Case Study: Drupal 8 to Drupal 10 Upgrade
Drupal 8 Annual Conference Upgrade
Plains Anthropological Society upgraded from Drupal 8 to 10 without breaking access to scholarly data or live conference systems
Plains Anthropological SocietyUniversity of Iowa
University of Iowa anthropological department. Runs digital infrastructure for conferences, journals, and awards.
Drupal 8 Ubercart
Upgrade from Drupal 8 Ubercart to Drupal 10 Commerce without breaking access to scholarly data or live conference systems.
The Approach
System Audit and Dependency Mapping
Identified fragile modules and custom features critical to academic use
Migration Blueprint with AI Assistance
Built upgrade path using AI scripts to refactor content types, data structures, and API logic
Rebuild of Conference and Journal Features
Preserved complex workflows, payment integrations, and access layers
Parallel Development and Shadow Deployment
Built the upgrade in a staging clone, synced and tested before switching live
Regression Testing by Comparison and Society Review
Used screenshot diffing and peer-review by academic staff to verify integrity
Academic Workflow Continuity
All systems migrated to Drupal 10 with no downtime. Data was preserved exactly. Academic workflows remained untouched. New security patches applied. Interface matched old one pixel-for-pixel.
Key Matrics
- 0 minutes of downtime
- 100% migration success rate (validated)
- Full Ubercart to Commerce migration
- Drupal Managed Services for ongoing support
