Sites@Duke

A large number of WordPress themes and plugins will be removed during the mid-October 2015 maintenance window. All site admins should review the following details, and contact the OIT Service Desk with any questions. Faculty may contact the Center for Instructional Technology for questions regarding using WordPress in teaching.

Themes

The following themes will be removed from the Sites@Duke system over Fall Break, in accordance with Sites@Duke policies. These themes were selected because they are retired, unsupported, outdated, broken, or little-used.

1. Anubis
2. Black-Letterhead
3. Carrington Blog
4. Commentpress
5. Commentpress Default Theme
6. Commentpress Modern Theme
7. Connections
8. Copyblogger
9. Doc
10. Fauna
11. Freshy
12. Fusion
13. iBlog2
14. Infinity
15. iNove
16. Journalist
17. K2
18. Pretty Parchment
19. Reveal
20. Rotary
21. Tweaker3
22. WP-bootstrap

All site admins should confirm whether their sites are using one of these themes. You can do this by logging into your site, going to Appearance > Themes in the left-hand black sidebar, and seeing which theme is labeled as “Active” in the top left corner.

If your site’s active theme is on the list above, you will need to switch to another theme that is NOT on this list before October 10, 2015. Instructions on how to change themes are available on sites.duke.edu. Any sites that have not switched to a new theme at that time will be changed to the Twenty Thirteen default theme.

If your site does not use one of these themes, you do not need to take any action at this time.

Plugins

The following plugins will be removed from the Sites@Duke system over Fall Break, in accordance with Sites@Duke policies. These plugins were selected because they are unsupported, outdated, broken, little-used, or redundant.

1. Booking Calendar (recommended replacement: Event Calendar)
2. CommentPress Core
3. Flickr Photostream (recommended replacement: Flickr Justified Gallery)
4. List Pages Shortcode
5. Mapbox
6. Onswipe
7. Polldaddy Polls & Ratings (recommended replacement: WP-Polls)
8. Register Plus
9. Smart Youtube PRO
10. Top Commentators Widget
11. Twitter Tracker
12. WP VeriteCo Timeline (recommended replacement: KnightLab TimelineJS)
13. WPMU Custom CSS (recommended replacement: Simple Custom CSS)
14. WTI Like Post (recommended replacement: KK I Like It)

In cases where retired plugins are actively used by Duke WordPress users, we have suggested alternative plugins with similar functions. Please switch to the new plugins before October 10, 2015 to avoid functionality issues.

All site admins should confirm whether their sites are using one of these plugins. You can do this by logging into your site, going to Plugins in the left-hand black sidebar, and clicking Active to see your list of active plugins.

This is a notice that on Saturday, October 11, we will be upgrading the Duke WordPress system to version 4.0. This upgrade will take place from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Sites may be unavailable during this timeframe.

We will also be removing 3 plugins from the system at this time. A list of affected plugins is available at http://sites.duke.edu/blog/2014/09/18/plugins-to-be-removed-during-october-2014-maintenance-window/. In cases where retired plugins are actively used by Duke WordPress users, we have suggested alternative plugins with similar functions. Please switch to the new plugins before October 11 to avoid functionality issues.

On behalf of the Duke WordPress team, thank you for your patience as we perform this important maintenance. As always, if you have any suggestions for future improvements, please submit them via the online form: https://sites.duke.edu/feature-request-form. Any feature suggestions received by November 15, 2014, will be considered for our next maintenance window in December 2014. For any technical support questions about Duke WordPress, please contact the OIT Service Desk (see http://oit.duke.edu/help/ for contact options).

Duke WordPress users have access to a list of plugins that provide extra functionality to their sites. These standard plugins are actively reviewed by the Duke WordPress team, and those that are not being used or are no longer supported will be retired.

During our July 2014 maintenance window (currently scheduled for Saturday, July 12), the following plugins will be removed from the service:

1. Broken Link Checker: users of this plugin can use the free link checker tool available at http://validator.w3.org/checklink
2. Cron GUI
3. Facebook Like: users of this plugin should switch to Share Buttons by AddToAny
4. FlickrRSS: users of this plugin should switch to FlickrPress or Flickr Photostream
5. OpenID
6. Submittable
7. Tweetblender: users of this plugin should switch to Really Simple Twitter Feed Widget
8. Voicethread
9. WordPress.com Stats
10. WP SIMILE Timeline
11. WP-CodeBox: users of this plugin should switch to SyntaxHighlighter Evolved
12. WP-SimpleViewer

In cases where retired plugins are actively used by Duke WordPress users, we have suggested alternative plugins with similar functions. Please switch to the new plugin before July 12 to avoid functionality issues.

As always, if you would like to request a particular plugin be added to Duke WordPress, fill out the Feature Request Form. Your suggestions will be reviewed according to Sites@Duke policies for possible inclusion in an upcoming maintenance window.