Drupal 10 features

Drupal 10 is the next major iteration of our beloved open-source web content management system. In this post, I answer some of the most common and important questions about the upcoming release.

Is there a Drupal 10?

No, not yet. As of today (April 19, 2022), there is only an early alpha release of Drupal 10. That is not something you want to use for building your next project. The early alpha release is intended for module and theme developers to test whether their code is compatible with new changes.

Drupal 10 release date

The scheduled release date for Drupal 10 is December 14, 2022.

Upgrading CKEditor from version 4 to version 5 has proved more difficult than originally thought, and that's why releasing Drupal 10 in August is no longer possible. The CKEditor 5 code has been written from scratch, so it's no wonder that integration with Drupal is taking a long time.

What are the PHP requirements for Drupal 10?

Drupal 10 will require PHP 8.1. That means that it won't be possible to run Drupal 10 on PHP 8.0 or earlier. Just don't use versions 8.1.0 to 8.1.5 because these versions have a bug that may cause fatal errors on your website. PHP version 8.1.6 is recommended.

Check the official change record to find out more information.

What are the database requirements for Drupal 10?

Drupal 10 requires MariaDB, MySQL/Percona, PostgreSQL or SQLite database.

Did you know that MongoDB is supported by a contributed module? There is no Drupal 10 compatible release yet, but that might change very soon. 

New front-end theme

The default front-end theme for Drupal 10 will be Olivero, described as a clean, accessible, and flexible Drupal front-end theme. Olivero has a modern look and feel and is currently available as a stable theme in Drupal 9, so you can already use it.

While the previous default theme, Bartik, served as a longstanding staple for Drupal, Olivero takes the baton in Drupal 10, delivering a more contemporary aesthetic, better mobile optimization, and enhanced accessibility features. This evolution underscores Drupal's commitment to staying current with web design trends and user needs.

New admin theme

The default admin theme for Drupal 10 will be Claro, described as a clean, accessible, and powerful Drupal administration theme. Claro is also available in Drupal 9 but at the moment is flagged as an experimental theme.

Claro brings a fresh, clean, and intuitive interface in contrast to its predecessor, Seven. While Seven provided a straightforward administrative experience, Claro ups the ante with improved accessibility, modern design patterns, and an interface that aligns with contemporary UX practices, making the Drupal backend more user-friendly for site builders and content editors alike.

CKEditor 5 and Drupal 10

CKEditor was added to Drupal core in version 8 more than 9 years ago. Drupal core is currently using CKEditor 4 and the upcoming Drupal 10 will use CKEditor 5. You can already test the new version by installing the experimental CKEditor 5 module that is as of Drupal 9.3 included in the core.

The main reason we need to upgrade to version 5 is that CKEditor 4 will go end of life in 2023 and that means no more security coverage. To test the new version in Drupal 9.3 or later, just enable CKEditor 5 module and edit a text format and change the Text editor to CKEditor 5.

CKEditor 5 presents a modern, modular approach with a framework rebuilt from the ground up. It boasts a responsive UI, a more intuitive and native feel for user interactions, and offers real-time collaborative editing capabilities.

Symfony 5 or 6?!

One of the reasons we need Drupal 10 is because the end of life date for Drupal 9 is when Symfony 4 reaches its end of life and that is in November next year (2023). The development version of Drupal 10 depends at the moment on version 6 which is the latest version of Symfony. The final version that will be released in December should depend on Symfony 6.2. Find out more in the following change record.

Drupal 10 download

You can download the latest official Drupal 10 snapshot here, or alternatively, you can use Composer to create a new project:

composer create-project drupal/recommended-project:10.0.0-alpha3@alpha "my-project"

Please keep in mind that dev, alpha, and beta versions should not be used in production! These releases are intended for module and theme developers to test whether their code is compatible with new changes.

Drupal 11 release date

The release date for Drupal 11 is not yet known. What we know so far is that Automated Updates and Project Browser features should be included in this version. This will make updating and extending Drupal easier than ever before.