Change Log from October 13, 2026

With this release, the website is now running on Drupal 11.

Important for the editorial team

New pages: “Save Layout” once: After creating a page, please click “Save Layout” once in the layout editor before the page is translated. Without its own layout, the page will display the template for its content type, and this template will not be translated.
Note for the editorial team: Templates, such as those for the location pages, contain sample text that will be adapted during editing anyway.
Translation on Save: In the layout editor, to the right of “Save Layout,” there is now a toggle labeled “Update Translation on Save” (or “No Automatic Translation” if an English version does not yet exist). It displays the same setting as in the edit form.
Note for editors: If the toggle is on, the English version will be re-translated upon saving. Any manually edited English text will be lost in the process.
German and English are linked: The German and English versions of a page are always online or offline together. If one language version is archived or unpublished, this applies to both; if one is republished, the other returns as well. The displayed status of both versions now matches.
Note for the editorial team: If only the English version is to be removed, do not archive it; instead, delete the translation.

Security & Server

Drupal 11: The website has been updated to Drupal 11. All modules are running in Drupal 11-compatible versions, and the core is up to date with the latest security patches.
Security Updates: Security updates for Drupal Core and several modules have been applied, including the Webform module, the accessibility checker, and the map feature.
Module Updates: Bug-fix releases for several modules have been installed, including the link search, selection fields, focus point, and Uni-Login.
Restricted Content: Pages and documents with role-based restrictions are now consistently protected. Access is verified individually for each user; restricted pages do not appear in lists for users without authorization, and attached files are stored in a protected area.
Guests on protected pages: Guests visiting role-protected pages no longer end up on the university login page with the error message “outdated request”; instead, they see the “Access Denied” page.
Registration disabled: The public account registration form has been disabled. Accounts are created via the university login or by super users.
Unused features removed: The unused AI modules, the wiki’s book navigation, and the comment feature have been disabled. The wiki content itself will remain intact for the time being.
Server: Operating system updates have been installed, followed by a server restart.

Translation & Multilingual Support

Blocks with paragraphs: During translation, blocks containing paragraphs—such as accordions—were lost. Fixed.
Restored Versions: When an older version of a page is restored, the automatic translation now translates that specific version of the blocks rather than the latest one.
Deleting a Translation: Deleting a translation would fail with an error. Fixed.
Duplicated blocks: After duplicating a block, the English page could not be saved (“A translation already exists”). Fixed.
Special characters: In translated titles and link texts, as well as in publication channels from ORCID, “&” appeared instead of “&”. Existing texts have been corrected.
After Translation: After saving with automatic translation, you are redirected to the updated page, even if the title—and thus the URL—has changed.
English Texts: Twelve additional text fields are now translatable, such as subtitles and link texts in contact, event, news, and service blocks. Degree program cards now display “Learn more” in English, and search fields display “Search...”.
Location in user profiles: On English profile pages, “Victories” appeared instead of “Siegen.”
Note for editors: The location is no longer translated and, in English—just like street, ZIP code, and room—is always the same as in German. Building, floor, function name, and other information continue to be translated.
English addresses: On pages with manually entered URLs, the German address was translated, sometimes with spaces. The English address is now generated automatically from the English title.
Note for editors: If the German URL is changed later, the English URL remains unchanged. It can be adjusted in the English version if necessary.
Publications: Translating a page used to overwrite linked publications (translated titles, missing year). Publications are now left unchanged during translation.
Pending translations: Blocks whose translations were rejected with the status “pending revision” and paragraphs without a language assignment can now be translated again. The blocks in the page templates are now uniformly in German.
H5P: After saving with a translation, the H5P block on the German page remained empty. Fixed.
Note for editors: H5P content is not automatically translated; the English page receives a copy of the German H5P. If you translate it into English, please save the German page afterward without selecting “Update translation on save”; otherwise, the English version will be replaced by the German one again.
Service Disruptions: The “Service Disruptions and Maintenance Notices” block is now translated along with the page.
Note for editors: Super Users can place the block in the layout themselves.

