Annual EdWeb Upgrade
The University successfully completed an upgrade of its content management system, EdWeb, to version 7.4.
The University’s content management system, EdWeb, was recently upgraded to ensure continued security and stability. EdWeb is built on Drupal and PHP, with the prior PHP version 7.2 scheduled to reach end of life on 30th November 2020. Given this timeline, in October 2020 the Information Services (IS) team conducted an analysis to determine if version 7.4 was compatible with the EdWeb codebase.
After confirming the compatibility of the EdWeb codebase with version 7.4, the team upgraded EdWeb to now run on the supported version 7.4, offering a longer end-of-life date and removing the need for a further upgrade in the next financial year. Version 7.4 will remain in mainstream support until November 2021 and security support until November 2022.
The IS team collaborated with the EdWeb stakeholders and Technical Team to identify existing dependencies and work on incorporating the upgrade around existing business requirements. The EdWeb team provided valuable feedback and input in testing, used to inform the timing and logistics of the upgrade.
The project to upgrade the version of PHP was handled very well and had no impact on the running of our high priority service. Coordination of the project was very good and communication was excellent with the right level of frequency and detail. We had other work being carried out at the same time which could have caused a lot of complications but this was handled seamlessly,
Overall, the project ensures the University websites are running on supported infrastructure, reduces the risk of security vulnerabilities and provides opportunities to utilize performance improvements offered in the new PHP version.