Quarterly Communications

What’s New 

So. Many. Things.

Updates to the Drupal Website

• We migrated www.middlebury.edu and www.davisuwcscholars.org to a cloud-based managed hosting provider, Pantheon, so that they are no longer geographically bound to Middlebury, VT. This should further improve the resilience of our sites.
• We have simplified Drupal editor accounts by removing the infrequently used “Tier 2” editor role from all of our sites and making any users with that role a “Tier 1” editor, which will be renamed “Editor”.
• Provided support for Drupal editing questions using the newly launched Zoom Virtual Agent (on the ITS and TDX sites).
• Upgraded the sites to Drupal 10.2.
• Upgraded to Drupal’s Group module version 2 (which affects our  “office” sites).
• Added a new  grid view for an office’s newsroom.
• When logging in, we now redirect editors to the last page they viewed, rather than their user page. Yes!
• When creating a new page in an office, we now ensure that the office’s URL is added to the page’s URL, event if the editor does not choose to add it to the menu. This will help with pages being accidentally created outside the office’s website.
• We have also migrated the hosting of our static websites from on-premise hosting to Azure cloud-based hosting, also improving the resiliency of those sites.

New Websites

• Just in case you missed it, this past fall we launched the campaign website, For Every Future. The team effort with Advancement and Communications resulted in a beautiful and functional site. The site highlights Middlebury’s distinctive model of liberal arts and sciences education and features stories that illuminate our strength in access, academic excellence, and experience. Visit the campaign site
• We developed and launched a new site for the Prism Center.
• Congratulations to the Axinn Center, and their new site supporting a Mellon Foundation grant.
• We partnered with the Class Deans to expand their websites.
• We also migrated the Davis UWC Scholars site to Drupal 10, which allowed us to integrate some exciting new features to highlight the program. Visit the Davis UWC site

Accessibility

We strive to give everyone visiting our sites an equivalent experience. Each quarter we target a batch of accessibility fixes. Since our last communication, we have worked on the following:

• Replaced the titles of navigation elements to improve page flow 
• Removed the “aria-labelledby” attribute from heading where it didn’t belong and could confuse screen reader software
• Ensured that calls to action and contact information in our footers were inside appropriate elements to identify them as being part of the footer
• Removed extraneous links from the gallery component
• Fixed the event calendar list components to have unique identifiers 
• Deleted duplicate links in table headers
• Corrected many instances of empty headings throughout the site
• Investigated an accessibility issue with list-style:none in text components.
• Grouped date/time elements into a single spoken element for improved screen reader experience
• Improved the intro animations on the college homepage to assist with presentation for prefers-reduced-motion setting.
• Reviewed the accessibility of the event waveform on the college homepage when the reduced motion is enabled.
• Added captions and photo attribution to profile photos, when available
• Improved drop-down (non-navigation) menu keyboard controls.
• Reviewed breadcrumb contrast levels on top level pages.

Reporting Issues with a Website

We added a button in the institutional footer that makes it easier to report an issue with one of our websites. We know that sometimes you are looking for information on a site you don’t have access to edit and run into a broken link or similar issue and would like to let someone know so it can be fixed, but it’s not clear who to contact. This button will provide a central clearing house for those queries.

Ongoing SiteImprove Workshops

We continue to offer workshops to help our Drupal editors make better use of SiteImprove, an important tool that can help us all easily and effectively improve our Drupal websites. Let us know if you and other editors in your group would like to set up a workshop!

As an aside, we’re seeing an increase in broken links being reported on the sites. Please make sure you are taking a look at your report, and let us know if you need a refresher session on SiteImprove.

Updates to the Online Directory

We have updated the look and feel of the directory to more closely match the rest of our public websites. Also, we have removed the photo upload process from the directory and have moved that to a standalone application, utilizing Microsoft PowerAutomate.

What’s Next

Every quarter we publish our updated Web Roadmap of changes we expect to make within that time period. We also summarize changes we anticipate happening in the upcoming calendar year, and beyond. See what we have planned for our public websites and other applications.

