Hello!

If you’ve been faithfully reading our newsletters and updates since spring (as we’re sure you have!), you’ll know that we’re very excited about version 5 of The Museum Platform.

We’ve been dropping plenty of hints about what to expect, but here’s the low-down on the upgrade with everything you need to know right now about what it means for you.

1. It’s a new version, for everyone

Version 5 is a core update to The Museum Platform, giving everyone access to new tools and capabilities. There’s no extra cost unless you want to add customisations. 

It won’t make any difference to the way you currently manage and update your site; you’ll just get a whole set of new tools and capabilities to work with.

There will be very little downtime, but you will need to freeze your content (not make any updates to your site) while we do the upgrade. If you have a custom theme, it might take us a little longer.

2. It gives you better design and content tools for your website.

Screenshot: TMP

We’ve updated our custom Museum Blocks, and made them purpose-specific, with dedicated timeline, map and gallery blocks that are more intuitive and easy to use.

We’re adding new blocks like ‘More like this’ that give your users pathways to more engaging content.

We’re also introducing patterns: templated layouts that help you build robust and reliable content quickly.

3. Documentation and analytics are now built in

Screenshot: TMP

All the help you need to use version 5 is at your fingertips. We’ve rewritten the documentation from the ground up, and integrated it into the platform. Each block now has its own help section that you can read as you use it.

Stats are now baked into the dashboard, so you can see how your content is performing as easily as you can see your content. We’re using Independent Analytics for this: let us know if you’d like us to set it up for you.

4. It’s faster and integrates better with other services

Screenshot: Bodleian Library

Under the hood, we’ve done some rewiring to make TMP faster and more efficient. You won’t be able to see this, but you should notice the improvement in performance.

If IIIF and high-quality zoomable images are your thing, you’ll love this: version 5 includes the full IIIF presentation API, so you can publish all your collections images with beautiful zooms and all the features of top-end viewers like Universal Viewer and  Mirador.

You can also use your Museum Data Service data as your source data. If you’ve already signed up, this means less work because all your online data is in the same place. If you haven’t signed up, it makes it much easier to join the UK’s leading repository of museum data and increase discovery and engagement with your collections. Depending on how big and complicated your data is, this might involve more work than the standard upgrade.

5. We’ll be in touch

You don’t need to do anything right now to upgrade. We’re rolling the upgrade out to customers on a schedule, checking in first to make sure that you’ll have all the components you need.

We’ll be in touch directly to let you know when your upgrade is going to happen, but please do give us a shout before then if you want to know more or have some dates that you need us to keep clear of.

Until then,

Mike, Jeremy and the TMP team.