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UT Drupal Kit

UT Drupal Kit 2.26 release

ITS is happy to announce the immediate availability of UT Drupal Kit 2.26.0, the latest maintenance release for our University distribution of the Drupal web content management system. This release includes an update to Drupal core, as well as updates for multiple contrib modules. It also adds XML Sitemap functionality to new and existing sites, and adds a new field to the “Team Member” add-on content type.

This update does include multiple database updates, so be sure to make a backup of your site’s database before installation, and run database updates after updating the codebase.

Drupal Core update

The 2.26 release incorporates the most recent release of Drupal Core, bringing it from 7.73 up to the latest version (7.77).

XML Sitemap enabled by default

In order to increase Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for UT Drupal Kit sites, the XML sitemap module is now enabled by default on both existing and new installations. The following content types will be configured to be included in the sitemap:

  • Standard Page
  • Landing Page
  • News Article
  • Team Member
  • Article (included with Drupal core)
  • Basic page (included with Drupal core)

For technical reasons, the UTDK “Event” add-on cannot be included in the sitemap.

For more information on XML Sitemap and how to customize the configuration for your site, please refer to the following community resources:

IMPORTANT POST-INSTALLATION STEP: After installing the 2.26 update, site owners should visit the XML Sitemap settings configuration page at https://example.utexas.edu/admin/config/search/xmlsitemap/settings (“Configuration” –> “Search and metadata” –> “XML sitemap” —> “Settings” tab) to ensure that the “Default base URL” (inside the “ADVANCED SETTINGS” section) is set as the primary URL of their site, and then hit the “Save configuration” button in order to ensure this value will not change during future sitemap rebuilds. You MUST save the configuration in order to permanently store this default URL value, even if it appeared correctly and you did not change anything on the form.

Screenshot illustrating the "Default base URL" setting for the XML sitemap module
It is important to set the “Default base URL” field in the XML sitemap module’s settings page

IMPORTANT CHANGE FOR CONTENT EDITORS: Please note that this change means that pages which are in a published state and are not included in your site’s main navigation will now be exposed to search engine spiders such as Google and Bing. If you have “draft” or old content that you do not wish to be visible to the world, you should “unpublish” that content using the “Published” checkbox in the “Publishing options” section of a page’s edit form.

Alternatively, UTDK site owners can choose to disable the XML sitemap module at their own discretion, but please be aware that this may negatively impact your site’s search engine rankings.

New “Email address” field for Team Member

As of December 2020, the UT Directory will require authentication with a UT EID, and access will be restricted to members of the university community in order to increase security and privacy and combat aggressive data mining by outside organizations.

Because the “Team Member” add-on feature has always included the option of a “View in Directory” link for the Team Member listing page, and this link will no longer work for users who are not part of the university community, we have added a new “Email address” field to the Team Member configuration, which will only appear on the listing page for listings using the “Prominent” and “Basic” displays.

Screenshot of team member listing page highlighting the new email address field and the padlock icon on the directory link
An example team member listing page showing the new email address field in both Prominent and Basic displays, and the padlock icon on the “View in Directory” link.

The “View in Directory” link will still function as before for the benefit of university community members, but now has a “padlock” icon appended to it to indicate that this link requires authentication.

To remove the “View in Directory” link from a Team Member listing, simply delete the UT EID value from that Team Member’s edit form.

Screenshot of updated team member edit form highlighting new email address field
Updated team member edit form with new email address field.

IMPORTANT: The “Team Member” add-on module is not included as part of the main UT Drupal Kit distribution package, and must be downloaded separately from the UT Drupal Kit wiki. The version with the new email address field is labeled as version 7.x-2.26. If you have already added the Team Member add-on to your site and have customized any part of the configuration (fields, templates, views, etc.), you should not update the Team Member add-on module, but will need to make similar customizations directly to your own copy of the module if desired.

Please email drupal-kit-support@utlists.utexas.edu with any questions before proceeding if you are unclear about the status of an existing copy of the Team Member module.

Contrib updates

Module names marked with * are NOT enabled by default in the UTDK distribution, but are provided for the convenience of site owners to enable if they need them.

How to update the UT Drupal Kit

Complete instructions and download links for updating a UT Drupal Kit site are available on the documentation wiki. Pantheon site dashboards that use the UT Drupal Kit distribution should see the upstream updates available now; see the Pantheon documentation for more information on applying upstream updates.

Please review the changelog thoroughly, and always make backups of your code, files, and database before proceeding with an update!

Next releases

The 2.x (Drupal 7) branch of the UT Drupal Kit is updated on a bi-monthly maintenance release schedule, with releases targeted for the second Tuesday of even-numbered months. The next planned release is UT Drupal Kit 7.x-2.27, due on February 9, 2021. Please see Release Schedule for UT Drupal Kit for more details.

If you have questions or concerns about the UT Drupal Kit, please feel free to email us at drupal-kit-support@utlists.utexas.edu.

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.