What is happening? Effective May 1, 2020, the WCMS will no longer be accepting new or changed features from external (non-WCMS team) developers for use with WCMS 2 (Drupal 7).
What is the impact? Custom development work affecting WCMS 2 sites will not be shipped to production as of this date. At that point, any future custom development will only be considered for WCMS 3 (Drupal 8 initially, then Drupal 9) and will be targeted to ship only when the affected sites have been moved to WCMS 3.
Note that this does not affect the ability to edit or create content on the site.
What do users need to do?
- No development work in progress: If you were considering custom development and have not yet reached out to the WCMS team, it is strongly advised to defer any work until WCMS 3 is opened to external developers (projected for September 2020). This will avoid any necessary rework, as work compatible with WCMS 2 will not be compatible with WCMS 3, due to changes in Drupal.
- Development work in progress: Units with work in progress, or who cannot wait for WCMS 3 to ship new work, must complete any outstanding development by April 1, 2020. This will allow time for the WCMS team to review the work, and for you to make any necessary changes prior to the May 1, 2020 deadline.
- Hiring co-op students/developers: Supervisors intending to hire co-op students or temporary employees, or otherwise contract for development work, should do so with these deadlines in mind.
What about custom development work on my current site? Existing custom development work will not be compatible with WCMS 3, due to the aforementioned changes in Drupal, and will have to be rewritten if it is still needed once the full feature set of WCMS 3 is announced. Stay tuned for follow up communications regarding existing custom development.
When is this happening?
- WCMS 2 feature submission for review: April 1, 2020
- WCMS 2 production freeze: May 1, 2020
- WCMS 3 development open to external developers: Sept 1, 2020 (projected)
For full details on the development of WCMS 3, please see the Building the next WCMS website, particularly the project timeline.
Questions or concerns? Please contact Joe Kwan.