Drupal Transition Overview

Before you request your new Drupal Framework website, there are a few recommended steps to take to prepare your content: 

1. Request an accessibility scan of your current website. By requesting an accessibility scan of your current website, you can detect accessibility issues in the early stages and address them as you work on your new Framework website. IMPORTANT: All content must be accessible before your new Framework website can go live.  
   • Web accessibility training is available! 
   • Email @email to request an accessibility scan of your website as well as web accessibility training. 
2. Start your website content inventory and identify content that needs to be updated, removed, or developed from scratch. 
   • Consider transitioning PDFs to web pages as they are often problematic for accessibility. 
   • Identify any specialized and custom features and functionality on your website. 

Important notes: 

• All UMass Amherst websites using Drupal 9 or earlier versions should transition to the latest version of Drupal by July 2024 to allow for sufficient time for review, changes, and deployment. 
• As detailed in later steps, expect at least two weeks processing time between completing the development of your new Drupal Framework website and the website’s launch date. 
• Highly customized features and functionality on webpages pose challenges in terms of cost, maintenance, accessibility, security, and performance. Moving forward, any customization for a Drupal Framework website will require prior approval from web governance, along with an acknowledgment that both the costs associated with customization and ongoing maintenance are the responsibility of the requesting department or unit.  To request consideration for Drupal Framework customization, please email @email with the details of the request, the website it is being requested for and the business justification.

1. Request a Drupal Framework website: (You will need to be logged in to the IT ServiceNow portal to access this form.) 
   • ​On this form, consider requesting a more descriptive URL as part of your website transition. Does your current URL (website address) use an obscure acronym or a cryptic arrangement of letters and numbers? Using a short URL with words that are relevant to your website's content will improve user experience and visibility in search results. Your current URL can be redirected to your new website's URL.  

Requested URLs should: 

• Reasonably reflect the name of the unit/organization/department or otherwise have a meaningful connection to the business purpose, identity, or information of the website. 
• Be sufficiently unique to prevent confusion with other umass.edu websites. 
• Avoid generic terms (e.g. umass.edu/classes). 
• Avoid use of obscure acronyms or ambiguous sets of characters unless already recognizable as part of your identity. 
• Must not be offensive, derogatory, defamatory, or otherwise inconsistent with the University's voice. 
• Avoid use of special characters such as commas, semicolons, colons, spaces, quotes, etc. (use of hyphens is acceptable) 
• IT will process your Drupal Framework website request form and notify you by email through ServiceNow that you have been issued a development website that you will use to design, build, and migrate content to for your new Drupal website.  

2. IT will process your Drupal Framework website request form and notify you by email through ServiceNow that you have been issued a development website that you will use to design, build, and migrate content to for your new Drupal website.  

Important notes: 

• Allow 2 weeks for Drupal Framework website requests forms to be processed. If you are requesting a new URL, it may take up to an additional 2 weeks to process.  
• The common Drupal Framework is only available for official University websites. To ensure that Drupal Framework websites can leverage the mentioned benefits, they must be hosted within the web hosting environment administered by IT. 
• The development website you are provided by IT will only be accessible while on the campus network or while connected to the UMass Amherst VPN client.  

Your Drupal Framework website includes starter pages for your homepage, subpages, events, news and more. Starter pages are intended to help you get familiar with the new Drupal Framework, but the framework itself provides plenty of flexibility for you to combine web elements in a variety of ways.   

You can now begin the process of designing your website’s look and feel and migrating existing content. Additional tutorials and instructions are available on the Drupal Transition SharePoint site. 

Important Notes: 

• Drupal Framework development websites include sample starter pages and flexible/reusable components and modules to help speed up website development.
• Rather than modify the starter pages directly, we recommend you clone (duplicate) starter pages and then modify the cloned pages to meet your needs. That way, you always have the originals to go back to. 
• We recommend that you identify and prioritize building your most important and highly visited pages first. 
• You will need to keep content updated on your current website as well as your development website until your new website is live. 
• If there is customized functionality or features on your existing website that you cannot recreate with the Drupal Framework, please note: Customized features and functionality pose challenges in terms of maintenance, accessibility, security, performance, and cost. Any customization for a Drupal Framework website will require prior approval from web governance, along with an acknowledgment that both the costs associated with customization and ongoing maintenance are the responsibility of the website manager. To request consideration for Drupal Framework customization, please email @email with the details of the request, the website it is being requested for, and the business justification.

1. Once you believe that your new Drupal Framework website is ready to launch, you will need to submit a Drupal Framework Website Launch request form to launch your website.
   • As part of this process, your development website will first undergo an accessibility review. You will be notified by email through ServiceNow if there are any accessibility issues. You will be responsible for remediating any issues before your website is approved for launch. IT staff can provide training on how to remediate most content, but do not provide remediation services. Depending on the complexity of the accessibility issue, IT may need to refer you to a third party for further consultation. 
   • The Drupal Framework Website Launch request form will ask you to pick your preferred launch date and an alternate launch date (Monday through Thursday). Preferred dates cannot be guaranteed as other websites may have already been scheduled.  IMPORTANT: Allow ample time for accessibility reviews, remediation, and scheduling with IT Web Hosting Team. Even if there are no accessibility issues with your development website, it will take at least two weeks before the intended launch date of your website.
2. After the UMass IT web hosting team has received confirmation that your website meets accessibility requirements, you will receive an email notification with a link to coordinate and confirm your website launch scheduling details. 
   • Once your website is live in the production environment, you can make content updates directly in the production environment moving forward.
   • You will be notified after the launch of your website is complete. 

Important Notes: 

• Once you submit your website launch request through the form in the ServiceNow portal, IT web hosting staff will be coordinating and communicating with you through your launch request in ServiceNow. Your launch request will stay open until after your new website is launched, so you can communicate through the open request to contact IT web hosting staff directly in case you run into issues or have questions on launch day.
• If there are major issues with your website once it goes live, IT can quickly revert to your old Drupal website temporarily until issues are resolved. 
• The launch request form contains an section for you to list URL redirect requests from your old site to your new framework website.
• Once your new Drupal Framework website goes live, your old Drupal website will be archived and available to you for 3 months. Be sure to download any content you would like to preserve for longer periods of time within this 3-month archival period.  

Questions about the transition process?

• Refer to the Drupal Framework Transition FAQ
• Visit the UMass Amherst Drupal Transition Resources SharePoint site