Change to the way Symplectic Publications are added to Mosaic websites

Summary

We are replacing the current Mosaic Symplectic publications widget with the newer component already used on Fresco.

Existing Symplectic publication listings and widget settings will be carried across automatically. The way content is managed in Mosaic will not change.

Why are we making this change?

As part of work to extend the life of the Mosaic Web CMS platform through to April 2027 while the transition to Fresco continues, the underlying platform Mosaic is hosted on is being upgraded. The existing method Mosaic uses to retrieve and synchronise publication data is not compatible with the new platform.

In addition, the source system for Publications data, Symplectic Elements is making changes to its underlying data architecture (to support the REF). The existing Mosaic implementation of Symplectic Publications listings is also not compatible with this change.

The replacement component already used by Fresco uses the University's supported API for integrating Symplectic, which has been updated to work with these changes. By reusing this we can remove both of these incompatibility issues so that Symplectic publications can continue to display on Mosaic sites until its End of Life.

What's changing?

After the release, pages containing Symplectic publication listings will use the newer Fresco-based component to retrieve and display publication information.

Existing Mosaic widget settings will be mapped automatically to the replacement component, so you will not need to recreate or reconfigure your publication listings.

There are some styling enhancements to the appearance of publication listings compared with the current Mosaic component. The underlying publication information and purpose of the component will remain the same.

New example

Existing example

What do you need to do?

You do not need to make any changes to your website before the release.

After the change has been implemented, we recommend checking a selection of pages on your site that contain Symplectic publication listings. If you notice any unexpected display changes, please Contact Us to let us know and we will assess if any of these are unintended.

When is this happening?

The change will be made in the next Mosaic release, provisionally scheduled for 2 September. We will confirm the date once it is finalised.

The Oxford Mosaic web platform team will validate the change following deployment. Please note that immediately following the release there will be a short at-risk period while caches refresh. During this period, you may notice temporary display or rendering issues affecting Symplectic publication content. Please allow a short time and ensure that you clear your browser cache before reporting any issues.

Questions?

If you have any questions or concerns about this change, please Contact Us.