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Stanford Sites Drupal 8 is Here!

Sara Worrell-Berg
Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Stanford Web Services (SWS) proudly introduces Stanford Sites Drupal 8 (D8) — the new upgrade to Stanford’s primary web content management service. Our goal for this first version is to introduce a scalable, self-service platform that ensures usability, security, and accessibility to audiences of all abilities. 

We quietly released the new service at the end of February, and already, 95 websites are in various stages of development by units across campus. (For example, Stanford’s new Teach Anywhere website was built in just two days using the new platform.)

What’s new and different? 

We found that more than half of the 2,000-plus websites hosted on our Stanford Sites Drupal 7 platform are simple sites with 35 or fewer pages. We designed this new D8 service to immediately meet the needs of those sites and with intention to continually grow the platform for more complex website builds. 

This first version of Stanford Sites Drupal 8 includes:

Going forward, you’ll see new versions each month, as we add functionality to support more complex integrations like news, events, and Stanford Profiles, with courses and other features to follow. 

Check out this video to see what’s cool and different about Stanford Sites D8.

Why build a D8 website?

If you currently have a D7 (or earlier version) website, moving your website to D8 is necessary to avoid being at risk for increasing security vulnerabilities over time. To continue to receive security updates, D7 websites will need to move to D8 by late 2021. Once on D8, websites will automatically receive regular security patches and upgrades to Drupal 9 and later versions. 

You can follow our Stanford Sites D8 roadmap to find out what is available on the platform and when.

How do I get started with a D8 website?

We can help you start the process of planning your move from Jumpstart or Stanford Sites D7 to the new D8 platform. Go to the D8 Adoption and Website Rebuild Guide webpage for steps to help navigate the transition.  

Learn more