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UT Drupal Kit

UT Drupal Kit 3.14.0/3.14.1 Release

NOTE: Due to an update problem identified in the 3.14.0 release, the 3.14.1 bugfix release was created prior to the 3.14.0 release announcement.

This serves as the release announcement for both 3.14.0 and 3.14.1. For specific details about the 3.14.1 bugfix, please see the release notes.

The 3.14.0 release is part of the Drupal Kit’s normal, bi-monthly maintenance release schedule. There are two substantial enhancements included in this release: the ability to draft content prior to publication, and the ability to apply display styles through the rich text editor. These, along with other of-note changes, are described below.

Ability to create content drafts prior to publishing

All new and existing sites that do not already define a process for drafting content now be able to create pages in “Draft”, “Published”, or “Archived” state, where previously those pages could only be set to “Published” or “Unpublished”. This will affect the Basic Page and Flex Page content types and, if present on the site, the News, Event, and Profile content types. All existing content will initially retain its current status as either “Published” or “Unpublished”. Going forward, content editors can create new revisions of content in any of the new states:

  • “Draft” versions of the page are not visible to the general public; content editors can preview these staged changes through the “Latest version” tab
  • “Published” versions of the page replace the previously published version, and are viewable by the public
  • “Archived” versions of the page replace the previously published version, presenting users with an “Access Denied” (403) message. The page remains accessible and republishable in the system for content editors.

A video playlist with an introduction and tutorials for using the new “Draft Workflow” feature is available on Microsoft Stream.

Selected styles can be applied to rich text through the “Styles dropdown”

Drupal’s default rich text editing tool, CKEditor, provides a toolbar plugin for applying display styles to specific elements, such as a button-styled hyperlink or a fancy title design for heading text. Until to this point, the Drupal Kit had not included this feature; the 3.14.0 release introduces the “Styles dropdown” for the Flex HTML and Full HTML Text formats. In this release, the available styles are limited to setting borders for HTML tables. More styles will be added in future releases.

Note for developers: Developers may supplement the available styles, but should use Drupal’s Configuration Override System to ensure that their modifications are retained during subsequent updates. An code example of adding a style to the dropdown is found in Drupal Kit Examples.

Path exclusions for Google Tag Manager have been standardized

The Drupal Kit uses a contributed module, Google Tag Manager, to embed Google’s tool of the same name, a tool commonly used for page tracking and analytics. Over time, the default settings for Google Tag Manager changed. This release standardizes those the default page exclusions for new and existing sites: the container will not be present on Page Not Found (404) or Access Denied (403) pages, and will not be present on administrative pages.

Note for developers: Developers who have modified Google Tag Manager page exclusion settings should note their modifications before updating, and then reapply those modifications after the 3.14.0 update.

Multi-item components are now draggable and removable

Content editors building content with components such as Quick Links and the Flex Content Area will notice a change in the editing interface: each item in these components can now be reordered through a drag-and-drop interface and can be deleted with a new “Remove” button. The full list of components that have new this editing capability is:

  • Flex List
  • Flex Content Area
  • Hero Carousel
  • Promo List
  • Promo Unit
  • Quick Links
  • Resources

Drupal core updates

The 3.13.0 release incorporates the most recent release of Drupal core for the 10.1 minor release branch, bringing it from version 10.0.9 to 10.1.1.

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

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 fourth Tuesday of odd-numbered months. The next planned release is UT Drupal Kit 3.15.0, due in November 2023. 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.

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