Recent Updates to ISU Sites

The ISU Sites platform is developed and maintained by the CALS/LAS Web Team. New releases of the platform are automatically rolled out to all sites within a few days of release.

Below are the recent release notes that document our progress of feature improvements, fixes, and behind-the-scenes work.


5.1.0

January 24, 2025

Accessibility and performance improvements

  • Use figure and figcaption for Image Grid
  • Update Video Card to use Media module for handling video
  • Upcoming Events linked titles are now underlined
  • Image captions are no longer automatically italicized

User-facing improvements

  • Logging in when you have two People Profiles already assigned will result in a useful error message
  • Users won't be shown a duplicate title warning on Ajax requests when adding/editing content
  • "How to make dropdowns" link in the edit Main Menu screen now goes to the current help article.
  • Fixed missing homepage template images that were missing from some Faculty sites

Site-building improvements

  • The file management table now includes the Operations column correctly
  • News is fully uninstallable again

Behind the scenes

  • Updated Drupal to 10.4.1
  • Updated contributed modules: diff, block_class, auditfiles, metatag
  • Ignore Mac Desktop Services Store files

5.0.1

December 10, 2024

Accessibility and performance improvements

  • Refine semantic HTML (ARIA elements and headings) for People Directory and feature views (Blog, Events, etc.)
    • Category headers become h2
    • Feature and Teaser titles become h3
    • Wrap teasers and features in article element
  • Lazy load footer logo

New Iastate22 block type

  • Added Home Social custom block type

User-facing bug fixes

  • Only warn for excess main menu items if you are adding a link
  • Added more space above Read More button on Feature view modes
  • Fix selectors to properly align large dropdowns in the main menu

Site-building improvements

  • Add option to set outer wrapper element on Feature and Feature With Small Image Display Suite layouts
  • improve table design for Files by including admin/content pages in the is-settings body class

Behind the scenes

  • Follow best practices when declaring dependencies
  • Remove extra empty items in Add Podcast and Add Episode buttons
  • Remove support for Shibboleth

5.0.0 - OIDC authentication support

December 6, 2024

Major update

  • Added support for OIDC authentication. Authentication is now through Microsoft instead of Okta.

4.2.11

November 14, 2024

Accessibility and SEO improvements

  • Improved responsive/mobile-friendly tables
  • All navigation menus properly labeled for screenreaders
  • Ensure landing pages will only have a single h1

User-facing bug fixes

  • Use correct text formatter for Feature with Small Image and Image Grid captions so content editors can use them
  • Increase the maximum length for utility button link text

Site-building improvements and bug fixes

  • Add option for Card Set to hide link text on Card (Default)
  • Allow the grouping title to be displayed for views made with Card Set
  • Fix custom breadcrumbs that were not applying correctly

Behind the scenes

  • Check for the existence of the LDAP group on the LDAP group form
  • Fix Iastate22Layout config schema
  • Add null check and logging to permission granting during module install
  • Redis module tweaks
  • Update to Drupal 10.3.7

4.2.10

October 18, 2024

User-facing improvements and bug fixes

  • Tags starting with a number or hashtag now link correctly in the tag index
  • Improve help text for how to replace a CV on People Profiles

Accessibility and SEO

  • Properly label menus for better findability by screenreaders, including breadcrumbs and pagers

Behind the scenes

  • Update Drupal to 10.3.6
  • Use a query to directly determined whether a user is part of an LDAP group
  • Add support for Valkey (Redis)
  • Fix error when overriding node permissions

4.2.9

September 27, 2024

  • Restrict breadcrumb trail on Simple faculty sites that use a People Profile as the site home page

4.2.8

September 27, 2024

User-facing improvements and bug fixes

  • Do not show the unneeded "Files Used" list on People Profile forms
  • Allow Card (Linked Image) to accommodate more than 22 characters
  • Removed Nimbus Sans font and replaced with Arial
  • Update the status message that accompanies the duplicate title warning
  • Hide breadcrumbs on the front page

4.2.7

September 20, 2024

Accessibility and SEO improvements

  • Images in blocks and content layouts have had their sizes adjusted and set to show in sizes optimized for mobile devices.
  • Content editors will be warned when creating content with the same title as existing content.

