Sector(s)
Team Members
The City of Terrace is located at the heart of Northwestern B.C. and is home to over 12,000 residents. The City has a small-town atmosphere and is the location of choice for many businesses and entrepreneurs due to its close proximity to three deepwater ports, rail service, and a bustling airport that all serve to connect the City to the rest of the world. As such, the City continuously searches for ways to improve its digital communications with its residents, visitors, and local businesses.
In 2016, Upanup designed and developed the City's website on the Drupal 7 (D7) content management system (CMS). Years later, Drupal announced that this version of the CMS would be sunsetting. The City could have stayed on D7 through extended support from Upanup but the site would no longer be supported by the Drupal community. Instead, the City determined that upgrading the website to D9 was the best option and would provide its users with an optimal experience. Additionally, this would provide the City with an opportunity to make some design adjustments to better meet their users' needs.
About the project
Upgrading from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9 involves rebuilding the site on the new platform with the option to keep the existing design, make adjustments, or create a new design. Upanup performed an accessibility audit for current stylings (link colours, hover states, and focus states) to identify if other areas should be updated. The City was happy overall with the existing website design but wanted to make improvements to the homepage. These improvements included:
- Updated icons that are accessible and provide a modern feel
- Featured news posts to highlight information that is important to the City's citizens
- A more intuitive layout to improve navigation for the City's users
This could have been done during the upgrade project or after the website was rebuilt in the new platform; it was decided that redesigning the homepage at the same time would be most efficient. Our team has continuously made refinements to the Drupal 7 to Drupal 9 upgrade process to help with efficiency and quality (e.g., matching node IDs from the old site to the new one).
The City's new website was launched in July 2022 and the refreshed homepage has provided users with enhanced navigation, making it easier for users to find information. The City will not have to worry about rebuilding its site any time soon as any future Drupal version updates will be performed within the existing platform. The City will have peace of mind knowing its site was built using the most secure version.
Why Drupal was chosen
The City's old website was built on Drupal 7 and their team enjoyed working with the platform. Therefore, the best approach was to upgrade their site to Drupal 9 so they could continue to use and benefit from Drupal's extensive capabilities.
Technical Specifications
Drupal version:
