Original notes from 'Gwulo in 2021':
1.1 Gwulo.com - upgrade
The Gwulo website runs on Drupal, an open-source Content Management System. The version of Drupal we use will become unsupported in November 2022, so we need to upgrade it to the next version before then.
My goal for the upgrade is to preserve as much of the functionality of the current site as possible, so anything we can do now we can continue to do in future. It won't be exactly the same though, as some of the additional features we currently use have not been upgraded to work with the new version of Drupal.
As an example, we link people and places to photos. The upgraded site should also allow that linking as it is an important part of the site, though the way we do it will probably look different.
Data migration complete
I've just finished the first part of the upgrade project, which is to migrate all the data from the current Drupal 7 site across to the new Drupal 9 test site.
This has taken several months, and as far as I can tell all data has been moved over successfully, and re-formatted to fit the new software where needed.
So all the information is there, but the test site currently looks ugly and and is difficult to use. The next stage is to work on making as much of the functionality of the old site as possible available on the new site (maps, photo zoom, etc.). This will take several more months.
It should be finished towards the end of the year. At that point I'll make the test site accessible, and ask for your help to find anything that is missing or broken.
The last step will be to repeat the migration of data so that the new site is up to date with all the latest information from the current site. Then the current site will become the old site, remaining available to browse, but made readonly so that no new content can be added to it. The new site will take over as the main Gwulo website where new content can be added. Finally, once we're happy the new site is working smoothly, I'll hide the old site from view.