Author: Lois Nilsen
The migration of websites from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8 involves moving 60 websites from one platform to another.
The only way we’re all going to stay sane is to find ways to simplify this process!
Anything that cannot be migrated by script
must be built by hand.
Migration Scripts are Our Heroes
We’re relying on migration scripts, which will handle the vast majority of the work of moving each website from the old to the new platform.
The two things you need to know about scripted website migration are:
- It’s complicated.
- It's very complicated.
Which leads to the topic of website normalization.
Website Normalization
Normalization means using the platform the way it is intended. Which always means following best practices.
Every migration effort begins with an assessment of your website for “abnormal” treatments that might not play nice with our migration script. This could include custom content types, custom views, or creative menu configurations.
After our assessment, we will sit down with you to determine together: can we provide what you need in a way that the migration script can handle?
We will walk you through the decision points and may need you to do some pre-migration cleanup. We will do our best to minimize any manual work needed post-migration.
Your New Clean Drupal 8 Website
Your new Drupal 8 website will look to the public just like the old one. On the back end, along with all the Drupal 8 improvements, you will notice the migration included:
- Only Active Users
- Only Published Content
- Only Linked Files (since the platform was never meant to be a filing cabinet)
- Only Events in the Future (unless you publish a view of past events)
- A Clean Slate on Webform Results