Education and Training

Education

Did you know that we’re continually adding and updating our library of Drupal support material? This documentation is an excellent resource to help you improve your Drupal expertise.

Submitting a Ticket

If you can’t find what you need in our documentation, we are here to support you—just request help and we’ll be in touch within one business day.

Training

We offer several options for workshops. From Drupal training to using SiteImprove. Check out the latest. 

HighEdWeb Membership

Middlebury recently joined HighEdWeb with an institutional membership. Membership benefits are available to anyone with a middlebury.edu email address. Join now through our Middlebury membership. Benefits for you include access to the following:

• Professional Development Library 
• Community groups and networking
• Discounts on professional development
• Career and team-building opportunities

Updates

Drupal

• Drupal 10.1.5, 10.1.6, 10.1.7, 10.1.8, 10.2.2, 10.2.3, 10.2.4
• Drupal 7.99

Module Updates

• admin_toolbar 3.4.2
• anchor_link 3.0.x-dev, 3.0.0-alpha2
• better_formats 7.x-1.0
• cache_control_override 2.0.0
• ckeditor_abbreviation 3.0.0
• ckeditor_descriptionlist 2.0.x-dev
• config_filter 8.x-1.12
• config_ignore 8.x-3.1, 8.x-3.2
• csv_serialization 3.0.0, 4.0.0
• devel 5.2.1
• easy_breadcrumb 2.0.6
• embed 8.x-1.7
• entity_browser 8.x-2.10
• entity_embed 8.x-1.5
• entity_reference_revisions 8.x-1.11
• externalauth 2.0.4, 2.0.5
• field_permissions 8.x-1.3
• file_entity 7.x-2.38
• file_mdm 3.0.0
• file_version 2.0.x-dev
• flexible_permissions 1.1.0
• google_tag 8.x-1.7
• group 2.2.1, 2.2.2
• htmlpurifier 8.x-1.0
• image_effects 8.x-3.5
• inline_entity_form 8.x-1.0-rc17
• layout_builder_additions 1.0.5
• layout_builder_browser 8.x-1.6
• layout_builder_lock 8x.-1.3, 8.x-1.4
• lb_ux 8.x-1.x-dev
• linkit 6.1.2, 6.1.3
• menu_trail_by_path 2.0.1
• menu_select 2.0.0-rc3
• migrate_api 8.x-1.x-dev
• migrate_devel 8.x-2.2, 8.x-2.3
• migrate_html_to_paragraphs 8.x-2.x-dev
• migrate_source_csv 8.x-3.6
• migrate_tools 6.0.4
• monolog 3.0.2
• olark 8.x-1.x-dev
• paragraphs 8.x-1.17
• pathauto 8.x-1.12
• purge 8.x-3.5
• quick_node_clone 8.x-1.18
• scheduler 2.0.1
• schedule_content_moderation_integration 2.0.0-beta2
• security_review 2.0.2
• simple_sitemap 4.1.7, 4.1.8
• siteimprove 2.0.2
• token 8.x-1.13
• tvi 2.0.0-alpha2
• typogrify 8.x-1.3
• ​​twig_tweak 3.3.0
• variationcache 8.x-1.4, 8.x-1.5
• views_data_export 8.x-1.4
• webform 7.x-4.26
• webprofiler 10.1.1, 10.1.3, 10.1.5

Removed the Drupal console, ckeditor, ckeditor_abbreviation, ckeditor_descriptionlist, ckwordcount, html_title, middlebury_linkit, and notification modules.

General Changes

Redirecting requests from old URLs to their new location is now handled by the Drupal application rather than the Apache web server. These 17,280 redirect rules map our historical path structures to the locations of our modern site content. This change was necessaryis in preparation for our move to managed web hosting, but has a few additionalimmediate advantages. We can now stop a redirect by adding a page to Drupal at the old URL, since redirects now only happen if Drupal would have issued a 404 response. Additionally, we can put the redirects in place before making the changes to content. 

