PHP Requirements

  • Drupal 11 requires PHP 8.3 with the zlib extension enabled. Most systems will have this extension enabled by default.

Anticipated Enhancements

  • Continued Modernization: Drupal 11 will likely continue the modernization efforts from Drupal 10, including updates to the core admin theme and user interface improvements.
  • Improved Performance: Expect enhancements in caching, performance optimization, and overall system efficiency for a faster and more responsive experience.
  • Updated Front-End Technologies: Continued use of modern front-end technologies and frameworks to enhance theming and front-end development.
  • More Powerful Content Editing: Enhancements to content editing, including potential improvements to CKEditor or a move to newer WYSIWYG editors.
  • Better Developer Experience: Tools and features aimed at improving the development workflow, such as updated command-line tools, better integration with modern development environments, and improved documentation.
  • Extended Configuration Management: Further enhancements to configuration management, simplifying the handling and deployment of configurations across environments.
  • Improved APIs: Continued evolution of Drupal's APIs for easier integration with other systems and custom functionality.
  • Better Multilingual Support: Enhanced capabilities for managing content in multiple languages.

Removed Functionality

  • The following pages have been removed without replacement:
    • The "Add new module" page at /admin/modules/install
    • The "Add new theme" page at /admin/theme/install
    • The "Add new module or theme" page at /admin/reports/updates/install

Compatibility with Drupal 10

  • Both Drupal 11.0.0 and Drupal 10.3.2 (the latest Drupal 10 release) include all the latest improvements and share the same public APIs and features, aside from a few edge cases. Modules and themes can be compatible with both Drupal 10 and 11 simultaneously.

Key Changes in Drupal 11.0.0

  • Deprecated code, including entire modules and themes, has been removed.
  • Dependencies have been updated to new major versions as appropriate.
  • Platform requirements (including supported PHP and database versions, Composer requirements, and supported browsers) have been updated.

Modules Moved to Contributed Projects

  • Numerous modules and themes have been removed from Drupal core and moved to contributed projects. Sites should check their installed modules against the list of removed modules, including:
    • Actions UI
    • Activity Tracker
    • Book
    • Forum
    • Statistics
    • Tour
    • Help Topics
    • Single Directory Components
  • If any of these modules are required for site functionality, the contributed version should be added to the codebase or Composer requirements before upgrading to Drupal 11. Uninstalling these modules will destroy their configuration. Drush may bypass warning messages related to missing modules or themes, and the status report will display errors about missing modules after upgrading.

Frontend (CSS and JavaScript) Dependency Changes

Removed Frontend Dependencies

  • Shepherd.js has been removed as a dependency. The Shepherd library was used only by the Tour module, which has been removed from core.
  • jQuery Form is removed as an external dependency. It is now forked into core as it is abandoned upstream. It is tagged @internal and should not be used directly by contributed or custom modules.

Updated Frontend Dependencies

  • CKEditor is updated to CKEditor 5 v42.0.2. Consider using the CKEditor5 Plugin pack if there are issues with older CKEditor extensions.
  • jQuery is updated to 4.0.0-beta2. Review change logs for any custom code that extends jQuery.
  • jQuery UI is updated to 1.14-beta.2. Check change logs if you have custom code extending jQuery UI.
  • Stable versions of jQuery 4.0.0 and jQuery UI 1.14.0 will be used when available.
  • Yarn 4 and Corepack are now required for Drupal core development.
  • Node.js 20 is now required for Drupal core development.