1.14 is one of our largest releases yet, so complex that it had to be delivered in 4 parts, taking us all the way up to 1.14.4!
Headline Features
A more graphical variant of the existing Events functionality
The existing "calendar" style events page of the Platform is better suited to diary management as opposed to marketing events to the public. As part of our work on building a "Discover Brentwood" destination marketing microsite for Brentwood Borough Council, we've created a more graphical "card" style display version of this page. You can see the results in the flesh at https://www.discoverbrentwood.co.uk/events. The original "calendar" style events page is still available if required and can be cross-linked to from the new graphical events page, just as Brentwood have done.
Improve the admin system's File Usage report functionality
This comes off the back of requests from North Herts District Council and Plymouth City Council. There is a long-running issue in Drupal, (the underlying CMS that the Platform is built on), whereby the File Usage report functionality in the admin system is inaccurate. We've invested development time to replace the core functionality with our own solution. This provides content editors with a comprehensive way of determining where files are used around a site, and whether they are "orphaned" and can be safely deleted. This is especially useful for tidying up sites following a manual or automated migration of content.
Minor Improvements
Improve logging of key events in the platform
The "Recent Log Messages" report in the admin system is clogged with not so useful cron run reports. We've filtered these out and also captured more platform events, so it's easier to see what's happening on sites.
Improve the automated breadcrumb navigation menus for Directories
Currently, Directory Page content items don't pick up the breadcrumb of the parent Directory they are assigned to, so appear as "first level" breadcrumb items. We've addressed this as part of work for Rochford District Council, e.g. https://www.rochford.gov.uk/betts-wood, so will add it back into the core Platform.
Enable support for Twitter Card meta tags for all content types
When content is shared in Twitter, meta tags can be used to automatically generate a "Twitter Card". Building on work done for the North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner's site build, https://www.northwales-pcc.gov.uk/, we've added functionality to the core Platform that ensures Twitter Cards are supported for all content types. Fingers crossed that Twitter is still a thing by the time this update is deployed!
Add more information to the Jobs listing page
This addresses a request from North Herts District Council. We've added fields for "Publication Date" and "Job Hours" to the "Job" content type. We've also included the existing "Summary Text" field in the "/jobs" page, so content editors can write whatever they want in free text.
Improve the usability of Directories in the admin system
The "Facets" input field for Directory Page content items is too small and non-obvious in terms of usage. We've added some info text to explain to content editors that you need to "Ctrl + click" to add multiple facets to a Directory Page. We've also made the input field larger, so it's easier to see the full facet list.
As this isn't a security release, existing subscribers can opt to upgrade their site to use it by drawing on a couple of hours from their support account balance. Eventually, all sites will gain this functionality for free when the next security release of the Platform is published.