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Roadmap

We are excited to share our roadmap for WordPress at CERN.

WordPress presents a unique opportunity to modernise our extensive digital presence, leveraging the rich WordPress ecosystem to address the many shortcomings and difficulties inherent to Drupal, such as accessibility, responsiveness, and workflow efficiency. Our goal is to simplify the web development process for website owners, allowing them to focus on what truly matters: creating and managing their content, without the complexities associated with Drupal.

Our roadmap is as follows:

  • WordPress Lite (October 2024): A lightweight version of WordPress offering an initial set of plugins and the first version of our official CERN WordPress theme running on the existing app-catalogue infrastructure. This offering will provide a simple and accessible way for website owners to familiarise themselves with WordPress.
  • WordPress MVP (January 2025): An initial, internal version of the dedicated WordPress infrastructure. Available only to the Web Team for development and testing purposes.
  • WordPress Pilot (March 2025): An internal pilot of the dedicated WordPress infrastructure. Available only to the Web Team and select websites for development and testing purposes.
  • WordPress (May 2025): WordPress becomes generally available to everyone at CERN.
  • Migration (July 2025): We begin automated migrations from Drupal to WordPress.

The migration is set to run throughout the remainder of 2025 with a scheduled completion in Q1 of 2026. The completion of the migration will further mark the completion of the first stage of WordPress at CERN. As indicated in the above diagram, we expect the WordPress Service to be actively maintained for years to come. Website owners can thus expect multiple updates and enhancements to come, and indeed themselves partake in the prioritisation of development, fully leveraging what WordPress has to offer.

This development necessarily follows the migration itself and is thus considered the second stage of WordPress at CERN. Indeed, the CERN WordPress theme and its associated dependencies have been carefully designed and developed to ensure functional parity with the Drupal Service in order to facilitate the migration. Once the migration has been finalised, the second stage commences and website owners can expect both functional and non-functional elements alike that allow content creation beyond what was possible in Drupal. We thus encourage everyone with ideas and requirements alike to reach out.

FAQ​

Q1: Who can access WordPress?

WordPress is available to any primary CERN account holder.

Q2: What happens to Drupal and my Drupal website(s)?

All Drupal websites which require a content management system and that conform to the CERN Druapl Distribution will be automatically migrated to WordPress. No website will be served on WordPress before it has been manually verified and approved by its owners. Websites which do not conform to the CERN Drupal Distribution will still need to be migrated and will require the active engagement from its owners. The Drupal Service will continue to be supported and maintained throughout before eventually being decommissioned when Drupal 10 reaches end-of-life in Q3/Q4 2026.

Please see the Drupal Migration article for more information about the migration.

Q3: Can I move my Drupal website to WordPress?

While we will be migrating Drupal websites that conform to the CERN Drupal Distribution to WordPress automatically, you may still wish to either move your website manually to WordPress, or, alternatively, rebuild in WordPress from scratch. This work may commence at any time. Similarly, if you require a new website, you can start in WordPress today.

Q4: When will my Drupal website be migrated?

Websites conforming to the CERN Drupal Distribution will be migrated in batches throughout the second half of 2025. The order is not fixed, but loosely based on amount of content and traffic, ensuring adequate support for each batch. Should you have specific requirements, e.g. needing the migration done before a certain point, please contact us and we will do our best to accommodate you.

Q5: Will WordPress support x plugin?

Maybe. Users will not be able to install plugins or themes ad-hoc as was the case in Drupal. If you have requirements or suggestions not immediately covered by the existing WordPress Service, please get in touch and we may be able to include it in a future update. Please see more information about plugins in the WordPress Plugins article.

Q6: I have a website on Drupal. What should I be doing to prepare for the migration?

Websites confirming to the CERN Drupal Distribution will be migrated automatically to WordPress.

The best you can do to prepare is remove non-essential customisation.

Q7: I already have a website on WordPress in app-catalogue. What will happen to it? Should I be doing anything?

Existing WordPress websites will co-exist as WordPress Legacy websites. Similarly to Drupal, it is your responsibility to remove customisation in order to conform with WordPress Lite. If your website conforms, we will handle it automatically without any action needed.

Q8: I have a question not answered here?

Please contact wordpress-feedback@cern.ch and we will get back to you.