Drupal, the world’s most flexible content management system, continues to evolve with every new version. With the release of Drupal 11, the platform promises to deliver major improvements in performance, usability, and flexibility, making it an even more powerful tool for developers and content managers alike. In this blog post, we will dive into the exciting new features and changes you can expect in Drupal 11.

1. Frontend Improvements: Turbocharging User Experience

Drupal 11 introduces a host of improvements to the frontend to enhance both the user and developer experience.

a. Claro Admin Theme Refinements

The Claro Admin theme—which was first introduced in Drupal 9—has received further refinements in Drupal 11. Claro is the default admin theme for Drupal, and it has undergone continuous improvements for a cleaner, modern, and more responsive interface. The updates focus on:

  • Improved accessibility: Making the platform more usable for everyone, including those with disabilities.
  • Enhanced customization: Providing a more user-friendly interface for managing content and administering the site.
  • Optimized for mobile: Ensuring the admin panel is fully responsive, enabling users to manage their Drupal sites easily from any device.

b. Symfony 6 Integration

With Drupal 11, the system integrates with Symfony 6, a modern PHP framework. This enables Drupal to benefit from Symfony’s latest features, ensuring:

  • Improved performance through more efficient routing and better caching.
  • Better compatibility with other PHP libraries and frameworks.
  • Reduced technical debt, as Drupal’s underlying Symfony components will be more up-to-date.

Symfony 6 will also help improve security and speed for both frontend and backend operations.

c. CKEditor 5

Drupal 11 will ship with CKEditor 5, an upgrade from CKEditor 4, which is used for rich text editing within Drupal. The new version comes with a sleeker interface, better integration with modern web technologies, and more robust features for content editing, including:

  • Improved collaboration tools.
  • More flexible text formatting options.
  • Streamlined integration with other third-party tools.

This upgrade means content creators and editors will experience a smoother and more intuitive workflow when managing content.

2. Backend and Developer Enhancements

Drupal 11 focuses on making life easier for developers with several important backend improvements.

a. Deprecation of Legacy Code

One of the significant steps in Drupal 11 is the removal of deprecated code and older APIs that were present in previous versions of Drupal. This is part of the ongoing effort to ensure that Drupal is cleaner, faster, and easier to maintain.

  • No more support for PHP 7.x: Drupal 11 will require PHP 8.0 or later, which provides improved performance, security, and language features.
  • Removal of legacy modules and code that were no longer needed in Drupal 9 or 10 will be fully removed in Drupal 11.

This clean-up effort will make the platform leaner, improve site performance, and make it easier for developers to manage and extend Drupal.

b. Improved Content Moderation and Workflows

Drupal 11 brings further enhancements to content moderation and workflows, allowing content editors and managers to define more sophisticated processes for content approval and publishing:

  • New workflow states and content review options.
  • More intuitive tools for approving or rejecting content.
  • Enhanced user permissions for workflows, making it easier to manage teams working on large-scale content projects.

These improvements are ideal for organizations that manage large amounts of content or need multiple levels of approval.

c. API-First Features and GraphQL Improvements

Drupal continues to embrace an API-first approach in version 11. It’s now easier to create headless Drupal sites where Drupal serves as a backend for other frontend technologies, such as React or Vue.js.

  • Enhanced GraphQL support and integration will make it easier to fetch and deliver data from Drupal via a GraphQL API.
  • Content delivery via REST API and JSON:API improvements will make Drupal an even more powerful option for decoupled or headless CMS projects.

3. Performance Enhancements

Drupal 11 includes several under-the-hood improvements to ensure faster page loads and better scalability.

a. Improved Caching System

Drupal 11 introduces more powerful caching features to improve page load times:

  • Dynamic page cache has been improved, allowing for caching even for pages that previously couldn’t be cached.
  • Enhanced front-end caching for JavaScript and CSS files means better performance for end-users.
  • The cache tags system has been optimized for better performance when working with large datasets.

b. Better Media Management

With improved media management in Drupal 11, users can expect:

  • More control over media assets, including the ability to manage images, videos, and documents with ease.
  • Faster loading of media items through better integration with external services like CDNs.

4. Security and Compliance Updates

Security is always a top priority for Drupal, and version 11 will continue to enhance its security framework.

a. Automated Updates

Drupal 11 will introduce more robust support for automated updates, meaning core security updates and minor releases will be easier to apply without the need for manual intervention.

  • This feature makes it easier for Drupal administrators to maintain a secure site with minimal effort.

b. Privacy and Compliance Tools

Drupal 11 will feature more out-of-the-box tools to help organizations comply with global privacy and security regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

  • Improved cookie consent management.
  • Better support for data anonymization and user data exports.

5. Future-Proofing with Improved Extensibility

Drupal 11 continues to embrace modern web practices and standards, ensuring it is ready for the future:

  • Web components: Better support for web components and progressive web apps (PWAs), ensuring that Drupal can integrate smoothly with modern web frameworks.
  • Decoupling: Support for decoupled Drupal continues to evolve, making it easier to use Drupal as a backend CMS while leveraging the latest JavaScript frameworks like React, Vue.js, or Angular on the frontend.

Conclusion

Drupal 11 is shaping up to be an exciting release, with enhancements across the board that will benefit both developers and site administrators. From improved backend performance and API-first development to a more intuitive user experience with Claro and CKEditor 5, Drupal 11 is designed to be faster, more secure, and easier to manage. The ongoing commitment to modern standards, performance optimization, and security ensures that Drupal remains a leading platform for enterprise-level websites, content-heavy projects, and API-driven applications.

Stay tuned for the official release of Drupal 11 and get ready to embrace its new features to take your web projects to the next level!