Layout Builder & Reusable Content

Toolbar: “Layout” appears as a separate button next to “Edit” and is also accessible via the action menu in the content overview. Status and Save are located in a compact bar above the layout.
Outdated Layout: After restoring a version or a translation, the layout editor would still display the old state and could overwrite it upon saving. Fixed.
Preview: Blocks containing lists (Hero, News, Events, Projects) displayed empty or incorrect content in the Layout Editor after refreshing a block. Fixed; the published page was not affected.
Block menu: For short card blocks, the menu with “Remove” and “Duplicate” was cut off. Fixed.
Add Block: Blocks and categories in the dialog now have German names, as in the block form.
Note for Editors: Some names have been corrected, e.g., Site Map (previously Page Map), Location (previously Place), and Checklist (previously Checkbox Grid).
Available Blocks: Which blocks a role can add now depends on its permissions. Hero, Hero Secondary, Hero with News Preview, the curated sliders, and the outage notification are reserved for specific roles; all other blocks remain available to the editorial team as before. Blocks that have already been placed can still be edited.
Pre-populated People: New publication and contact person blocks are once again pre-populated with people from the page’s organizational unit.
Drop-down menus: The person search now searches by name again. Drop-down menus open their suggestion list as soon as you click on them and display 25 entries. Additional link fields (Top Degree Programs, Department, Wiki Author) now use the same drop-down menu.
Note for editors: For terms with subtopics, the parent term appears as a heading above the suggestions. This heading is for orientation only and cannot be clicked. The parent term itself can still be selected: It appears further down the list as a separate entry, again with its own heading above it. Example: If you type “Chemistry,” you’ll see “Chair of Inorganic Chemistry” under the heading “Department of Chemistry and Biology.” The department itself appears a little further down as a separate entry under the heading “Departments.” The quickest way is to search directly for the exact name.
Creating links: Link fields now find the target page using an improved search, and the suggestions in the text editor’s link window update with every letter you type.
Note for editors: Search for the page title, the path (e.g., /phil), or the target page’s address, and then always click the appropriate suggestion from the list. This way, the link remembers the page and will still work even if its address changes later. If you only type in a title and don’t click on a suggestion, the link will lead nowhere.
FAQ Block: All editors can now select any FAQs, not just those from their own section. The responsible organizational unit is listed below each question.
Note for editors: Unpublished FAQs can also be selected, but they will not appear on the page until they are published.
Images in Form Blocks: It was not possible to select an image in a new Webform block, and there was also a script error when opening the media library. Fixed.
Block Forms: The developer fields “Section Class” and “Content Item Class,” as well as the misleading field for image size in the image block, have been hidden. In the contact person teaser, the card selection is explained; in the thematic fact cards, “Subtitle” is now called “Label.” The button for soft hyphens is back in its correct position.
Block Library: The “Used in” column now loads in under a second instead of about 20 seconds and displays new uses immediately.
H5P for Editors: Editorial roles can now create H5P content themselves. Only Super Users and Administrators can install and update new H5P content types.

Components, Layout & UI Details

Map Grid: An empty wrapper element per entry was causing the map grid, quick links, and the location map to shift. Fixed.
White Sections: The check grid, degree program banner, and info banner are now readable even in sections without a background color.
Events: A freely entered location appears in the “At a Glance” info box even if no location has been selected.
Page Banner: The notification banner appears on all pages as long as text is entered, and no longer only after form errors.
Location block: Isolated server errors in the “Location” block have been fixed.
SVG Icons: After a module update, SVG icons were misaligned. Fixed (live since September 21).
Rotated Photos: Photos taken in portrait orientation sometimes appeared tilted on the website. The orientation is now corrected during upload and for existing images.

Editor Interface

German Interface: Forms, field labels, admin lists, status labels, and text from custom code are now in German and remain so even after updates. The “Page Sections” and “Publications” tabs are now labeled correctly again, and under “Content” → “Create,” the content types appear in German.
New Media: New media files are automatically created in German.
Note for editors: The language no longer needs to be changed manually. Existing media retain their language.
Replacing documents: When replacing a file, the document’s name and URL remain the same; all links immediately point to the new version.
Note for the editorial team: Edit the document in the media overview, upload the new file under “Replace File,” and save. This only works with the same file extension (PDF to PDF, DOCX to DOCX). If you want to change the extension, uncheck the “Overwrite original file” box. The file will then be assigned a new URL.
Redirects: Some newly created redirects were not working (fixed live as of September 21). Status codes 300, 304, and 305 are no longer available as options because they led to error pages.
Feeds and Confirmation Pages: The buttons on the feed page and next to “Discard Changes” were positioned below the page header. Fixed.
View as Another Person: The “Back to My Account” link was missing after switching to the new navigation. Fixed.
Assign Areas: In the user list, the drop-down menu next to “Edit” now shows “Workbench Access.”
Note for Editors: This entry appears as soon as the account is assigned an editorial role. Assign the role first, then the area.

Permissions, Roles & Moderation

Settings Pages: Editorial roles and area admins no longer see any configuration pages or a “Configuration” menu. Editing content, media, and users remains unchanged; the accessibility check continues to function.
Organizational Unit: Editors could assign pages to any organizational unit and thereby lock themselves out. The field now only displays their own sections.

Interfaces, Data Imports & User Profiles

English User Profiles: User profiles are not currently translated automatically into English; most profiles are available only in German.
Note for the editorial team: As a result, display errors may occur on English pages in some views involving users. This is due to the lack of an English version of the profile, not the page itself.
“Update” in the profile: The button previously triggered a large-scale import with notifications about external profiles; it now updates only your own profile (live since September 21). For people who are no longer listed in unisono, a notice appears instead of an error page, and the feature block remains intact.
Deletion Date and Synchronization: When saving a profile, a deletion date was incorrectly set, and approximately 350 profiles were never synchronized. Both issues have been resolved; incorrect data will be corrected during the next synchronization. Profiles manually unpublished remain offline.
Function blocks: The edit form and the page displayed different data, and saving could retrieve old unisono data. Fixed. If a person is only temporarily absent from unisono, their function blocks—including office hours—remain intact.
ORCID Authors: Up to 50 authors are stored per publication and can be searched for in the publication management system using the “Author” filter. Six authors and “et al.” continue to be displayed.

Stability & Performance

Faster Pages: Scripts and stylesheets are once again delivered as a bundled package; image variants are no longer regenerated with every page view; and the main image on each page loads with priority. Program searches and error reports are cached, and an unnecessary language redirection for new visitors has been eliminated.
Background Tasks: Eight system tasks and the ORCID synchronization did not run under Drupal 11. Fixed.