After reading this document, you will understand the general process of migrating your Classic UW Theme WordPress site into the new UW Theme 2.0, which uses the block editor (also known as Gutenberg) in WordPress.
Important
This process is not yet available. This documentation is being provided early so that users can understand the process that will be expected of them. Once the new process is in place, a link to request a new UW Theme 2.0 site will be added to this documentation.
After completing this, you will understand:
What steps should you take before migrating your content into UW Theme 2.0
How to initiate the process of acquiring a Gutenberg / UW Theme 2.0 site
How to migrate your content from the classic theme into UW Theme 2.0
What happens after migrating your content in the UW Theme 2.0
How to check your migration status along the way
Note: You'll only be able to migrate your site once. Please do not request your migrated site until you are ready to transition your content. Some content won't be available when migrations commence. Check the Element conversion table to see if there are any features you're using that haven't been built yet. If so, consider waiting until they've been accommodated.
Step 1: Watch pre-recorded training sessions We are strongly recommending that users review the pre-recorded training videos prior to requesting their new site. You may also want to explore the UW Theme 2.0 site to learn more about theme features and play around with the theme in the WP Playground .
Step 2: Download Gravity Forms entries (Optional) If using Gravity Forms, we suggest that you download copies of your form entries prior to requesting your new UW Theme 2.0 site.
Step 3: Request a new UW Theme 2.0 website The person who submits the new site request for a migrating site must be the Primary Contact . If you have any questions about setting a primary contact for a site, please reach out to our team for assistance .
Request a new migrating site by using the WiscWeb New Site Request form process (coming soon - this option is not yet available)
When we receive your request, we will take a copy of your existing WiscWeb site and place it in our new infrastructure that will host our UW Theme 2.0 websites. At this time, you will be provided with a new project link under the *.project.wiscweb.wisc.edu domain.
Step 4: Consider what has changed Most content will migrate 1-to-1 to the new theme. However, some content will require some manual effort and consideration. Please explore the Element conversion and Service changes documentation prior to starting your migration.
The process for migrating an existing WiscWeb site is as follows:
Step 1: Migrating your Customizer settings In the UW Theme 2.0, the Customizer has been redesigned as "UW Theme Settings."
In the migration, you will need to follow a few simple steps to ensure this content comes over as expected:
In your new UW Theme 2.0 project, navigate to Appearance > Theme Settings
Click into every tab (Sitewide, Color, etc.) and ensure that the content listed is correct. Fill in anything that did not migrate over.
Click Save Changes on each tab to ensure the content gets updated in your new site.
Important: If you are using Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager to track things like page views and do not wish for that data to pull results for your project site, please consider removing the IDs for those tools and re-adding them after you re-launch your site.
Review the changes on your migrated site to confirm that everything appears as expected on the front-end.
Step 2: Migrating your users In your new project site, only users who have authored a post or page will be added during the migration (Note: They'll be added as Subscribers). Users who had access to the site but never created any content won't be added automatically. Please review the users on your site and their permissions and make adjustments as needed.
Navigate to Users
Review each user in the list
Hover over their name and click Edit to adjust their role
Find the Role dropdown and choose the role you wish for them to have (Editor, Administrator, etc.)
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select Update User
Repeat these steps for each user on your site
If needing to add new users, follow the steps outlined in WiscWeb - Editing users
Note: Primary contact information will not be migrated. The user who requests a site will automatically be added as a primary contact, but other primary contacts need to re-apply that setting. Instructions for setting a primary contact can be found in WiscWeb - Designating a primary contact .
Step 3: Deleting the H1/page title from the homepage In UW Theme 2.0, the page title is a block. For the homepage only, you'll have to manually remove this block so that it doesn't appear on your page.
Step 4: Migrating page elements to UW Theme 2.0 blocks With your new UW Theme 2.0 project space, you’ll be able to work through transitioning your pages over to Gutenberg blocks.
Open the page you want to migrate. Ensure that you are in the editing view.
Mostly, your content should have migrated already. However, you may need to check:
Text/heading/button alignment - Manually reset the alignment if not looking as expected.
