Drupal 11 Changes & Deprecations

When to Use

When upgrading to Drupal 11 or maintaining modules compatible with Drupal 11.x.

Decision: Migration Path

Deprecated element	Replacement	Action required
`content_translation.admin.inc` functions	Functions moved to `content_translation.module`	Update function calls (path changes, signatures same)
`t()` global function (still works)	`$this->t()` via StringTranslationTrait	Refactor for best practices (not breaking)

Pattern: content_translation.admin.inc Deprecation

Deprecated in: Drupal 11.4.0 Removed in: Drupal 12.0.0

Background: - content_translation.admin.inc contained helper functions for field sync UI - Functions moved to content_translation.module - File deprecated, will be removed in Drupal 12

Affected function: - content_translation_field_sync_widget()

Migration:

// OLD (deprecated)
include_once \Drupal::root() . '/core/modules/content_translation/content_translation.admin.inc';
$widget = content_translation_field_sync_widget($field);

// NEW (Drupal 11.4+)
// Function now in content_translation.module (auto-loaded)
$widget = content_translation_field_sync_widget($field);

If you directly included the file, remove the include_once:

// Remove this line
include_once \Drupal::root() . '/core/modules/content_translation/content_translation.admin.inc';

// Function still available
$widget = content_translation_field_sync_widget($field);

Most modules won't be affected — function auto-loaded from .module file.

Pattern: Best Practices Updates (Non-Breaking)

t() function — still works but discouraged in new code:

// OLD (still works, not deprecated)
$message = t('Hello, world!');

// NEW (best practice)
use Drupal\Core\StringTranslation\StringTranslationTrait;

class MyClass {
  use StringTranslationTrait;

  public function myMethod() {
    $message = $this->t('Hello, world!');
  }
}

Reason: $this->t() is testable, mockable, dependency-injectable.

Pattern: Checking for Drupal 11 Compatibility

Module compatibility:

# mymodule.info.yml
name: My Module
core_version_requirement: ^10 || ^11

Check for deprecated code:

# Use Drupal Check or PHPStan
composer require --dev mglaman/drupal-check
vendor/bin/drupal-check modules/custom/mymodule

# Or PHPStan with Drupal extension
composer require --dev phpstan/phpstan drupal/core-dev
vendor/bin/phpstan analyze modules/custom/mymodule

Known Issues & Changes

Twig 3.x (Drupal 11.x uses Twig 3): - Stricter syntax checking - Some deprecated Twig 2 patterns removed - Update custom Twig extensions if any

Symfony 6.4 / 7.x: - Drupal 11 uses newer Symfony components - Some Symfony APIs changed - Check custom services using Symfony components

jQuery updates: - Drupal 11 updates jQuery version - Some jQuery plugins may need updates - Test custom JavaScript libraries

No major translation system changes — core translation architecture stable between Drupal 10 and 11.

Common Mistakes

Not testing after Drupal 11 upgrade → Even non-deprecated code may behave differently. Test all translation workflows
Ignoring deprecation warnings → Drupal logs deprecation warnings. Monitor logs and fix before Drupal 12
Not checking contrib module compatibility → TMGMT and other translation modules may need updates for Drupal 11
Assuming all APIs unchanged → Some edge case APIs changed. Review change records at https://www.drupal.org/list-changes/drupal