Release 1.7.0 of Open Berkeley contains accessibility improvements, bug fixes, deprecated features, and minor code updates.
News
New team member
We are happy to announce that Lexie Patten has joined our Web Platform Services team in Campus IT Experience as a Web Analyst!
Lexie brings over 23 years of experience in various roles across UC Berkeley, most recently as Service Lead for Video-Conferencing (Zoom & Meet) and Calendaring on the Communications & Collaboration Services team.
Lexie will apply her extensive experience to Open Berkeley, the development of Berkeley Web Builder (our next-generation platform), and future activities that support Campus IT Experience’s vision, mission, and themes.
Accessibility Tip
Screen reader users can use heading structure to navigate content. By using headings (<h1>, <h2>, <h3>, etc.) correctly and strategically, the content of your website will be well-organized and easily interpreted by screen readers.
- Do not pick a heading just because it looks good visually (which can confuse screen reader users); instead, make sure to use headings in order (Heading 2, Heading 3) to organize your content structure. (Note: Heading 1 <h1> is reserved for the primary title of the page.)
- Do not skip heading levels (e.g., go from a Heading 2 to a Heading 4), as screen reader users will wonder if content is missing.
- When you place any type of Open Berkeley widget and you display a widget title, the widget title is output as a Heading 2 <h2>. You can configure the visual style used for your widget titles; see the Widget title styles section on our Configure Widgets guide page.
When you create headings in the WYSIWYG (editing toolbar), there are multiple options you can use to modify the visual style of those headings. See our Optional Styles guide page for examples and instructions.
Consulting charge for additional hostnames
Due to changes in central campus policy requirements, our standard monthly maintenance/support charge no longer covers the site-specific work required to add new hostnames to sites on our platform after their initial site launch.
Standard monthly maintenance/support includes security monitoring and updates; accessibility monitoring, testing, and improvements; privacy best practices updates; additional policy requirements; feature improvements; bug fixes; release testing and deployment; training and office hours; and email support for all sites on our platform.
On the Basic hosting plan, each website can use up to 5 URLs (hostnames), which the Web Platform Services team typically sets up as part of the Site Launch process. (The vast majority of sites on our platform use fewer than 5 hostnames.) Hostnames requested for an initial site launch will continue to be included in the one-time charge for site launch.
Setting up additional hostnames after the site launch requires coordination involving multiple campus teams. As of August 1, 2023, hostnames requested after site launch will be charged an additional Consulting fee of 0.5 hours per hostname (at the current rate, which is now $120 per hour), billed to the chart string on file for the site.
Deprecated features
Because of ongoing issues with the X (Twitter) product, the Twitter widget has been deprecated. Please visit our Twitter widget will be deprecated News item for additional information.
Code updates
- Improve keyboard use and focus highlighting in WYSIWYG toolbar.
- Prepare modules for PHP 8.1 update.
- Fix discrepancy in alt text allowed length.
- Add alt text column to Files dashboard CSV export.