This summer will bring a major update to the UNL Web Framework that supports most of the websites and many web applications at the university. While previous major updates have brought redesigns requiring site owners to plan and implement changes to content and how it's displayed, Framework Version 6 will bring a minor design refresh and instead focus on site stability, performance and usability.
A number of the tools and technologies we use to build, distribute and render the framework will be replaced by newer, more performant equivalents: Vite will replace Grunt, JavaScript modules will replace RequireJS, and vanilla JavaScript will replace jQuery. These upgrades should result in better interoperability with UNL CMS (Drupal) and translate to increased speed. (Every microsecond counts!)
Meanwhile, the most significant design updates will be mostly concentrated in the header and footer regions of the site. Updates to the main content area will include scroll-based animations and continued additions to Layout Builder components in UNL CMS.
Sites already in UNL CMS will automatically update to version 6 and should require little to no work as a result. Owners of sites not in UNL CMS will need to update template files, and additional updates to HTML, CSS and JavaScript may be required.
Historical patterns show a lull in site traffic in early July. Deployment of Framework Version 6 is scheduled for July 8 to minimize any potential disruption.
More details will be announced here in The Cache, at Web Developer Network (WDN) meetings and on the Framework Roadmap page on the WDN site.
More details at: https://wdn.unl.edu/about-framework/framework-roadmap/