{"id":14155,"date":"2019-08-12T10:11:27","date_gmt":"2019-08-12T14:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/webservices\/?p=14155"},"modified":"2024-06-25T14:53:52","modified_gmt":"2024-06-25T18:53:52","slug":"a-new-theme-for-carleton-websites-is-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/webservices\/2019\/a-new-theme-for-carleton-websites-is-coming\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Theme for Carleton Websites is Coming"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n A New Theme for Carleton Websites is Coming\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

As many of you have heard, we are working on developing a new theme for our WordPress websites.  We\u2019re calling it\u2026 CU Theme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Very creative, we know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right now we manage, basically, two themes: CMS (powering roughly 500 websites) and Framework (powering about 40 sites).  We also manage internal sites, and a handful of custom sites (Intranet, Go Ravens, and Future Funder to name a few).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we talk about CU Theme what we\u2019re really talking about is combining CMS and Framework into one super flexible, super scalable, theme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does this mean for website editors?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you manage a CMS websites (like Economics<\/a> or History<\/a>) you will have the option to take advantage of some new content blocks that previously only existed in Framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you manage a Framework website (like Science<\/a> or FASS<\/a>), you will benefit from on-going, cutting-edge development.  Previously much of our time was put into new features for CMS (500 sites vs 40 sites) but with one theme, we will no longer be splitting development between competing priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest change of all \u2013 to you as a content editor – will be the introduction to the new WordPress editor (WP calls it Gutenberg<\/a>).  It is a drag and drop block based editor, and what I personally like best is that it displays the content as it would appear while you build your page.  So no more previewing pages to see how they will will look to your visitor. We\u2019ll talk a lot more about this over the next few months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And as with any new theme, you will notice some updates to the look and feel.  Sites will be consistent with the new carleton.ca homepage<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when is all this happening?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Well, it\u2019s happening now.  This is a big project which involves us first reviewing all the components of the themes and templates. As an example, we haven\u2019t been happy with the search tool for a while, so we did some research and will be replacing it with something much better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re also using our new design system (we call it Raven Design System or RDS) which has been in development for some time now.  It\u2019s what\u2019s powering the design of the new Carleton homepage<\/a> \u2013 so that look and feel will trickle down to all sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once we\u2019ve completed our review and finalized RDS we can begin building the theme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specifically, here\u2019s what we have planned:<\/p>\n\n\n\n