Almost eight years ago, the Waterloo Content Management System (WCMS) was launched with the goal of providing the campus community an easy-to-use tool to publish web content in a consistent, and accessible, framework. In 2016, the first set of major changes to the WCMS were introduced, in the form of responsive design. Dubbed “WCMS 2”, these changes were meant to reflect the rising importance of mobile devices with our end-users. It is now 2019 and we are preparing for the next major set of changes, which we are calling “WCMS 3.”
What is changing?
WCMS 2 was primarily focused on responsive design, which allowed sites to flex and “respond” to different browser sizes. On the surface, these changes were helpful for our end-users, particularly those using their mobile devices. WCMS 3 will be mostly addressing things that are “under the hood” to the end-user. The recipients of the main benefits of these changes are campus content authors and our development and support teams. We have three primary outcomes for this project:
- Upgrading our content management system from Drupal 7, which is approaching end-of-life, to Drupal 8.
- Adding some of the most requested features from content authors like more flexible page layouts, a better dashboard, and access to all content types regardless of “theme.”
- Keeping the presentation layer as undisturbed as possible, minimizing the impact to the end-user.
Why make these changes now?
The WCMS development team has been constantly working since WCMS 1 was launched to provide incremental improvements to the system, and we will continue to take this approach once WCMS 3 is launched. Drupal 7, the underlying content management system, will reach the end of its lifespan in 2021. We are committed to continuing to use Drupal, as it keeps its standing as a first-class CMS in the education space, particularly with its commitment to accessibility, so we need to upgrade to Drupal 8.
That being said, to call this work an “upgrade” is very much an oversimplification. The development team behind Drupal 8 took a new, modern approach to the CMS, which sets it up very well for the future. But as a result, our team is facing a much more complex process than previous version upgrades. Think of it as if you were a Windows user, and instead of upgrading to the next version of Windows, you needed to move to MacOS.
So we know we need to move to Drupal 8 and we know it’s going to mean a fundamental change in how we develop moving forward. We also know that the WCMS footprint has grown to almost 1000 websites at this point. Add this all up and you can see that we need to start now to set our entire campus up for success.
Timelines and milestones
Our current project timeline depicts what we think the major milestones are for the project as we know it. But as we all know, these items and their dates are fluid, especially with a project of this size and complexity. We will do our best to be transparent with our communications so that all campus partners are as informed as possible. This website will serve as the central location for all of our communications about this project.
If you have any questions about this project or the WCMS in general, please don’t hesitate to reach out.