Keeping Drupal installation up-to-date is critical to make sure that it’s not left behind with a chunk of unsupported code and to ensure the smooth functioning of a Drupal site. If you are wondering whether to upgrade your current Drupal 5 to Drupal 6, the following information could be of help in your decision-making process.
Currently, both Drupal 6 and Drupal 7 are being used to power business websites. However, many users are still sticking with the 5th version of Drupal, which officially announced its end of life times ago. With Drupal 7 coming closer and closer, lots of Drupal developers and users are looking at their lingering still-on-Drupal-5 sites and thinking, “Should I upgrade to the newer Drupal 6 version or not?” In case you have your web project settled on Drupal 5 – the answer is definitely “Yes” and the perfect time to upgrade is now.
Because the changes between Drupal 5 and Drupal 6 are quite large and substantial – the move up across these two versions is really a “migration” as opposed to a simple upgrade. Migrating process can look straightforward and trouble-free in writing but there is a lot of little things that should necessarily be paid attention to. Go on reading to know how to make your Drupal 5 to 6 upgrade a smooth sailing:
Before the upgrade process is initiated, make sure to backup your current Drupal website. In case the procedure fails, you’ll be able to restore your site to a previous working condition.
Keep your Drupal users informed and therefore help them in their overall experience with your Drupal website. This will also help to keep an understanding between you and your site visitors if there are any complications or problems.
Register your account at CMS2CMS official website. Just type in your username, email and password in the matching fields. Alternatively, you may login through Social Media (Facebook or Google+).
Specify your Source and Target websites. In easier words, point out the URL addresses of your Drupal 5 and 6 versions and the CMS types of your websites.
To establish the connection between your sites – download and install the bridge file on your PC. Once ready, connect to your Drupal 5 and 6 websites via FTP client software. Within FTP dashboard copy the “cms2cms” folder and paste it into the root directories of your Joomla websites (existing and new versions).
Choose migration preferences by activating the offered migration options those you wish to be imported to Drupal 6.
Try out Demo Migration (which is totally free) to see the CMS2CMS tool in progress and to estimate its results.
In case the results of Demo migration have completely satisfied your expectations – perform Full Migration by clicking the corresponding button. In some minutes your Drupal 5 will be upgraded to 6 version.
Once your conversion process is over and you have your Drupal 6 website live – test your new website in different browsers whether it works properly. Additionally, take care of your website SEO and design features.
Interested yet? Take your time to perform demo migration for you to see how simple it is your Drupal 5 to 6 upgrade with CMS2CMS online converter. Don’t hesitate – do it now!