Behind the scenes

  • Updated Drupal to 10.3.5

4.2.6

September 6, 2024

Accessibility and SEO improvements

  • Update titles to h3 on Feature and Card (Default)

User-facing improvements and bug-fixes

  • Change webform buttons to Iastate22 design
  • Require image size for Faculty Homepage Hero to prevent block from disappearing
  • Allow Research Area tags on People cards to wrap when screen is narrow

Behind the scenes

  • Update Landing Page help text for disabling the node title
  • Correctly log inline block usage
  • Update Drupal to 10.3.3
  • Update simple_sitemap to 4.2.1
  • Update easy_breadcrumb to 2.0.8

4.2.4 and 4.2.5

  • Added a check against sites with enabled iastate8_faculty modules to make sure 'replace image files' and 'access files overview' permissions were only being applied to appropriate bit_site_trainers.

4.2.3 

August 13, 2024

User-facing improvements

  • Prevent double submissions when upgrading Faculty sites

Site-building improvements

  • Add height and width fields for custom logos

Bug fixes

  • Ensure that custom CSS can be preprocessed without errors
  • Add update to ensure Iastate22 sites have the hide breadcrumbs setting

Behind the scenes

  • Update Drupal to 10.3.2

4.2.2

July 31, 2024

User-facing bug fixes

  • Fixed File Replace upload form by more accurately autoselecting MIME type

4.2.1

July 23, 2024

Behind the scenes

  • Bug fix for 4.2.0

4.2.0

July 23, 2024

User-facing bug fixes

  • Allow multiple Carousel blocks on a page.
  • Allow superscript and subscript in image captions.

User-facing improvements

  • Improved exposed filter design, including option of a red background

Site-building improvements

  • Improve pageview tracking

Behind the scenes

  • Update Drupal to 10.3.1.
  • Remove NoIndex from Content by Tags view.

4.1.8

June 20, 2024

Behind the scenes

  • Bug fix for 4.1.7

4.1.7

June 20, 2024

User-facing bug fixes

  • Edit buttons show up properly for all Iastate22 blocks when “show content preview” is off, and appear in more consistent locations when it is on
  • Calendar icons no longer misaligned on Upcoming Events block
  • Hero (Atmospheric Image) no longer secretly overlapping content below it
  • Accordions placed on Landing Pages no longer have the edit button on the published page

Accessibility error fixes

  • Fix "Text not included in ARIA landmark" where it appeared in the user settings bar

Site-building bug fixes

  • Change how People and Resources determine if a View is a directory, stopping an error from appearing if a View is created with no Page or Block
  • Skip validation of the DBLP URL field is empty on People

Performance improvements

  • Don’t lazy load images in Iastate22 Hero blocks

User-facing improvements

  • Main menu items limited to 7 for non-superusers on Iastate22
  • If an H2 is centered, its gold underline will follow

Behind the scenes

  • Fixed some deprecated warnings on login on PHP 8.2
  • Remove Tour module from the install profile
  • Update drush to 12.5.2
  • Update Drupal to 10.2.7

4.1.6

May 31, 2024

User-facing bug fixes

  • Fixed auto-numbering of ordered lists.
  • Fixed the big gap appearing under large images in CKEditor.
  • Tags will now be displayed on pages again when enabled.

Accessibility error fixes

  • Fixed "ARIA attribute unsupported or prohibited" where it appeared in the "Info for..." dropdown menu.
  • Fixed "Hidden element has focusable content" where it appeared in the mobile dropdown sidebar menu.