Content that is missing - Confirm that your page includes the content you expect. If something is missing, manually rebuild it.
Classic blocks - These will be highlighted in a pinkish color. They require conversion (described in next bullet).
Open the Document Overview sidebar (top left corner). This should default to the List View panel, which shows the blocks that each feature has mapped to.
For each feature that maps to the Classic block, you will need to perform an additional step by selecting the content and clicking “Convert to blocks .”
Scroll down your page and look for the pink highlighted boxes that say "Classic."
Click on the box and choose "Convert to blocks."
Make sure to click into every accordion pane and tab for UW Accordion and Tab blocks.
Click Publish/Save along the way so you do not lose your progress.
Some features have a very specific migration path or will not migrate automatically. Review the Element conversion content for information about individual features.
Once you have migrated all content for a given page, make sure to update the page to denote the page as migrated .
Re-save/publish your page.
Step 5: Migrating fac/staff content Fac/staff pages will also need to be migrated over to the new theme. Please note that the content has been renamed to "People" in UW Theme 2.0:
Open the fac/staff page you want to migrate. Ensure that you are in the editing view.
You should see your person details in a form at the top of the editing page. Confirm that the details came through as expected.
Any content that was formerly added to the WYSIWYG editor in your old site will appear below the form data.
Content below the form will appear in a Classic block. You will need to select the content and click “Convert to blocks .”
Scroll down your page and look for the pink highlighted boxes that say "Classic."
Click on the box and choose "Convert to blocks."
Click Publish/Save and preview the content to confirm it is looking as expected.
Once you have migrated all content for a given page use the Migration Station to denote the page as migrated .
Re-save/publish your page.
Step 6: Site re-launch in UW Theme 2.0 Once you have transitioned all of your content and everything is working as expected, the Primary Contact will need to request a new site launch (coming soon) .
Your group will be able to keep the same domain, but DNS records will need to be pointed at the new location. This process will work the same as launch requests have in the past.
Once your Gutenberg site has launched, the WiscWeb team will “unmap” your old site and publish it to a *.wiscweb.wisc.edu project domain. We’ll also archive it. In the archived state, it will no longer be editable/accessible.
After you have migrated an individual page, we encourage you to update the migration status to show this work has been completed.
Locate the Settings sidebar on the right and make sure the Page tab is selected.
Open the Migration Station panel.
Toggle the slider for “Content is reviewed after migration?”
This will update the status to: “Content is reviewed and ready”
If you are denoting your pages as migrated along the way, you’ll be able to track overall progress within the Page list.
Navigate to Pages in your dashboard menu.
In the filtering options at the top of the page, locate the All Migration Statuses dropdown.
Update the dropdown to “In Progress” and click Filter to view the pages that have yet to be migrated.
Update the dropdown to “Completed” and click Filter to view the pages that have already been migrated.
Repeat these steps for post type content like faculty/staff (known as the UW People plugin in UW Theme 2.0).
You will also be able to view a migration status on the overarching Migration Status page:
Navigate to Appearance > Migration Status
Any non-migrated Pages, People, Events, etc, will appear on that page until you finish migrating the content and denote them as migrated .Note: Posts will not appear in this list as there are no migration steps required unless you wish to edit the old content.
When you've migrated all content and denoted all pages as migrated, you should see a confirmation message in this area that indicates your migration is complete.
Posts should not require migration unless you wish to edit the content. Otherwise, content on the front end should appear as expected.
If you do want to edit old posts, you will need to convert the Classic block that appears:
Navigate to your Posts menu
Select the post you wish to edit
Within the Post, locate the Settings sidebar on the right and make sure the Page tab is selected.
Scroll down to the Migration Station , expand the section, and click the Migrate button.
This will populate your post with a Title and Date block at the top.
Your post content will appear as a Classic block that needs to be converted:
Look for the pink highlighted box
Click on the box and choose "Convert to blocks."
Your editing screen should refresh and the content will appear in various block types, including Paragraph , Heading , and Button .
Click Publish/Save so you do not lose your progress.
Edit the post as you wish.
