Announcements

ASU Web Community Updates

The following updates relate to:

Drupal 7 to Drupal 9 transition
Recommendations for Webspark modules
End of Life information for legacy Webspark

Webspark 2 release notes

Webspark 1.79.3 (slapdash) release notes

An upstream update, Webspark v1.79.3 (Slapdash), has been released.

IMPORTANT - READ BEFORE APPLYING! If your Webspark site takes advantage of the temporary reprieve of the Web Standards 2.0 rule requiring no more than two levels of menu items in your site's main menu navigation (i.e. the site has 3+ levels of navigation), and you're using the Special Menu Items module to create placeholders for children menu items (i.e. entering in the URL), then this update will break your mobile menu. The only current fix is for your site to come into compliance with only two levels of main menu navigation. Please direct any questions/concerns about this issue to the Web Consulting Services form.

Users with Webspark sites on Pantheon will see the "Updates available!" notice on the dashboard (your connection mode must be set to Git). Before updating, backup your dev, test and live environments; click the "Apply Updates" button in dev; then test in dev. Only push the updates to test and live when you're sure they don't break your site. (Read "Update Your Site" for more detail.)

Users with Webspark sites not on Pantheon should update their code (see "Update Drupal Core" for instructions) on a dev site and test before moving changes to the live site. In this release, the following changes were made:

Web standards components in Webspark

WS2.0 Banners (ws2_banner) - v1.1
- Banners can now be created in blocks for global deployment (vs. single pages)

Custom Webspark project updates

ASU iSearch (asu_isearch) - v1.15
- 1. Removed Verdana font for better readability
- 2. Removed/concealed red bottom border of links at accordion toggle gaps

Update to green Covid-19 web banner

ASU has recently updated its standard web banner for the Fall 2021 semester to link to and align with key updates from the university. As such, every ASU website requires the current banner be swapped out with the new one shared below. This page contains instructions for developers and staff across the units/departments to seamlessly update the web banner on the ASU site(s) they manage. Please review and take the below actions to update the websites and webpages you manage as soon as possible. For questions, please see asu.edu/webservices.

NOTE: The steps below do not create a banner that is dynamically populated with banner content from an outside, centralized source within the ASU web ecosystem. There have been preliminary suggestions to add that capability to Webspark in the future, but there are currently a) no official plans or timeline for adding that capability to Webspark 2, and b) and there are no plans to add it to Webspark 1 (D7).

In other words, these instructions only create the banner's container and styling - not the banner content/text. Site owners need to follow the instructions below, and then manually copy/add the desired content into said banner on their individual sites.

Webspark 1.0 Instructions

An upstream update for Webspark will be released on Tuesday, August 17, 2021 - 8:00AM. This update must be applied for the following instructions to work.

Adding a global site banner

One-time configuration step: Update FPP settings to create a block containing the FPP banners

Go to https://<yourSiteUrl>/admin/structure/fieldable-panels-panes/settings and check the following:
1. a. Make fieldable panels panes available as blocks
2. b. FPP Types Exposed as Blocks -> Add WS2.0 banner (banners_ws2). (WARNING: If you don't select the WS2.0 banner type, it may activate ALL FPPs to be available as blocks - which will be too much for the Block administration page at /admin/structure/block to handle. If the blocks page won't load in step C, come back here to verify this is correctly done.)
5. c. Click Save.

Step 1: Create the Banner

Log in as an administrator.
Go to https://<yourSiteUrl>/admin/structure/fieldable-panels-panes/banners_ws2/add (or go to Structure -> Fieldable Panels Panes, then find "WS2 Banners under TITLE in the list of available FPPs and select "Add" in the dropdown to the right of it.)
On to "Add WS2.0 banner" page:
1. a. The top title field is huge banner title field.
2. b. Select the banner color, based on the tone that needs to be conveyed:
  1. I. Green (success/informational)
  2. II. Gold (warning/alert)
  3. III. Blue (informational)
  4. IV. Gray (alternative, informational)
  5. V. Black (alternative, informational)
3. c. Under "Banner text", enter:
4. I. Banner title - Internal - This is the title in the banner, displayed to the right of the bell icon.
5. II. Banner body - This is the content of the banner. Keep the content to a minimum in length (1 small paragraph, tops); Going above that may have undesired layout results. Using the WYSIWYG editor to generate the content is recommended. (Advanced users can insert HTML with the "Full HTML" input format, but this could also have unexpected results.)
7. d. Under BUTTONS, up to two buttons that may link out to more information about the banner topic can be added. They are added to the banner automatically, and their alignment cannot and should not be altered.
9. e. Add the Administrative title for future organization purposes (or it won't have any title in the list of banners and be hard to find later.)
11. f. Save the form.
12. NOTE: You'll be returned to the same form, but the new banner has been created.

