Categories
UT Drupal Kit

UT Drupal Kit 3 – Beta 6 Release

ITS has posted the sixth beta release of UT Drupal Kit 3.0 (UTDK 3).

UT Drupal Kit 3.0.0-beta.6 consists largely of bug fixes and minor display enhancements related to consistency. Big strides were made toward Drupal 9 compatibility, though Beta 6 is still based on Drupal 8 (we expect Beta 7, scheduled for release in September, to be fully Drupal 9 compatible).

This release also includes an update from Drupal core 8.8.5 to 8.9.2, and a number of contributed module updates.

IMPORTANT: MANUAL SCAFFOLDING CHANGES NEEDED FOR EXISTING SITES

If you maintain a Drupal Kit site that was installed prior to Beta 6, you will need to manually change your existing composer.json file as described in the release notes. Please carefully review this material and make the prescribed changes to your codebase. For questions or concerns, please open a ticket by emailing drupal-kit-support@utlists.utexas.edu.

NEWS ADD-ON LISTING PAGE

The initial alpha release of the News add-on arrived in May 2020. In addition to making the add-on Drupal 9 compatible, this release (1.0.0-alpha.2) ships an initial listing page for News articles. Sites that have already installed alpha.1 can update and then enable the newly available “View – News Listing Page” module. Full documentation: Creating News.

PROFILE ADD-ON ENHANCEMENTS

This release (1.0.0-alpha.3) consists of minor bug fixes, and makes the add-on Drupal 9 compatible. 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.7, due on September 8, 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.