with Drupal more easily, without the need for extensive knowledge of the platform. The SDC approach to theming means organizing all necessary code for a component into one self-contained directory, making it easier to write, find, and reuse.
Recipes
Recipes are experimental in Drupal 11, but expected to be stable in Drupal 11.1. This feature makes it easier than ever to add new features to your Drupal website. It lets you instantly apply a set of predefined configurations (e.g. content types, user roles.) You can apply recipes shared by other Drupal users, or create and reuse your own.
Workspaces
The Workspaces module is stabilized in Drupal 11, giving users a powerful way to manage content updates. Workspaces make it possible to edit content in multiple environments without affecting your live website. You can prepare, stage, preview, and publish multiple content items at once. It’s a great tool for running coordinated campaigns, for example.
Decoupled Navigation
Drupal 11 makes it easier to manage navigation in decoupled setups. With new endpoints, front-end developers can easily use menu data without hard-coding, and non-developers can manage menus without needing to code.
JavaScript Modernization
Drupal 11 replaces some jQuery UI components with modern JavaScript. Developers can now use built-in JavaScript minification, which removes unnecessary elements to reduce file sizes by up to two-thirds. This feature simplifies development and may make some external minification modules unnecessary.
Twig Development Mode
New to Drupal 11, this feature provides developers with powerful debugging tools and reduces the need for frequent cache clears. There’s also a "Do Not Cache Markup" option for better control over caching.
Drupal Core Code
Drupal 11 has improved performance by making its core code smaller and more efficient. Contributors have streamlined the code, focusing on security and performance, while removing outdated code from Drupal 10. Running Drupal 11 on PHP 8.3 also speeds up applications.
Upgrading to Drupal 11: How Easy is It?
If you’re already on Drupal 9 or 10, moving to Drupal 11 should be a walk in the park as upgrades go. The Upgrade Status module ensures your environment is ready, helping you update each component regardless of its source.
If you’re on an outdated version of Drupal, check out our guide to migrating from Drupal 7 to 10.
Need expert help? Reach out to us for Drupal upgrades and migration support.
Drupal 11 Roadmap: What’s Next?
Drupal 11’s roadmap promises to make Drupal even easier to use and maintain. Exciting features like Automatic Updates and Project Browser are slated for future releases. An updated plan for Drupal 11 was recently announced, adding new focus areas like:
- Intuitive content management tools
- Improved site builder tools
- Easier upgrades and maintenance of Drupal applications
It’s also worth knowing that many of Drupal 11’s new features will be included in Drupal CMS—a beginner-friendly version being developed under the Drupal Starshot Initiative.
Stay tuned for more updates as we move into the second half of 2024 and beyond!