Step 2. Add the newly created block to the header region.

Go to https://yourSiteUrl/admin/structure/block. Scroll down to the Disabled section and look for any blocks that start with "FPP (banners_ws2)". To place the banner below the menu:
1. a. Drag the banner block up to the TOP of the content region.
2. b. Click Save at the bottom of the blocks page.

The banner should now appear on all web pages that are rendering the Content region. See screenshot below for an example of the final result (using the success/green style option):

Troubleshooting

* If you are seeing the content of the newly created banner but not the correct color/styling, please make sure that Webspark is updated to the latest version available in the Pantheon dashboard (v1.79.3 - Slapdash). This latest update adds the styling to the headers - the color, etc. And be sure to clear the site's caches in the dashboard after applying the update.

* If that's not the issue, there could be many different reasons for the banner to not be showing so they can't all be covered here, unfortunately. However, we recommend that you first try to recreate the banner again following the steps above for any possible errors. If that doesn't help, see if the banner appears on any content pages at all. If it's not appearing anywhere and you are sure that you have followed the steps exactly, you likely need further assistance.

Adding a banner for a single page

This does not require using a Drupal block and can be done solely within the In-Page Editor (IPE).

Log in as an administrator and browse to the page needing a banner.
Click on "Customize this page" in the IPE, and then on the plus sign (+ -- Add new pane) for the Header region.
Under "More Content Panes", click Add WS2.0 banner, follow Step A3 above, and save the new pane. Save the page in the IPE bar.

The banner should now appear as shown in the IPE preview.

Webspark 2.0 Instructions

In the new Webspark 2 distribution, you can add notification banners by adding custom blocks through layout builder. For more details read the step-by-step instructions or watch our training video on how to add notification banners to your website.

Drupal training

Moving to Drupal 8 or 9 can be a pretty overwhelming task. There are a lot of new technologies and techniques we will need to at least be familiar with that are different from what were used in Drupal 7. Check out the information below to ease the transition:

The UTO partnered with One Origin to present tutorials on key components of Drupal 9. If you missed a training, session need a refresher or are looking for a slide deck that was presented at the training, please see our two canvas courses:

The ASU Brand Guide also has training resources for Drupal 9.

Looking for ideas? See how the Watts College has prepared to transition their sites.

Drupal 7 to drupal 9 directory module transition

Please take note of the following important update related to Drupal’s Local iSearch View functionality. This functionality currently allows for customizations to how isearch profile data is displayed locally on your Drupal 7 (D7) sites. Your department will be impacted in your upcoming transition to Drupal 9 (D9) if you have this functionality enabled and your site is extensively pulling data from iSearch. Please work with your site’s website developer to prepare for your upcoming migration to D9 accordingly.

Known Issues with D7

In the past, the UTO has collaborated with units to address some (not all) of the following Local iSearch View functionality challenges on D7 sites. Known issues include:

Manual import errors of directory profiles. Too many record imports result in the system erroring out.
Delays with (data) updates
Incomplete (data) update
Manual mode search functionality is not specific enough; searching yields results that are not relevant.
Sort by selection for manual mode does not work with multiple paginated pages.
Links from social media platforms are preventing proper population of iSearch profiles when directly linked.
Display names are not always properly recognized when sorting.

Unfortunately, given the effort and complexity of development required to fix (in D7) and carry forward these fixes to D9 has become an insurmountable task with respect to competing priorities and resource constraints.

What to Expect with D9

The Local iSearch View functionality along with Local iSearch View related fixes to your D7 site will not carry forward to your D9 sites based on what we know today.

How to prepare for D9 if you are using Local iSearch View:

Please begin testing your current sites (in dev or test) by turning off “Use local iSearch View” and swap back to your site’s default view. Goal: to alleviate complications during your upcoming migration to D9.