The SiteFarm team has been hard at work the past few months researching, planning, and developing to create new features, improvements to existing offerings, and fixes for troublesome bottlenecks. Our work will be released over three phases with Phase 1 dropping April 22, 2023 with forecasted release dates for the remaining phases. You can look forward to further announcements with greater detail as we proceed through our development timeline.

Here's what you can look forward to:

Phase 1 - April 22, 2023

• New Admin Theme
  Updating SiteFarm's administrative theme from Seven to Claro in preparation to upgrading the underlying software from Drupal 9 to Drupal 10 later in the year. This update will improve visual usability and accessibility for users. Check out the brief video overview provided by Dries Buytaert, Drupal's creator, for a sense of the new logged in look. If you have subthemed your Admin theme, we strongly advise you to address this at your earliest convenience. Please let us know if you have questions and need guidance.
   
• Removal of Quick Edit option from contextual menu
  
  The Quick Edit option in the contextual menu will also be removed during Phase 1 as, like the admin theme, it has been deprecated and won't be available in Drupal 10. Once removed, users should utilize the Edit option in the contextual menu.
   
• Person Page updates
  • The publications field will be cleaned up to hide the list of HTML hints.
  • The publications field will also be enlarged to allow permit 600 characters instead of the current 355.
     
• Content Audit Email Notifications
  The content audit system will be updated include the ability to create a customizable, templated email notification to a single active user account's email address, thereby extending content audit's usefulness in content moderation and workflows.
   
• Branding Color Name Update
  For the sake of clarify, the color referred to as "Default" will be renamed to "Wonder Blue." 
   
• Import/Export Custom View, Block, and Webform Configurations
  This new functionality will be available to Site Builders, allowing them to export view, block, or webform configurations from one site in order to share them with other sites or other Site Builders. Please note that this feature does not share or syndicate content across sites—it only inputs/outputs configuration files. 
   
• Campus Course Catalog Block
  This custom block type will tie directly into the UC Davis' general course catalog allowing sites to avoid duplicating work and worrying about keeping the content up-to-date. The block will let people present content based on program, subject, and course.
   
• RSS Feed bug fix
  Updated code to bring the date output into compliance with current specs.

Phase 2 - July 2023 

• Layout Builder
  A new layout system will become available fully integrated into our SiteFarm platform. This is enabled for both new and current sites. It is permission based and we have discussed a new “Designer” role that has access to the layout builder. While it adds a definite layer of complexity, it also gives users an enhanced means of customizing major entry points on their site. We strongly recommend reviewing any documentation and training we'll publish closer to the release date to help you understand how Layout Builder is integrated, its pros and cons, and when and how it should be used. A soft release will be announced and made available to a small test group prior to the official launch.
  More information forthcoming as development proceeds.
   
• New blocks/block styles contributed by Strategic Communications
  The new blocks and styles will be based off of components currently in use on the main UC Davis home site, originally created and customized specifically for their site. 

Phase 3 - September 2023

• Upgrade to Drupal 10
  As Drupal 9 will reach End of Life in late November we will be upgrading to Drupal 10.
   
• Upgrade to new WYSIWYG CKEditor 5
  Full slate of icons and functionality still under development. More details to be released as we approach the proposed release date.