We have provided a general timeline, important dates and blackout periods that will
take place leading up to our website design upgrade. As new information becomes available,
we will update this page with more details and exactly dates.
Blackout Dates are a range of dates within our timeline that signal to site editors
either a limitation or requirement to help ensure our migration goes smoothly. Pay
careful attention to these dates as they signal an important step you should be taking.
A deadline means a specific deliverable is due from some or all site editors, depending
on your migration option choice. While few deadlines exists, they are critical to
ensure we are staying on track with our upgrade timeline.
Milestones help us visualize major parts of the upgrade that help drive our timeline
forward. These typically indicate a next large step within the design upgrade and
dictate the success of our timeline.
Important Note
As part of any major project, some dates can shift due to unforeseen issues that may arise. If delays are expected to occur that will change our general timeline, we will notify site editors accordingly.
Site editors must submit their migration option by Thursday, February 27. If no submission
is received for a site directory, the migration will automatically default to Option
1 using the closest match design elements for a directory's pages.
DEADLINE PASSED
Blackout Duration: Through Go-Live (summer 2025)
During this blackout period, new website directory requests will not be permitted. Additionally, request to move or rename folders and/or pages inside the CMS will not be granted until after our go-live date. This is intended to prioritize our existing pages and sites.
New Pages/Folders:
CURRENTLY IN EFFECT
Our upgrade team will begin testing our migration script in mid-March which will allow us to visually see how page contents will migrate to the new designs. Following successful testing, we will be able to share how all the components and snippets from our current designs will look in our new designs.
This will be especially useful for site editors who have chosen Option 1 of the migration so they know what to expect during their review period. When examples of migrated
content is available to share, will notify all site editors.
COMPLETED
Applicable to Option 2 sites only
Site inventories provide our migration script a "map" to ensure Option 2 site pages
are written to the sandbox site with the correct pre-filled templates. Site editors
who have chosen Option 2 will be sent an inventory of their site's pages and will
need to select a template for their internal pages. This will be sent to site editors
as soon as mid-February. If you are unsure how to select a template, be sure to watch
the recording from our second Live Learning Session.
WATCH LIVE LEARNING SESSION 2 RECORDING
DEADLINE PASSED
Blackout Duration: Through early May 2025 (final migration)
We will begin building our migration map which tells our current site where to put pages into our sandbox site. This map is a critical part of our migration's success. Since we will not be building more than one map, site editors will need to keep track of all newly added pages to the CMS starting March 21.
While we are doing our best to make sure all pages smoothly transition, site editors will be responsible for verifying if pages created after March 21 are placed inside their sandbox sites. If the page did not migrate, you will need to rebuild it using one of our new templates.
CURRENTLY IN EFFECT
Blackout Duration: Through Go-Live (summer 2025)
To help prioritize our existing site editors and the support needed for this upgrade, we will be temporarily discontinuing new site editor training starting April 22 through the remainder of the upgrade.
If a site requires edits and does not currently have a site editor during this blackout period, we recommend reaching out to the FAST team on campus who can make edits to your website for a small fee.
CURRENTLY IN EFFECT
Blackout Duration: Approximately 1 week
No publishing will be allowed inside the CMS starting at 4 p.m. May 27 through June 2. This short blackout ensures all content transfers smoothly into the new sandbox site. Please note that scheduled publishes will not work during the blackout so plan ahead!
In addition to this publishing blackout, please avoid the following:
While page changes can still be made, you will not be able to publish them so we recommend waiting until the blackout period is over to ensure your page content comes over correctly into the sandbox site.
The week prior to our migration, CMS administrators will be making final preparations for our script to crawl the live UW website and transfer all our pages into our sandbox site using the new designs. The migration will take a few days to crawl all live web pages and place them into the new sandbox site, depending on which migration option you have chosen.
Once the migration is complete, we will notify site editors when they can begin reviewing and/or rebuilding pages.
As early as June 3, site editors will be able to access the new sandbox site which is where you will begin reviewing and rebuilding your webpages! It’s located right inside the same CMS you’ve always used—nothing new to log into.
Template training will cover how to access the sandbox site along with how to edit the new templates. Site editors can expect to spend up to two hours to complete this training and is required to complete by July 18 in order to maintain CMS access.
Important Note:
Tickets or questions submitted about templates following the release of the training
will not be prioritized by CMS administrators, and you may be directed back to review
training. This is to ensure our project team is supporting the upgrade priorities
with our very limited resources.
The review and rebuild period will take place inside the sandbox site, which all site editors will be provided access to following migration. We will provide site editors with a checklist to help guide their work. The review and rebuild period is to ensure that your site is ready to go in our new page designs.
Site editors will receive access to new template training as soon as the sandbox site is available (June 3). We recommend taking this as soon as possible to ensure you know your way around the new designs. All site editors must complete this training by July 18 in order to retain CMS access.
Important Note: Sites that are not reviewed or rebuilt, depending on which migration option you have chosen, will be subject to review and possible removal from the CMS following the upgrade.
Blackout Duration: Through Go-Live (summer 2025)
Concurrent with the final migration, site editors will need to begin the following:
This is only required if you make any changes, add new files or add pages to your live site following the start of the final migration. Site editors using Option 2 to migrate their pages to the new designs will need to assess if changes are necessary on the pages they are rebuilding since those pages are using entirely new templates.
After the May 28 - June 2 migration, site editors will have a minimum of eight (8) weeks to complete their page reviews & rebuilds when the sandbox site is released starting June 3. The pages in the sandbox site are what will become the live site in summer 2025. Pages that are not reviewed or rebuilt will be subject to review and possible removal from the CMS following go-live.
Important Note About Go-Live: We will notify site editors throughout this phase when we are able to schedule our final go-live date and when all edits to the sandbox site must be completed.
Anticipated Go-Live
Go live will be when we switch our live browser URL (also known as pointing the domain) to pages inside the sandbox site. At this time, site editors will still have temporary access to their former pages but will not be able to make edits inside the old site as it will no longer be used in a live environment.
Possible CMS Access Blackout: A temporary blackout for CMS access may be put in place for a very brief period of time and will be communicated to site editors.
Following a successful go-live, all blackout dates will be suspended and new site
editor access & training will resume. Post-go live information will be sent to site
editors accordingly.
1000 E. University Ave | Dept. 3226
Don't forget the Request Help Gadget!
Located in the top right of your screen inside the CMS.
