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UT Drupal Kit

UT Drupal Kit 3.7.0/3.7.1 Release

NOTE: Due to a dependency version error introduced in the 3.7.0 release, the 3.7.1 bugfix release was created prior to the 3.7.0 release announcement.

This serves as the release announcement for both 3.7.0 and 3.7.1. For details about the 3.7.1 bugfix, please see the release notes.

UT Drupal Kit 3.7.0 is a bi-monthly maintenance release for the University of Texas at Austin’s custom distribution of the Drupal web content management system.

In addition to core and contrib module updates and the usual mix of bugfixes and visual improvements, the 3.7.0 release is focused on addressing compatibility issues with PHP 8.

Callouts for the most impactful changes follow below. For full details of all issues included in this release, please refer to the changelog on the release notes, which links to the corresponding GitHub issues.

PHP 8 compatibility

With this release, all of the custom code included with the UT Drupal Kit has been audited for PHP compatibility using different tools and techniques, and should be compatible with PHP 8.

However, the default version of PHP platform compatibility as declared in the base composer.json and pantheon.upstream.yml files for UTDK 3 will remain at PHP 7.4 at least until Pantheon resolves a platform issue with PHP 8 and updates the default version of PHP in their drupal-composer-managed upstream repository.

We have also identified a small number of issues with contrib modules required by the Drupal Kit which have unresolved PHP 8 compatibility issues, which we will continue tracking.

To follow the progress of PHP 8 as the default version in UTDK 3, check https://github.austin.utexas.edu/eis1-wcs/utdk-project/issues/78.

Drupal core update

The 3.7.0 release incorporates the most recent patch-level releases of Drupal core, bringing it from version 9.3.13 to 9.3.19.

Please note: The Drupal 9.4 minor release branch is already available from Drupal.org, but the UT Drupal Kit has not yet been updated or tested for use with the 9.4 branch. The update to Drupal 9.4 is currently planned for the UTDK 3.8.0 release in September 2022.

Here are the release notes for all Drupal core releases inclusive in this release:

Contributed module updates

The following contributed modules are updated in this release:

Modules included with the UT Drupal Kit installation profile

Modules included with the Event add-on

Modules included with the News add-on

Updating an existing codebase

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

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 9) 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 3.8.0, due in September 2022. Please see 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.