WebPublish 2.0 Decommission and Migrating to 3.0

One of the key drivers for this initiative has been the end-of-life date for Drupal 7, the underlying application of WebPublish. This means that security updates will no longer be available. 

In order to ensure the security and availability of our public sites, all WebPublish site owners are encouraged to migrate their existing website content out of the "old" WebPublish Service by October 1, 2021. 

While there will be some manual work required to migrate successfully, IT Services will be providing support and resources to help make the process go as smoothly as possible. Site owners can opt either to initiate their own site migration or register to receive migration support during the summer of 2021. A brief summary of both options is provided here.

Initiate your own migration

Description

The introduction of the WebPublish 3 service has included some major updates to the theme and options available for laying out content on your site. It's a great opportunity for a fresh start. If you're looking to do some major rework on your site, then you may prefer to initiate our own migration. This option allows you to start with a blank slate and choose which content you wish to migrate, restructure it as desired and consider refreshing some of your assets. It also allows you to take the migration at your own pace. You can opt to start your migration immediately, if you wish.  

Next Steps

If you'd like to initiate your own migration to WebPublish 3.0, here are some next steps to get started: 

  1. Review your site content:
    Think about the objectives that your site will help you achieve and the content that should be included. How should the content be organized? What media (i.e., images, etc.), do you want to include? If you're working from an existing site, think about whether all content needs to be migrated, or whether this is an opportunity to clean up some outdated information.

  2. Think about your resources:
    Who takes ownership for the site? Are they the same people that will be doing the day-to-day site administration? How much time and technical expertise do you have available to support the maintenance of the site? This will be helpful when it comes to selecting a service level that will best meet your needs down the road. 

  3. Review the service information: 
    Take some time to review the usage guidelines and service level agreements. Familiarize yourself with the associated policies referenced in the usage guidelines and the new WebPublish processes.

  4. Learn about WebPublish 3.0 features and layouts:
    Review the example layouts and tutorials on how to use apply them. Review our training videos!

  5. Get an account:
    Once you reviewed the previous steps, request an account by submitting the Intent to Publish form. The Website Governance Committee will review your request and may have some suggestions to help you plan your next steps. They will then submit a request to IT Services on your behalf, and your new WebPublish 3.0 site will be provisioned.

Register for the WebPublish Migration Support Initiative

Description

The WebPublish service team recognizes that not every site will have the time or resources necessary to complete their own migration. In order to help bridge this gap and ensure that all sites are migrated to the WebPublish 3.0 environment, IT Services will be providing migration support over the summer of 2021.

By participating in this initiative, site owners can expect to be matched with a migration support specialist, who will migrate your site structure and content as-is. Any content cleanup or site restructuring is the responsibility of the site owner and must be completed in the WP2 site prior to April 30, 2021. Specialists will match page layouts and functionality as closely as possible to the new WP3 template, though some adjustments may be required in order to map legacy WP2 functionality to WP3 equivalents. These adjustments will be made at the discretion of the migration support specialist. Once the content has been migrated, the specialist will review your site with you and share information on ongoing support and resources, before handing it over to you and your team.

Next Steps

More information on this initiative is available on the WebPublish Migration Support Initiative page, including how to register for support, an overview of what to expect in terms of next steps, as well as a Site owner checklist, which we ask all site owners to complete over the next few months.