NOTE: Due to a regression introduced in the 3.11.0 release, the 3.11.1 bugfix release was created prior to the 3.11.0 release announcement.
This serves as the release announcement for both 3.11.0 and 3.11.1. For details about the 3.11.1 bugfix, please see the release notes.
UT Drupal Kit 3.11.0 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 the usual mix of bugfixes and visual improvements, there are several notable changes in this release including the update to PHP 8 as the default version of PHP for sites hosted on Pantheon, the update to CKEditor 5, and the addition of an Instagram feed component.
This release also continues to pave the way for the planned update to Drupal 10 in the next scheduled maintenance release. Please see below for a special note about base themes and an action item for site owners using a custom theme that is NOT a subtheme of Forty Acres.
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 update
In preparation for the planned update to Drupal 10, this release updates the default version of PHP for sites hosted on Pantheon from 7.4 to 8.1 by updating the pantheon.upstream.yml file and removing the PHP platform requirement from the root composer.json file.
Drupal 10 will require PHP 8.1, but site owners on Pantheon who wish to continue using PHP 7.4 for the time being can manually “pin” their site’s PHP version by modifying the site’s pantheon.yml file. See Pantheon YAML Configuration Files for more information.
Note:
Site owners on hosting platforms other than Pantheon will be responsible for updating their sites’ PHP version to a minimum of PHP 8.1 before the Drupal 10 update scheduled for UTDK 3.12.0 in May 2023.
CKEditor 5 update
In preparation for the planned update to Drupal 10, this release switches the default rich text editor from CKEditor 4, which was bundled as part of Drupal 9, to CKEditor 5, which is the default in Drupal 10.
The CKEditor module in Drupal 9 will be uninstalled, and the CKEditor 5 contrib module for Drupal 9 will be enabled in its place. All text formats included with the UT Drupal Kit (Basic HTML, Full HTML, Flex HTML) will be re-configured to use CKEditor 5.
For an overview of changes in CKEditor 5, see Changes in CKEditor 5
There are two important callouts related to this change for owners of customized sites:
The “Flex HTML” text format included with the UT Drupal Kit will be reset to its default configuration.
Any customizations which have been made directly to the Flex HTML text format will be lost, and will have to be re-applied after the update. ITS recommends that site owners only modify the Flex HTML text format using an approach which overrides the base configuration, rather than modifying it directly.
This update will uninstall any custom modules that declare a dependency on Drupal core’s CKEditor module.
A custom module could declare a dependency without the developer originally having intended to explicitly declare that dependency if they use a configuration bundler such as the Features module. To ensure that no modules that should not be uninstalled are not uninstalled, run the site update in a testing environment and then immediately check the site’s Watchdog logs after running the database updates. Filtering the log entries by the “System” parameter will provide a list of the modules uninstalled. If any modules were unexpectedly uninstalled, examine the dependencies declared in those modules to see if they reference drupal:ckeditor and remove that dependency if found.
Instagram Feed component
The 3.11.0 release includes a new addition to the UT Drupal Kit’s collection of content components, for integrating Instagram content into a site. An example of this component is available at https://demo.drupalkit.its.utexas.edu/instagram.
Due to the complexities of integrating with the Instagram API, configuration of this component requires multiple steps which must be completed by a user with a Meta developer account. See Instagram for detailed instructions.
Action item for non-Forty Acres themes
This update will uninstall the “Stable” theme and install the “Stable9” theme, which was added to Drupal core for backward compatibility after the retirement of “Stable” in Drupal 10. See https://www.drupal.org/node/3107179 for more details on this change.
Warning: If a site is using a custom theme that is NOT a subtheme of Forty Acres and that uses stable as its base theme, the updates will not complete correctly. The site owner must change the base theme from stable to stable9 before applying the 3.11.0 update. No functional or visual changes will be involved in this switch.
Drupal core update
The 3.11.0 release incorporates the most recent release of Drupal core for the 9.5 minor release branch, bringing it from version 9.5.2 to 9.5.7.
For more information about Drupal 10 and the schedule for that change, please see UT Drupal Kit’s Roadmap to Drupal 10.
Here are the release notes for all Drupal core releases inclusive in this release:
- https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal/releases/9.5.3 (Bugfix release)
- https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal/releases/9.5.4 (Bugfix release)
- https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal/releases/9.5.5 (Security release)
- https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal/releases/9.5.6 (Bugfix release)
- https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal/releases/9.5.7 (Bugfix release)
Contributed module updates
The following contributed modules are updated in this release:
Modules included with the UT Drupal Kit installation profile
- addtoany: from 2.0.0 to 2.0.1
- linkit: from 6.0.0-beta3 to 6.0.0-beta4
- svg_upload_sanitizer: from 1.3.0 to 1.4.0
- twitter_profile_widget: from 3.1.1 to 3.1.3
- url_embed: from 1.0-beta1 to 2.0.0-alpha1
- entity_clone: from dev-2.x to 2.0.0-beta2
Modules included with the Event add-on
- addtocal_augment: from 1.0.0 to 1.1.0-alpha1
- fullcalendar_view: from 5.1.8 to 5.1.11
Modules included with the Profile add-on
- bootstrap_horizontal_tabs: from 1.4.0 to 2.0.2
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 3.12.0, due in May 2023. Please see Release Schedule for UT Drupal Kit for more details.
