Platform Roadmap
Platform development roadmap
The HarvardSites Drupal roadmap provides an overview of upcoming and recent additions to the platform. We update the roadmap regularly as new features are identified, developed, and released. Features listed as in discovery are exploratory and may not ultimately be implemented. See feature highlights for a deeper look at key feature sets as they are released.
Last updated: June 30, 2026
Future releases
| Category | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
AI exploration | Exploring AI-generated alt text as an editorial starting point for content authors. | In Progress |
Communications | Exploring the addition of notifications / messages to users directly in the administrative interface of the platform, to raise awareness about platform updates, training offerings, new features, etc. | In Progress |
File management | File management upload and workflow improvements, particularly with PDF linking. | In Progress |
Design | Reduce vertical padding between components | In Progress |
Site reporting | Reports for school-level groupings of sites for site portfolio managers. | In Progress |
AI exploration | Integrating an AI-powered help assistant into the Drupal admin user interface. | In Discovery |
Vertical video | Improve the design and embedding expericne of vertical videos through the introduction of a new vertical video component | In Discovery |
Columns | Expand the capabilities of the Columns component with new two-column layout configurations and support for the Call to Action component, enabling a wider range of side-by-side layouts that combine media, text, and calls to action. | In Discovery |
Draft management | Researching the possibility of a reviewer option that provides read-only access to draft / unpublished content, enabling stakeholders to review content without editing or publishing permissions. | In Discovery |
Device page previews | Responsive page previews on for mobile screen sizes and other devices. | In Discovery |
Search and Listing Pages | Updates to search and sidebar facets design, including a number of accessibility fixes. Improvements for larger numbers of taxonomy filters, including a sticky sidebar, and adding a "show more" option for large term taxonomy vocabularies. | In Discovery |
Admin UX | Drupal 11 upgrade, which will likely include upgrade to the site administrative theme. | In Discovery |
Completed
| Category | Description | Released |
|---|---|---|
Publications | Enhance publications list views, correct heading level structure for accessibility, and refine visual consistency by reducing thumbnail sizes and eliminating excess spacing on publication detail pages. | |
AI exploration | Drupal Support Chatbot - an AI-powered support agent available 24/7/365 for common questions about using HarvardSites Drupal. | N/A |
Hero component | Hero component will remove the multi-slide option and transition to a single-slide experience to improve accessibility, usability, and content visibility. Existing multi-image Heroes will remain editable, with only the first item displayed publicly while additional content can be reviewed and repurposed elsewhere on the page. Read more about changes to the hero component. | |
AI exploration | Exploring markdown-based site content output and AI-friendly discovery approaches to improve how HarvardSites content is surfaced and indexed by LLMs. | |
Communications | Introduce a Help link within the platform administrative experience to provide site builders with easy access to help documentation, training and support resources. | |
Design | Adding subtle hover interaction transitions to main menu, section navigation, and call-to-action links to enhance page designs. | |
Lists | Introducing a new compact list display option that lets site builders show denser, space-saving lists—ideal for column layouts and users who prefer more information with less scrolling. | |
Typography | Addition of text callout style for non-heading narrative, announcement, or callout text. | |
Publications | Additional list view displays for publications outside of citation style, including the ability to display titles only and thumbnails. | |
Publications | A bundle of publications enhancements including showing the full, unfurled abstract on the detail page, adjusting thumbnail image to portrait aspect ratio, allowing optional year headings for list components. | |
Login | Update user sign-on via HarvardKey from CAS to Okta. Will enhance user login and site provisioning processes. | |
Publications | Add ability to change a publication reference type without recreating it. | |
User management | Simpliying people / user management page for site administrators, defaulting to active users, making it easier to manage real site members. | |
Social media | Allowing Bluesky social media options for footer and person profile links. | |
Content deletion | Addition of a "trash" feature to support content recovery within a 30-day period. | |
Media Gallery Component | Include media galleries on the site so that authors can easily share galleries of images with site visitors. | |
Primary site contact | Admin screen messaging to site administrators that primary site contact needs to updated or reaffirmed. | |
Publications | Optimizations of publications display of PDFs. | |
