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UT Drupal Kit

UT Drupal Kit 3 – Beta 5 release

ITS has posted the fifth beta release of UT Drupal Kit 3.0 (UTDK 3). Please note that this release was originally made available for download on May 12 as version 3.0.0-beta.5, but there were some issues with the release noted before an announcement could be made. These issues were fixed in a subsequent 3.0.0-beta.5.1 release which is the current version. Developers updating from a previous beta release should review the release notes for both the 3.0.0-beta.5 and 3.0.0-beta.5.1 releases in order to understand all of the changes that have been made since 3.0.0-beta.4.

UT Drupal Kit 3.0.0-beta.5 consists largely of bug fixes and minor display enhancements related to consistency. Link fields received a significant functional enhancement: each link can be configured to open in a new tab, and to display either a lock or external link icon.

This release also includes an update from Drupal 8.8.3 to 8.8.5, and a number of contributed module updates.

NEWS ADD-ON NOW AVAILABLE

Creating timely article content is now available via the News add-on (current release version: 1.0.0-alpha.1). It will provide the same functionality as UT Drupal Kit version 2’s News add-on, but includes enhancements: author blurbs, better news categorization, and improved SEO metadata. This release includes a fully-themed, templated content type, but does not include the ability to create news listings. Full documentation: Creating News.

PROFILE ADD-ON ENHANCEMENTS

The initial alpha release of the Profile add-on came in March 2020. This next release (1.0.0-alpha.2) brings the ability to create Profile listings, complete with 3 display variants. Sites that have already installed alpha.1 can update and then enable the newly available “Block Type – Profile Listing” module. Full documentation: Creating Profiles.

UPDATING AN EXISTING CODEBASE

Please visit the UT Drupal Kit 3 documentation for complete release notes and instructions for updating an existing beta codebase using Composer. Always be sure to check for available database updates after updating the codebase.

A NOTE ABOUT BETA RELEASES

This is a beta release for the next major version of the UT Drupal Kit. Betas are good testing targets for developers and site builders who are comfortable reporting (and where possible, fixing) their own bugs. Beta releases are not recommended for non-technical users, nor for production websites.

HOW DO I GET STARTED WITH UTDK 3?

The first thing anyone interested in starting with UTDK 3 should do is to head over to our brand-new documentation site:

https://drupalkit.its.utexas.edu/docs/

The “What is the UT Drupal Kit?” chapter contains detailed explanations of what the Kit contains, as well as a list of differences between versions 2 and 3.

The “Getting Started” chapter includes technical requirements for running version 3, as well as detailed instructions for setting up an environment on your own local workstation, a LAMP server, or Pantheon.

If you run into problems or have questions, please check the “Support” page for available support options.

NEXT RELEASES

The 3.x (Drupal 8) branch of the UT Drupal Kit is updated on a bi-monthly maintenance release schedule, with releases targeted for the second Tuesday of odd-numbered months. The next planned release is UT Drupal Kit 3.0.0-beta.6, due on July 14, 2020. Please see 2020 Release Schedule for UT Drupal Kit for more details.

By Paul Grotevant

Paul Grotevant is the Senior IT Manager of Web Content Management Solutions for Information Technology Services at the University of Texas at Austin.