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Redscale Release Notes

Explore the latest features, enhancements and bug fixes for Redscale, the custom framework designed for SCS partners who utilize the SCS Cascade CMS. Redscale development is informed by the needs of the SCS groups within our CMS under the direction and approval of the SCS Web Steering Committee.

If you have any questions about Redscale features or development, please contact the Technical Communication Platforms team at tcp@cs.cmu.edu. 

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Newest Version - 25.06

Release Date: June 17, 2025

New Features

  • People Listing Content Type 
    • A new content type that supports site-wide or team-specific people listings.
    • Auto-syncs with the SCS Directory for basic info, with options to override role-specific details.
    • Reusable person pages can appear in multiple listings and be linked or used as data-only.
    • Customizable fields, including a flexible "Status" field (e.g., "On Leave").
    • Listings are sortable (A-Z, reverse, random) and easy to reorganize via folder structure.
    • Faculty research areas can be defined per site.
    • Currently a one-way sync from SCS Directory. We are working with departmental partners to explore ways to make this more flexible, such as defining certain People listings as "canonical" for photos or research areas, for instance. Let us know if you would like to work with us on this!
    • Please note: The “Bio Listing” content type is deprecated but still supported for compatibility with existing sites. TCP will help migrate Bio Listing pages to the new People Pages system at a future date.
  • News Story Grid Item Type: Choose a news story on the site to auto-pull the headline, summary, date and image. Display of these can be turned on or off individually to suit the needs of the page.
  • Accordian Items Section Type: Ideal for FAQs pages or for collapsing content blocks into their headings.

Enhancements

  • External Data Collection Sorting: Ability to optionally default to sort alphabetically by the first column, if the data order from the Google Sheet does not suit your needs.
  • External News Links: News stories that point to external news sources now provide a fallback link and Javascript-based redirect on the published page, to ensure proper navigation from search engines or shared links. 
  • Search Indexing Control: Option to exclude sites (like Preview sites) from search engine indexing.

Bug Fixes

  • Formatted captions (bold, italics, etc.) in “figure/figcaption” in WYSIWYG content no longer block page rendering; ARIA descriptions now strips formatting for accessibility.
  • For sites using the "CMU Standard" theme which have global right-side navigation, the nav links now correctly point to in-Cascade pages when clicked.
  • The "helper bar" that appears over External Data sections now correctly links back to the external data source definition. (Note that changing this definition is still done exclusively by the TCP team).

Version History

New Features

  • Breadcrumbs: An auto-generated “breadcrumb” navigation control can now optionally be included at the top of all Standard pages. This is currently only implemented for sites using the Standard theme.

Enhancements

  • Dynamic-Only Page Fragments: The ability to do “inline” fragments has been removed based on feedback from CMS content editors.
  • Increased History for Calendar Archive Pages: Calendar listing pages now use the new asynchronous Filter Tool, allowing them to load in up to five years of events
  • News System Enhancements:
    • An optional photo header can be specified for News archive pages.
    • Increased visibility of the Headline text for “Featured” banner areas.
  • Consolidated Javascript Bundles: Ancillary Javascript files used for features like navigation, the calendar, and External Data tables, have been consolidated into the same mechanisms controlling the main.js bundle. This enables seamless updates alongside the rest of the new Redscale version, without manual intervention.

Bug Fixes

  • Corrected an edge case to allow the “subject position” control for news images to apply the correct cropping on archive page views.

New Features

  • Theme System: Themes separate visual aspects from core functionality. This allows managed sites to have distinct appearances while sharing the same underlying features.
    • SCS-2022 Theme: Used for the main CS.CMU.EDU website and the Executive and Professional Education website. It features a different menu/header color.
    • Standard Theme: Closer in appearance and features to existing campus CMS sites. Includes an option for a persistent global side navigation menu pane.

Enhancements

  • Filter Tool: Improved speed, scalability, and flexibility to handle larger data sets and asynchronously-loaded data. Note: the new filter tool is currently being used on CS.CMU.EDU’s News archive pages, but has not yet fully replaced the tool across all sites.
  • Standard News System: A standardized way for all Redscale sites to handle news and news-like content. Feature highlights include:
    • Standard news pages can have all the features of regular Redscale pages, or can have per-site customized content types.
    • News can be categorized by feed, keyword, or additional custom dimensions.
    • News archive pages allow for filtering and labeling.
  • Auto-generating Side Navigation: Provide an up-to-date navigation menu without republishing the entire site by using the Page Fragments feature. Exclude pages and customize menu behavior to be open or closed on specific pages types. 

Bug Fixes

  • Improved External Data source escaping for unique characters.
  • Better visual contrast for page header carousels in the “white” version of the SCS-2022 theme.
  • Fixes to calendar archive search logic for long timeframes.
  • Improvements to behavior for floating images.