Typography grid | Optimize font size for non-heading text for better readability. | |
Padding | Update padding consistencies for many components across the platform, reducing unnecessary empty space. | |
Columns | Enhancements to columns component including consistent sizes, removing color settings tab, and fixing a color contrast issue for FAQs list. | |
Listing pages | Enhanced features to listing pages, including to ability to set grid as the default display style and an option to keep filters closed by default. | |
Accessibility monitoring | Add accessibility reports for site administrators | |
Menus | Update the main navigation menu by reducng the mobile breakpoint from 768px to 1024px wide, to improve screen size responsiveness and reduce wrapping for longer menus. | |
Publishing workflow | Add indicator for site builders when a page is unpublished or in a draft state. | |
Tables | Improvements to table functionality, including supporting more formatting options, such as hyperlinks, improving accessibility and mobile responsiveness. | |
Columns | Add support for components display next to each other within a page layout for text, embed, call to action links and single image components | |
Layout improvements | Updates to the layout grid consistency and widths across content types, improving alignment of content within on the page. | |
Tabs & Accordion Components | Improve visual styling and spacing when certain components are nested within the tabs and accordion components. | |
Analytics | Reporting dashboard pilot for site-specific metrics, including site traffic and user engagement. Reach out via ithelp@harvard.edu to request access to a site report. | N/A |
Content syndication | Creating RSS news feeds available on a per-site basis for external consumption. The team will eventually look into other options for content sharing across the platform. | |
People Listing Pages | Reduce sizing of thumbnails displayed within people listing pages for a more consistent, visually appealing layout. | |
Primary site contact | Add support for designating a primary contact for the website. Users will need to take action to select this primary contact once the work is complete. | |
Math (LaTeX) | Add support for Math (LaTeX) notation in the text editor. | |
Page Title Heading | Optimizing type scale for page titles and headings, including reducing size and adding the ability to change background colors for page titles. | |
Images Component | Improvements to the Images component, including separating out single images into a separate component and changing images component label to "Image Collage". | |
Utility Navigation | Optimization of the utility navigation to widen the spacing and adjust the alignment to have a more modern style. | |
Button Style Cards | Supporting images in the button-style card to allow authors to select an icon or an image to show as part of a button link on the site. | |
News List Block | A featured news item will be available on the news list component to display a larger more prominent article in a list of articles. | |
Hero Component | Adding additional hero component variations for split vertical | |
Google Programmable Search | Adding Google Programmable Search as an option for site owners for site search. (Search across multiple sites) | |
Improved User Invite Flow | Invited users will be provided a form to provide information and receive an invite to become a user in the platform. | |
Main Navigation | Component enhancements to the drop-down navigation in the main menu along with removing the 'Overview' link from the main menu options. | |
Presentation Content Migration | Support for Presentation content type by importing Openscholar content to the Publications content type | |
Class Content Type | Creation of the Class content type to meet the functionality currently offered in the Class content type for Openscholar. | |
Publications Content Type | Enhancement to the Publication content type to add additional sort options including a-z, z-a and by publication date. | |
Global Footer Privacy Policy | An added link called "Information Gathering Link" will be added to the Global Footer as a required link on all websites for users to gather information about harvard's information gathering practices. | |
Publications Content Type | Added a new content type for "Publications" so that authors can migrate publications content from OpenScholar and create new publications | |
Embed Component | Support to be able to resize the embed component specfic to what you are embedding, and added support for embedding videos. | |
Taxonomy Pages | When a taxonomy term is present on the website, users will be able to click on that term and see all content relevant to it. | |
Image Component | When cropping an image, the crop is focused on the anticipated aspect ratio for the photo and placement of the photo. | |
PowerPoint File Extension Support | Supports the powerpoint file type as a file extension within the website to be used with the Resource content type and other upload methods | |
Search and Listing Pages | Added support for the content type "Listing Page" that authors can create a listing of content that has search and filtering options associated for visitors to find the content that they are looking for quickly and effectively. |