• Editors are now redirected back to the page they were on when they click the “Site Editor Login” or “Log Off” links, rather than their user page.
• Added a central sitemap.xml file which includes all of our school and program sites.
• The types of email addresses will now be printed in contact footers.
• Replaced the <h2> label from navigation menus with an ARIA-label to improve accessibility.
• Site banner blocks (Admissions, Library) will no longer display is the link field is empty.
• Fixed the routing to media files linked within the WYSIWYG editor.
• Removed extra paragraph element tags from blurbs.
• Added labels to the footer regions for improved accessibility.
• Stopped using the FetchProxy service for RSS requests which are now directly accessed.
• The admin UI was inaccessible due to a permissions change in Drupal 10.2. We’ve patched this so that editors can once again access the menu and taxonomy admin pages.
• Fixed an issue which prevented descriptions of Link List components from being displayed.
• Drupal 10 introduced block editing permissions into the core product. These are used to control editing of the department and office footers along with some call to action banners. We’ve moved permissions into core and out of the block_content_permissions module.
• Profiles on our sites can be added to multiple profile lists. This is common for instructors who teach in multiple departments. We tried to add links on these profiles back to the lists so that you could see each of the departments associated with the instructor or other staff member. Unfortunately, due to the way that revision information is stored in the Drupal database we couldn’t differentiate between people currently listed and those who used to be listed, meaning it was impossible to remove a department link from a profile. For this reason, we’ve temporarily disabled this feature.
• Breadcrumbs one level below a site’s homepage where not rendering as links, causing the text to be difficult to read on an image background.
• The Embed component now allows content from Wakelet, which is used on the Museum site.

Campaign Website

• Updated robots.txt to allow crawling the site.
• Stories with featured audio and video will show a badge on their teaser indicating this.
• Added a metatags field to the homepage.
• Added a “to top” button to the footer.
• Allowed editing the Homepage and Link List content types.
• Enabled Google Tag Manager.
• Enabled Fastly caching.
• Fixed the giving link and CTA text for mobile views.
• Corrected text animation for mobile views on the homepage.
• Ensure that there is link text in the footer social links.
• Resolved repeated issues with responsive image sizes in the quad runner component.

Middlebury College

• Allowed the use of the Academic Affairs news categories on stories.

Course Hub

• Fixed the URL for the course warning form.
• Corrected the role name for instructors in WordPress.
• Improved logging of the user and enrollment propagation processes.
• Check that the Office365 group exists before trying to get SharePoint resource URLs.
• Fixed an issue where the audio recorder for name pronunciation did not save the recording.

Middlebury Institute

• Fixed an issue with retrieving newsroom categories while editing stories.
• Added a vocabulary for CTEC publications.
• Added a menu for MIIS Online.
• Changed the “Related Programs” and “Related Centers” fields on the Profile content type to be based on tags so that we can add program and center options which don’t link to pages on the Institute site itself.

Institutional Homepage

• Added a promotional banner for the Campaign.
• Fix for use of the back button while a modal dialog is open.

Middlebury Language Schools

• Updated text on the general inquiry form.

Library Website

• Updated the Library Search widget to query the new Primo catalog and made a minor revision to the design to pull the search form higher up on the page.
• Created a site banner block to advertise the new catalog system.
• Allow editors to modify custom blocks.

Museum Website

• Added missing fields to specify the units of the width and height of the Embed component.

“Offices” Websites 

• Created a new footer with Quick Links.
• Added an option to newsrooms allowing the list to display as a 3x3 grid.
• Corrected the base path for the sitemap so that pages are properly indexed.
• Added a footer for the Axinn Center for the Humanities.
• Updated filter labels for the CCI career paths collection.
• Added the Course List and Curated Course List components.
• Created an admin role for groups which is now required.
• Fixed button labels for adding group content.
• Remove the ITS Ticket Statistics component.

Old Drupal 7 Sites

• Redirected www.davisfellowsforpeace.org to its new location.
• Deleted the archive of the www.middlebury.edu Drupal 7 site.
• Removed use of the Drupal 7 entity API that was generating errors on pages using slideshows.

Service Catalog

• Removed the older service catalog website, which has been superseded by the TDX Service Catalog.

