Drupal 9 to Drupal 10 migration of "An Eventful Life" an online paid media website

Project Objective

The primary goal was to migrate the website from Drupal 9 to Drupal 10 to leverage enhanced performance, improved user experience, and long-term support. The migration aimed to ensure compatibility with the latest web technologies while maintaining the integrity of the site's extensive content and custom features.

1. Cross Country Videos: An Eventful Life has been filming competitors on cross country courses in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. They have captured eventing competitors many events, creating a significant library of eventing footage. Riders can order personalized videos of their performances, which are typically available within ten working days.

2. Event Coverage: In-depth reporting on major eventing competitions, including the Olympics, FEI events, and local championships. This includes written articles, video, and audio interviews with top riders and industry experts.

3. Interviews and Training Resources: An Eventful Life features exclusive interviews with top riders, offering insights into their training and experiences. Additionally, the site offers training tips, horse management advice, and breeding news to support the development of riders and their horses.

4. Lifestyle Content: the site provides articles on lifestyle topics, including fashion, home, travel, entertainment, and property.

5. Membership Benefits: An Eventful Life offers a 5* Membership that provides discounted video purchase prices, the ability to download videos, control over video privacy settings, and access to member-only editorial content. This membership enhances the user experience by offering additional features and savings.

6. User Login/registration : The site provides user registration and login functionality, granting access to premium restricted content. Registered users also enjoy the flexibility to download purchased videos.

Migration Challenges :

1. Content Volume: The site hosted thousands of articles, videos, and event results that needed to be migrated without data loss.

2. Custom Modules and Themes: Custom functionality and a bespoke theme had to be updated to align with Drupal 10's architecture.

3. Ckeditor 5 ckeditor_media_resize issue : Image responsive styles issue in Ckeditor. 

4. Deprecated functions in custom modules : One of the common issues encountered was the use of deprecated PHP methods in custom modules, such as the Datetime function. These deprecated methods lead to compatibility issues and cause errors when the PHP version is updated. 

5. Server upgrade issue : We upgraded our server from AWS to DigitalOcean due to the presence of unnecessary additional services on the AWS end that were impacting performance. 

6. Minimal Downtime: Given the site's active user base, prolonged downtime was not an option.

7. Search forms issues : The search functionality previously relied on a Drupal database query. Due to the large volume of data, this sometimes resulted in timeout errors.

8. Migration of payment gateway from Paypal & stripe to Chargebee : Migrated the payment gateway from PayPal and Stripe to Chargebee, securely transferring customer data such as payment methods and subscription details. To address data loss during migration, worked on matching data from two PayPal accounts in the old platform. Used queries to compare data with the older database and created a custom admin dashboard to display all the information in an organized format in relational form.

Key Outcome : 

1. Modern User Interface: A refreshed, mobile-friendly design that aligns with current web standards. Improved Editor Experience: New features in Drupal 10 enhanced the content editing workflow, making it more intuitive for administrators.

2. Services Offered : Frontend/ backend development, video download, MIgration, Quality Assurance, Community Engagement, Security Features, Premium Membership
    

3. Platform upgrade: The website is upgraded to Drupal 10 that enhances the content editing workflow, making it more intuitive for administrators. It Improved site speed and responsiveness due to Drupal 10’s optimized architecture.
    

4. Enable Two-Factor Authentication (TFA) : Implementing Two-Factor Authentication (TFA) enhances site security by requiring users to verify their identity through an additional step during login. This helps prevent fake accounts and unauthorized access, ensuring only genuine users can access premium content and services.
    

5. Solr Search Implementation: Integrated Apache Solr as the site’s primary search engine to enhance search functionality. Configured Solr to index all relevant content types, including articles, event results, and multimedia content.
   Implemented custom facets to allow users to filter search results by categories such as event type, location, and date.
   Optimized the indexing process to ensure real-time updates and minimal server load.  It provided faster, more accurate search results, improving user satisfaction and engagement.

6. Webhooks for the payment workflow : Set up webhooks to simplify the payment process, allowing real-time updates between the payment gateway and the Drupal platform. Added triggers for events like successful payments, cancellations, and refunds to keep order processing and status updates accurate. Also added alerts to the user's profile whenever an action occurs. Tested the payment process thoroughly to ensure smooth transactions and accurate reporting.

7. Better Caching mechanism : Improved caching system by integrating Redis as an external cache to reduce database load and boost performance. Also implemented Cloudflare caching for additional optimization.

"Let Us Help You Solve Your Challenges – Talk to Us to Start Your Drupal Journey Today!"