New features

  • Accordion and Carousel custom block types added, available on Sites+ Landing Pages.
  • Tag Index view added, available on Sites+.
  • Added ability to display DBLP computer science bibliography feeds on People Profiles. 

Behind the scenes

  • Removed deprecated allowed_formats module from composer.json

4.1.5

May 3, 2024

User-facing bug fixes

  • Updated the link for how to get the Vimeo share link for Video Card.
  • Hide the "Add Landing Page" button for those who cannot add a Landing Page.
  • Fix big gaps on tall Image Grid blocks.

User-facing improvements

  • Make it easier to navigate Webforms submissions.
  • Refine design of Files Used table and other content editor tables.

Site-building improvements

  • Add checkbox to hide Card Set grey bar.
  • Remove extra space after Hero (Atmospheric Image).
  • Style code and code block elements for CKEdito.
  • Add more permissions to BIT Sites Trainer role.

Performance improvements

  • Add height and width attributes to the ISU footer logo image.

Behind the scenes

  • Add multiple_selects module.
  • Make sure hook_themes_installed are nullsafe.
  • Fix code styling issues from Drupal 10.2.6.
  • Update Drupal to 10.2.6.
  • Update simple_sitemap to 4.1.9 to fix Google sitemap pings.

4.1.4

April 5, 2024

User-facing bug fixes

  • Fix handling of postal codes without 9 digits.

User-facing improvements

  • Do not allow unpublishing of the site owner's People Profile on Faculty sites.
  • Add help text for Area of Expertise field.
  • Enable Featured Image field on Pages for Faculty sites.
  • Allow bulleted and numbered lists to Block WYSIWYG text formatter.
  • Update to Font Awesome 6.
  • Incorporate Streams into breadcrumbs.
  • Add Related People field and In the News views to News.

Site-building improvements

  • Add Topic field to Resources and Ask an Expert.
  • Add section title to Feature Set layout.
  • Allow Superusers to replace images.

Behind the scenes

  • Add instanceof checks when getting the node from routeMatch.
  • Fix serialization of Closure in auditfiles “File Merge”.
  • Add drupal/aggregator module.
  • Updated Drupal to 10.2.5.

4.1.3

February 23, 2024

User-facing bug fixes

  • Edit button on blocks placed in theme regions now goes to the correct place.
  • Stop long links from breaking into a new column in Footer Quicklinks in Firefox.
  • Disallow content editors from editing/removing/disabling/deleting required links in Header Quicklinks and Footer Quicklinks.
  • Fix styling of Research Area descriptions.
  • Fix spacing on single column checkboxes in Webforms.

User-facing improvements

  • Change IASTATE22 to iastate22 on theme upgrade screens.

Site-building improvements

  • Added exposed filter for Question Stream on Ask an Expert.
  • Add Month field to Ask an Expert.
  • Add Logo Card and Six Column Layout to Iastate22

Behind the scenes

  • Update Drupal to 10.2.3.
  • Remove unneeded allowed_formats module.

4.1.2

January 22, 2024

User-facing bug fixes

  • We can now delete items in multivalue fields even if it isn't the last one. (Fixed in Druapl 10.)

User-facing improvements

  • Make pencil icons buttons easier to see.
  • Make submit buttons bigger again

Behind the scenes

  • Updated to Drupal 10.2.1.
  • Removed unneeded allowed_formats module.

4.1.1

December 16, 2023

Bug fix

  • Remove unused Home Announcement block type and its fields properly.

4.1.0

December 14, 2023

Faculty can opt in to Iastate22 Web Theme

  • Stop "Home" from being automatically added to the main menu in Iastate22.
  • Faculty Homepage Builder redesigned.
  • Faculty Homepage Hero block type added.
  • Faculty can use Site Settings to upgrade to Iastate22.

New feature

  • Automatically display list of recent working papers on People Profiles.

User-facing improvements

  • Change "Answered by" to use the full People Profile teaser instead of a link in Ask an Expert.