WordPress

Going forward, WordPress updates will only apply to sites.miis.edu until those sites transition to CampusPress. Our sites.middlebury.edu instance is now on CampusPress. View the CampusPress changelog.

WordPress Plugin and Theme Updates

• WordPress 6.4, 6.4.1, 6.4.2
• akismet plugin 5.3.1, 5.3.2
• beehive-analytics plugin 3.4.10, 3.4.11
• csv-importer plugin 0.3.9, 0.4.2
• disqus-comment-system plugin 3.0.24.1
• enable-media-replace plugin 4.1.5
• enhanced-tooltipglossary plugin 4.2.9, 4.2.10, 4.2.11
• featured-post-creative plugin 1.5
• foogallery plugin 2.4.7, 2.4.14
• instagram-feed plugin 6.2.4, 6.2.5, 6.2.6, 6.2.7, 6.2.8, 6.2.9, 6.2.10
• jetpack plugin 12.6.2, 12.7, 12.7.1, 12.8, 12.8.1, 12.9, 12.9.1, 12.9.3, 13.0, 13.1.1, 13.1.3, 13.2, 13.2.1, 13.2.2
• members plugin 3.2.9
• ml-slider plugin 3.40.0, 3.50.0, 3.60.1, 3.61.0, 3.62.0
• nextgen-gallery plugin 3.41, 3.54, 3.55, 3.57, 3.58, 3.59
• no-right-click-images-plugin plugin 3.8, 3.9
• northern-web-coders theme 3.6
• osm plugin 6.0.2
• parabola theme 2.4.1
• post-expirator plugin 3.1.1, 3.1.3, 3.1.5, 3.1.6, 3.1.7, 3.3.0, 3.3.1
• post-types-order plugin 2.1.1, 2.1.2, 2.1.4, 2.1.8, 2.2
• post-type-switcher plugin 3.2.2, 3.3.1
• redirection plugin 5.4, 5.4.1
• responsive theme 4.8.9, 4.9, 4.9.2, 4.9.5, 4.9.6, 4.9.7.1, 4.9.8, 5.0.0, 5.0.1
• restricted-site-access plugin 7.4.1, 7.5.0
• sign-up-sheets plugin 2.2.11.1, 2.2.12
• social-icons-widget-by-wpzoom plugin 4.2.15, 4.2.16, 4.2.17
• subscribe2 plugin 10.42
• sydney theme 2.29, 2.30, 2.31, 2.32, 2.33,  2.34, 2.35
• sydney-toolbox plugin 1.25, 1.26
• table-of-contents-plus plugin 2311, 2402.1
• the-events-calendar plugin 6.2.3, 6.2.3.2, 6.2.4, 6.2.5, 6.2.6.1, 6.2.8.1, 6.2.8.2, 6.2.9, 6.3.0, 6.3.2, 6.3.3, 6.3.3.1, 6.3.4, 6.3.5
• twentyeleven theme 4.5
• twentyfifteen theme 3.6
• twentyfourteen theme 3.8
• twentynineteen theme 2.6, 2.7
• twentyseventeen theme 3.3, 3.4, 3.5
• twentysixteen theme 3.0, 3.1
• twentyten theme 4.0
• twentythirteen theme 4.0
• twentytwelve theme 4.1
• twentytwenty theme 2.3, 2.4, 2.5
• wordpress-importer plugin 0.8.2
• wp-accessibility plugin 2.1.4, 2.1.6, 2.1.7
• wpcat2tag-importer plugin 0.6.2
• wp-featured-content-and-slider plugin 1.7
• wp-saml-auth plugin 2.1.4
• wptouch plugin 4.3.54, 4.3.55, 4.3.56

Online Directory

The online directory received a new look to more closely match the design system used on the rest of Middlebury’s sites.

General Changes

• Individuals with of the type “WORKSHOP-GUEST” will not be shown.
• Added Care Managers to the list of people allowed to see ID photos.

MediaWiki

Use of MediaWiki has drastically reduced and we will be retiring this service. We have one active user that we are partnering with to migrate to an alternative system.

MediaWiki Updates

• MediaWiki 1.35.12, 1.35.13