V.144 Release Notes

Release highlights

• Platform security and maintenance: Updated Drupal core to 10.6.18 and completed scheduled security-release work.
• Time-zone readiness: Validated that Alberta Time changes do not introduce one-hour offsets in supported PHP and Ubuntu environments.
• LiveWhale reliability: Addressed recurring-event display investigation and began validation of Alberta Time alignment for event data and calendar integrations.
• Performance: Improved database and caching behaviour across taxonomy, reusable-block, news, menu, and page-rendering workflows.
• Editorial experience: Completed audits and design work for Image Gallery, Minimal Accordion, and Table blocks.
• Operational cleanup: Removed obsolete block-content permissions dependencies and improved Drupal administration safeguards.

Bug fixes and reliability

• Fixed recurring LiveWhale events not appearing in Drupal Event Feed blocks when group and tag filters were otherwise correct.
• Resolved an issue where Profile List blocks displayed image alternative text instead of profile pictures.
• Validated the Alberta Time change in PHP and Ubuntu environments. Dates tested after November 1, 2026 displayed the expected current hour without an unwanted seasonal offset.
• Completed database and caching improvements intended to reduce large taxonomy queries, idle connections, and “MySQL server has gone away” errors.

Maintenance and security

• Updated Drupal core to version 10.6.18, including bug fixes and maintenance updates.
• Completed the scheduled Drupal security-release work.
• Removed the obsolete block-content-permissions module from Composer dependencies after required permissions were retained through supported functionality.

Design and editorial improvements

• Completed design work for the Image Gallery block, including gallery rows, images, icon-button interactions, headings, descriptions, and supported variants.
• Completed design work for the Minimal Accordion block, including heading-only and heading-with-description variants.
• Audited the Table block, including pagination defaults and mobile card-style presentation.

In progress

• Validate and address LiveWhale event handling for Alberta’s permanent UTC-6 “Alberta Time,” with particular attention to events after November 1, 2026 and calendar-export behaviour that could otherwise shift event times by one hour.
• Begin the first controlled integration steps for UCDS in the Drupal theme, starting with modular updates to shared foundations such as colours, fonts, and grids before gradually applying component-level changes block by block.
• Remove the rounded-block feature from the Drupal theme by cleaning up related JS/CSS, block-template classes, and authoring controls for affected blocks, simplifying the theme and reducing support for a design flourish that is no longer expected to be broadly used.
• Extract the full-width, full-bleed, and no-bottom-margin behaviour that was tied to rounded-block logic and recreate it in CSS where possible, with test coverage for common block combinations to improve layout stability and reduce cumulative layout shift.
• Review Drupal block colour usage against current UCalgary brand guidelines, including tint/background availability, teal and brown/chocolate usage, gradients, and the cookie notice colour, then identify changes needed to keep block styling aligned with brand standards.
• Document and tokenize the foundational styles shared across Drupal blocks, including headings, descriptions, spacing, padding, and background-colour behaviours, so the Drupal Design System can apply consistent block patterns even where they differ from UCDS tokens.
• Continue design exploration for the Cards block, defining the block and card anatomy, supported authoring options, responsive/card-group behaviour, background choices, and action styles so future development can consolidate card-based patterns into a clearer Drupal editing experience.
• Build the development implementation for the Cards block based on the approved design direction, creating the Drupal component behaviour needed to support reusable card layouts and authoring options.
• Develop the Minimal Accordion block implementation, translating the completed design direction into the Drupal component so editors can use the simplified accordion pattern in content.
• Refine the Testimonial block design by simplifying Drupal background options and limiting the component to the supported white and grey treatments, reducing unnecessary variation while keeping the block aligned with the emerging design system.
• Improve the reusable-block script that disables one-off blocks by adding safeguards based on issues found during the February 2025 deployment, preventing unintended disabling of blocks and avoiding missing-block errors in pages and Block Layout.
• Decommission the Marketo block and remove remaining support for the obsolete block functionality.
• Remove Marketo and gated-content functionality from News, including obsolete automated tests and legacy multimedia gated-content behaviour.
• Remove dynamic News header and footer functionality to reduce maintenance overhead, improve reliability, and address long-standing implementation issues.
• Investigate orphaned-block anomalies where some streaming media blocks appear detached from pages while block-library filters report conflicting attachment information.
• Resolve Related Content block issues where block-usage messaging appears while adding non-reusable blocks and image-upload behaviour differs between staging and production.
• Fix or suppress Invalid UUID errors triggered during block removal from Layout Builder, especially cases reproducible through ucws_text Selenium testing.
• Investigate News proxy caching or prefix issues causing some anonymous tag pages to omit the /news/ prefix from image and read-more URLs.
• Suppress noisy JSON parsing notices related to removed News header/footer code so non-actionable messages do not fill the logs.
• Investigate and fix URL-related errors on selected supervisor profiles, including cases involving empty URL values.
• Resolve menu-link validation errors when saving menu settings from node edit pages by ensuring the menu submit handling runs in the correct order.
• Complete block feature-revert deployment adjustments for blocks that fail to update because missing block-plugin errors interrupt required migrations.
• Run and store the Lighthouse performance test as part of pre-release validation, following the parent epic directions.

Looking Ahead

We'd like to share a few upcoming improvements planned for release on the evening of Oct. 29.

News Header and Footer Updates

As noted in our previous release notes, we have identified an opportunity to improve the performance and stability of the News platform by retiring the dynamic header and footer functionality currently used in News articles. Work on this change is underway and is expected to be completed over the coming month.

Marketo Decommissioning

Our long-standing partnership with Marketo officially ended on June 30. As part of the final phase of that transition, we will begin removing the Marketo block from Drupal pages where it is still in use. This work will help streamline the platform and remove components that are no longer supported.

Improved Site Performance

Since the early days of Drupal 8, content authors have had the option to apply rounded corners to several block types: Banner, Checklist, More Info, Testimonial, Trio CTA, and Text blocks.

While visually appealing, this feature relies on a relatively complex combination of JavaScript and CSS behind the scenes. Following a recent review, we found that removing this functionality will provide measurable performance improvements across the platform. We also discovered that the feature has been used on only about 5% of eligible blocks, making its overall impact relatively limited.

Design System Integration

We're also continuing our work to bring the UCalgary Design System into Drupal. Most users will not notice any significant visual changes, but this initial integration represents an important milestone in our efforts to create a more consistent, scalable, and maintainable digital experience across UCalgary websites.

Key benefits include:

• Improved performance and faster page delivery
• Greater visual consistency across websites and applications
• Easier maintenance and future enhancements
• Reduced technical complexity behind the scenes
• A stronger foundation for accessibility and user experience improvements

These updates are part of our ongoing commitment to improving the reliability, performance, and long-term sustainability of the web platform.

Additionally, the following improvements are currently planned for release on the evening of Nov. 26.

Drupal 11

We are working towards upgrading our web platform to Drupal 11. While this change will largely occur behind the scenes, it is an important step that keeps our platform current, secure, and aligned with Drupal's recommended technology roadmap, ensuring we can continue delivering new features and improvements efficiently.

For more information on the UCalgary Web System, visit https://web.ucalgary.ca/. 

If you have questions or need to report a bug or issue, let us know: https://web.ucalgary.ca/contact-us