Drupalites: Updates on Drupal 9, Its Impact & More

Fall Semester 2022 is well underway! We know you are busy, however, we have a lengthier email than normal. Please take time to scan this list of announcements because several of them do require action on your part.

Drupal 9 Is Almost Here: Training Starts Oct. 11. Sign Up Today! 

Drupal 9 is coming to your website on Oct. 30! 

Please make plans to attend a training on the new web editing interface and/or watch a recording of one of our training sessions. 

What You Need to Know

1. The editing experience will be different. 
2. UCM web team has added extra training dates between Oct. 11-26 to help ensure there are opportunities for you to learn the ropes. Register today.
3. Online documentation will be available as a reference after training and/or in case you are unable to attend a training.
4. A training session will be recorded and available on demand.
5. There will be a soft content freeze from Monday, Oct. 24 at 1 a.m. through Sunday, Oct. 30 at noon. 
   1. Should you find that you must make the edits to your current website during this timeframe, you will need to duplicate those changes in your new D9 website. As a result, if you make changes during this timeframe, you will need to keep a log of any changes made so that you can replicate them after Oct. 30 at noon.

Reminders

1. D9 should not affect your public-facing website. 
2. Organizations worldwide are undertaking this transition because Drupal 7 is being phased out due to end-of-life support (by Drupal, not us).

Your IT Web presence group has been working hard on this large but behind-the-scenes initiative to protect the stability of your department website. The IT Web presence group and UCM Web team are currently testing the system and preparing new training documentation for all of our webmasters. We are hopeful that you will find it to be an improved editing experience. 

Academic Webmasters, Please Note

As part of our overall technological advancements and continuous improvement initiatives, we will also implement a new approach to presenting content on academic program pages next year. That plan, which complements the transition to D9, is in the early planning phases. Academic deans, department chairs and academic department webmasters will be involved in this process and we will share updates as we have them.

Please Verify Your Departmental Webmaster(s)

As part of the UCM’s evolving continuous improvement plan around web upkeep and web quality assurance, we approached deans, directors and chairs to conduct this year’s annual verification of the person(s) who should have access to: 

1. Update your department website.
2. SiteImprove, a utility that reports spelling errors, broken links and accessibility issues on your website 

While many of them have responded, we’d also appreciate you taking time to verify the webmaster for your department. You or your designee will be able to review a listing of individuals who currently have access to your website.

Access the list of your website’s current web editors by

1. Going to:  https://www.kent.edu/webteam/drupal-web-contributors-list?pass=k3ntst4t3.
2. Plugging your department name as it appears on your website - do not use your website url - into the search box. 
   1. Example Division of University Communications and Marketing not UCM
3. Review the list of results returned.
4. Please email me ONLY IF YOU HAVE UPDATES. These updates could include:
5. The need to add or delete an individual(s) with access to your website and indicate the necessary changes.  

Please note

• We may need to verify a few unique instances.  
  • In one such scenario we have encountered, the results returned for a larger website with many subgroups suggested that an editor has access to the parent site, when in fact they only have access to a smaller program website beneath that parent website. 
  • More specifically, results for EHHS implied that an individual with access to a unit’s site within that college had access to the main EHHS site. That was not the case, the individual was only able to edit the program website.
• If you should see a result like that and have concern, please let me know. We’ll verify that permissions are accurate.

Meet Our New Student Webmasters and Content Support Specialists 

While we were sad to see Ayla Danes (political science graduate) and Jaden Spicer (business graduate) leave our small but mighty team, we are excited to be wishing them well on their next chapters as new Kent State alumni. Consider looking them up in LinkedIn and sharing a recommendation or endorsement if you worked closely with either of them and had a good experience.

We’re equally excited to introduce to you our new student team, who are both proving themselves to be lightning-fast Drupal-land webbies.

Meet Eddie!

Eddie Lampert is a student pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Emerging Media and Technology, with a minor each in both Computer Science and Web Design & Development, anticipating graduation in May 2024. He got his start competing in state programming, design and robotics competitions, such as SkillsUSA during his high school years. 
 
After his graduation, Eddie built multiple websites for the city of Wadsworth to help spread and boost information during the height of the pandemic. In his free time, Eddie likes to game, draw, and go running. 

Meet Mickey!

Michael Selinsky is a third-year student who goes by Mickey. He is majoring in both Animation Game Design and General Business with a minor in Creative Writing. Some of his hobbies include drawing, cooking and, occasionally, writing. His other interests include literature music and gaming. A fun fact: his favorite color is green.

As always, when you need website assistance, please remember to support a websupport help ticket from our web support webpage. Eddie and Michael will be our first line of triage and help and look to the full-time webbies, as necessary.

Always Ensure Your Page Has a Page Title (or a Header 1 Inline) 

Always Ensure Your Page Has a Page Title (or a Header 1 Inline)

By default, every new page created has a Header 1 set to the Page Title, but some people have been removing these for personal aesthetic choices. Please do not remove these as they hurt our SEO results and drive less traffic to your page.

Below is a sample of the Header 1 (H1) that is automatically set to your page.

Questions?

Please email Lin Danes with any questions. She can help triage your inquiry with the team to find the answer you need.

Thank you for your continued contributions to your Drupal website, 

Web Team 

• Jared Boehm, Lead Application Developer
• Lin Danes, Director of Web Services
• Rob DiVincenzo, Senior Applications Developer
• Doug Flower, Digital Accessibility Specialist, DoIT
• Tyrone Fontaine, Web Designer
• Alison Haynes, Digital Accessibility Compliance Coordinator, DoIT
• Alex Herbers, Web Designer
• Eddie Lampert, Student Web Support Specialist
• Tim Priester, Web Designer & Services Lead
• Michael Selinksy, Student Web Support Specialist
• Sara Smith, Digital Strategist and Technologist