Drupal 8 is now suitable for modern PHP standards, object-oriented programming, and fundamental factors of the Symphony 2 framework. Drupal 8’s integration of object-oriented concepts helps developers reuse and maintain the code that is impossible in procedural programming. Due to the new upgrade, Drupal 8’s backend has become powerful and can boost page caching.
So here we have listed the 20+ newly Drupal 8 features that will help you use the upgraded version for the first time:
1. Improved Theming With Twig
Twig is a PHP-based fast, flexible, and secure template engine added in Drupal 8. The addition of Twig makes it easy for developers to create a website with Drupal by providing safe and blazing-fast functionalities. With Twig, you get an all-new approach to theming in Drupal 8. It has become easier than ever for any non-PHP skilled user to manage themes in a Drupal website.
2. Multilingual Capability
Drupal 8 is loaded with several built-in languages to save time and effort for users using Symphony, which has an underlying element called translation, which can create multilingual sites and help you show the site content in multiple languages. Using Symphony, you can translate everything from content to blocks to menus to taxonomy. You can even translate user profiles, image styles, views, text formats, comments, and feeds on your website. In short, Drupal 8 provides the entire site translation.
3. BigPipe Module
The release of Drupal 8 has raised the level of Drupal as the new version comes with the integration of the BigPipe module. Facebook invented BigPipe; it has become the most popular method for the fastest page load. In Drupal 8, you will find BigPipe as a separate module to give you a better user experience. It is now an integral part of Drupal 8 and different from its previous versions as you don’t have to enable it manually through the Drupal core.
4. Drupal 8 Has Got New Wings With HTML 5
Drupal 8 is now available in the best version of HTML. HTML5 offers a simplified syntax to help you distribute clean code. We can say that Drupal 8 owes its cross-browser capability to HTML 5. The HTML 5 addition also helps search engines read code easily and improves the SEO ranking for your website. Now you can easily add fields like information, email, contact information, etc.
5. Advanced Configuration Management
A lot of developers were facing configuration management issues in Drupal 7. Drupal 8 stores the site’s configuration data in a unique way. Tools like Git and Drush are used in the development workflow of configuration systems. The in-built forms manage the configuration of the site provided by the administrative UI. You can store data such as content, cache, state, and structure and session as a simple configuration mode and easily import and export the required features.
6. Simplified Authoring Experience
The DRUPAL 8 now consists of Content Editor, WYSIWYG Editor, and the CKEditor in Drupal to help you manage the content and workflow of your website. The in-place editing feature is pretty helpful for the content editors, enabling any content creator to edit the text of any page without switching to the complete edit form. Now users can easily create drafts in a fraction of time.
7. Views as Part of Drupal Core
The View is an integral part of any website project. It is available by default in Drupal, and most of the Drupal administration screens use Views to make them easy to customize. In the new Drupal 8 feature, Views is now firmly integrated with the Drupal 8 core. Drupal 8’s front page and administration pages are now Views, and which help you quickly create pages, blocks, admin sections, etc., and modify existing ones in no effort.
8. Built-in Web Services
Web services are more important nowadays. Web services have now become an integral part of Drupal 8 as it uses itself as a source of data and shows content as JSON or XML. You can use the frontend to post the data, and you can implement Hypertext Application Language (HAL) in Drupal 8 to ease web services as much as possible.
9. Mobile First From The Get-Go
The built-in themes in Drupal 8 are responsive, and the admin theme adapts to different screen sizes. You have a ‘Back To Site’ button to help users go back to the front page. The tables fit into any screen size and gadget without a hitch, and the new admin tool works perfectly on mobile devices.
Also Read: The Finest of Drupal 8 Modules Popular for Website Development in 2020
10. Better Support For Accessibility
Drupal 8 provides access to industry-standard accessibility technologies, like WAI-ARIA. ARIA Live Announcements API and TabManager, which provide control for a wide range of Internet applications. Features like better font sizes, tweaked color contrasts, jQuery UI’s autocomplete, and modal dialogs make Drupal 8 an easy-to-use CMS.
11. New Fields
Fields are known as building blocks of Drupal content management systems. Drupal 8 now comes with new field types named Date, Email, Link, Reference, Telephone in the Drupal 8 core. Drupal 8 also enables you to add fields in many more places like nodes, blocks, comments, contact forms, taxonomy terms, and users.
12. Guided Tour
New to Drupal? Now you can take the tour using the link “Tour,” and a pop-up will appear to help you know how the unique features of Drupal 8 works. This user-friendly feature is beneficial as it allows developers to understand how to develop CMS.
13. Loading Speed
Drupal 8 does not unnecessarily load JavaScript and caches all entities. Meaning, when a page is viewed, there is no need to reload the content again. Once you configure and enable it, caching becomes completely automatic.
14. Industry Standards
Drupal 8 perfectly aligns with the latest PHP 7 standards such as PSR-4, namespaces, and traits. Drupal 8 uses top-notch, outstanding external libraries like PHPUnit, Guzzle, Composer, Zend Feed Component, Assetic, etc.
15. Automated JavaScript Testing
Automated testing was not possible in previous Drupal versions for the frontend. In Drupal 8, JavaScript (JS) automated testing is now possible, and testers can test the JavaScript frontend automatically to help them save time and make continuous integration easier ever.
16. Responsive Images
In Drupal 7, image styles were in the core that automatically resizes images. In Drupal 8, users can choose different types for individual photos. You can use various styles and sizes for different device sizes.
18. Automatic Packaging
In Drupal 8, you don’t have to create individual features manually. The Automatic packaging Feature analyzes your website, and your site configuration is packaged into a set of features.
19. Interoperability Built-in.
In Drupal 8, you can mix and match features set to those of another. Drupal 8 offers configured plugins by default to help you with the best practices for building features that will open new possibilities for interoperability.
20. Support For Feature Sets
In Drupal 8, Features or bundles are not limited to the particular feature. Now, Features supports bundles–sets of features sharing a namespace.
21. Media Library
Drupal users were always looking for media handling features. In Drupal 8, you will find a “Media Library” module in its core. The media handling features are in the core, so you’ll have to enable the module.
22. Demo Data
In Drupal 8, you can install Drupal and get a complete demo site to explore. If you are doing a browser installation, you will see a new option: “Demo: Umami Food Magazine”. You will also find a couple of landing pages created with sample Views and look much better than a simple Drupal install.
Conclusion
These are some of the newly added features in Drupal 8. We hope you will find these features helpful and will be able to create your CMS. These features are also the reason you should upgrade your Drupal version to Drupal 8. In case you need help with your Drupal CMS creation.
Let’s Talk Solution
Our team at AddWeb Solutions is here to help you create the most powerful CMS using the latest version of Drupal. Get in touch to talk to our Drupal experts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Drupal 8 is full of surprises! Features like “Content Moderation” for smoother content workflow and “Media Library” for managing images easily often fly under the radar but bring incredible value.
Paragraphs are like building blocks for your content. They let you create flexible and dynamic pages without diving into complex code, giving you more control over your site’s look and feel.
Absolutely! Responsive Images ensure that your pictures look great on any device, from a desktop computer to a smartphone, providing a seamless experience for your mobile visitors.
Indeed! Drupal 8 has built-in multilingual features, making creating a website in multiple languages easy. Your global audience will feel right at home.
Block Layout is like arranging furniture on your website. It lets you easily control where different elements appear on your pages, allowing you to design your site just the way you want.
Content Revision is your safety net. It allows you to track changes made to your content over time, making it easy to revert to previous versions if needed.
