You'll only be able to migrate your site once . Before you get started with your migration, you'll want to consider the following:Note : We also offer a training playlist for this process.
Step 1: Review the list of features that are not yet ready
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 2: Watch pre-recorded training sessions
We are strongly recommending that users review the UW Theme 2.0 training and the migration 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 3: Gravity Forms updates
Switch off legacy markup
Gravity Forms legacy markup will impact styling in UW Theme 2.0. This option is being decommissioned in Gravity Forms in 2026 and therefore, we recommend discontinuing use now.
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 4: Clean up your user list
Go through your list of users on the site and remove those who should no longer have access to the site.
Consider that some users have name changes that involve a new NetID. If a user has two NetIDs listed, clean up the old NetID.
Step 5: 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
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.
Please send one request at a time. Fully complete a site migration before requesting the next one.
Step 6: Login to your new site
Once you receive your new project site, you'll want to login and orient to the new space. Here's some tips:
The easiest way to login is to append "/wp-admin" to the end of your new *.project.wiscweb.wisc.edu domain.
Example: yoursitetitle .project.wiscweb.wisc.edu/wp-adminYou can bookmark this URL for quicker access
As a reminder, your new site will not appear in your old WiscWeb sites list. More information about this shift is located in WiscWeb - Finding your WiscWeb site lists
Your user list should migrate over, but you can add/remove users at any time using the steps outlined in WiscWeb - Editing users
Step 7: 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 the migration steps .
Step 8: Consider your site search preferences
Are you using Google Programmable Search on your site? If so, your search results will link out to your old site until you launch the new migrated site.
If this is not ideal for your workflow, you can remove the search ID for Google from your Theme Settings but you will need to remember to put it back after you launch.
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
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 (if needed)
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: 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 before you can denote the page as migrated .Shortcodes - A few tools in UW Theme Classic relied on shortcodes and don't have an equivalent in UW Theme 2.0. These are pieces of text that are wrapped in brackets (examples: UW Theme Classic - Shortcode list If you see a shortcode on the page, you'll need to manually rebuild the content.
Open the Document Overview sidebar (top left corner - stair icon). 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 .” This step must be completed or you won't be able to denote the page as migrated .
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 panel and tab for UW Accordion and Tab blocks.
Note that images that migrated over from Text Blocks will also need to be converted.
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 4: Migrating fac/staff content (if applicable)
Fac/staff pages will also need to be migrated over to the new theme. Please note that the content has been renamed to "UW People" in UW Theme 2.0:
Navigate to the UW People link in your left menu
Hover over the person in the list that you wish to edit and select Edit.
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" before you can denote the person page as migrated .
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 person page as migrated .
Re-save/publish your page.
Step 5: Migrate UW Events (if applicable)
Step 6: Migrate UW Publications posts (if applicable)
If you were using the UW Publications plugin on your site, there are very specific instructions for you based on the way you were using this tooling. UW Publications migration KB doc for more details.
Step 7: 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 .
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.
Users have the opportunity to track their migration along the way. This is a two-part process:
Step 1: Denoting a page as migrated
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.
For Pages, make sure the Page tab is selected.
For People, make sure the Person tab is selected.
Open the Migration Station panel.
Toggle the slider for “Mark content as reviewed”
After toggling this option, the status should update to “Content is reviewed”
Step 2: Reviewing migrated pages
If you are denoting your pages as migrated along the way, you’ll have two ways to track overall progress:
Option 1: 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).
Option 2: 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.
You can also download a CSV of your non-migrated pages using the related button.
Though not required, converting posts can bring certain benefits:
Improved accessibility
Better layout of content (including image alignment)
Closer alignment to original post display
Better display of embedded content
You will also need to convert your post if you need to edit old content.
Note : You do not need to denote the posts as migrated so you can ignore this section of the Migration Station for posts. Content on the front-end should appear as expected (for the most part - see Considerations for more info).
Editing older posts
If you do want to edit 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 Reset content 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.
Considerations
We generally leave the migration tooling in place after your launch (just in case you have additional content you'd like to convert). This is a great option for Posts if you do want to convert them but have a lot to work through. You can convert the most important ones, launch, and then work through the rest after your launch.
Posts that aren't converted may not retain the original paragraph breaks and spacing. If you wish for your posts to look as expected, converting would be required.
Content in posts needs to be converted to blocks if editing is required. This includes instances where you need to re-align images within posts.
If a Post included embedded content - like an embedded YouTube video, this will display on the front-end as hyperlink text. If you wish for it to be embedded, you'll have to go into the post, convert the content to blocks, and republish.
You are not required to review each post in your post list. Therefore, this content will not show up in the Status Checker tool . Also, you do not need to denote the posts as migrated so you can ignore this section of the Migration Station for posts.
If you started editing and need to reset the content, you can use the Migration Station to set that page back to what it looked like when the site was first brought in. For this, simply click the "Reset content" button in the Migration Station.
Related Posts will not migrate in. If you require Related Posts, you will need to manually add them back using the UW Featured Post block .
Please refer to UW Theme 2.0 Migration - FAQ for general questions and answers regarding the migration process.
