ITS has posted the eighth beta release of UT Drupal Kit 3.0 (UTDK 3).
UT Drupal Kit 3.0.0-beta.8 largely consists of layout-related changes for components, bug fixes and accessibility improvements. It also includes an update from Drupal 8.9.6 to 8.9.8, and a number of contributed module/theme updates.
New layout features
Content editors can now constrain individual content blocks as well as layout sections to a predetermined readable width, which limits the effective number of characters on each line. See Layouts.
This release adds the capability for content editors to set multi-item components to display with 1, 2, 3, or 4 items per row. Initially, the Control items per row (multi-item components) feature is only available for the Promo Unit and Social Links components, but similar options will soon be available for other components that allow multiple items.
Accessibility improvements
Keyboard navigation improvements were made to the mobile menu.
Additionally, various content components received accessibility improvements related to redundant links & inaccurate link descriptions. For a description of the types of changes applied, see http://sites.utexas.edu/drupal/2020/10/27/accessibility-changes-in-the-utdk-2-25-release/. The components that were improved were:
- Featured Highlight
- Flex Content Area
- Image Link
- Promo List
- Promo Unit
Also, a more general change was introduced to the Forty Acres theme to underline hyperlinks in blocks of text to provide clearer visual distinguishability.
Callout: Media Library Form Element module update require users to clear browser cache
An update to a contributed module, Media Library Form Element, will likely require content editors to clear the browser cache before using the media library again.
Callout: Twitter profile widget
It is now possible to create blocks with Twitter content. Documentation for setting up a twitter app and using the module is available at Twitter content.
Contributed module updates
The following contributed modules are updated in this release.
- admin_toolbar: from 2.3.0 to 2.4.0
- adminimal_theme: from 1.5.0 to 1.6.0
- facets: from 1.4.0 to 1.6.0
- google_cse: from 3.1.0 to 3.2.0
- media_library_form_element: from 1.0-alpha8 to 2.0.0
- schema_metatag: from 1.7.0 to 2.1.0
- search_api: from 1.17.0 to 1.18.0
- smart_date: from 3.0.0-beta1 to 3.0.4
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 the 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.9, due on January 12, 2021. Please see Release Schedule for UT Drupal Kit for more details.
