What’s new in OEL: developments and roadmap updates

Roadmap overview: continuous evolution of the OpenEuropa Library

The session opened with a roadmap update covering recent and upcoming developments across the OpenEuropa Library (OEL).

Key achievements from late 2025 included the completion of the upgrade to Drupal 11.2 across all OEL components, alongside improvements to accessibility, including pagination enhancements and refinements to the OEL header. Additional contributions focused on usability and interoperability, such as improvements to filtering options and API authentication mechanisms.

Looking ahead, work is underway to ensure compatibility with Drupal 11.3, with deployment planned in the first half of 2026. The roadmap also highlighted ongoing work on artificial intelligence use cases within the Europa Web Platform, which are expected to be progressively introduced in upcoming releases.

Q1 contributions: enhancing functionality and integration

Several contributions delivered in early 2026 demonstrate the continued expansion of OEL capabilities.

Key developments include the mirroring of OpenEuropa repository to Code.europa.eu, as well as the integration of the Panopto video platform alongside CCK webtools and the introduction of HotJar analytics tool in Open Europa to better understand user behaviour.

Improvements were also made regarding media copyright handling for images, ensuring better compliance and clarity. From a content management perspective, a new feature enables multi-document uploads based on language suffix, streamlining multilingual workflows.

These updates collectively contribute to a more robust, user-friendly, and compliant digital environment.

Demonstrating new features in practice

The main part of the session focused on live demonstrations of newly developed functionalities, aimed at improving both user experience and editorial workflows.

Among the features presented:

• A configurable solution for displaying default messages when content fields are empty, improving consistency across pages
• Integration of external video content through Drupal media entities, enabling seamless editorial workflows
• Analytics functionality allowing the creation of heatmaps to better understand user interaction
• A media copyright feature enabling the display of legal information under images
• A modular approach to integrating online meeting services across different back-end systems
• A metadata completeness score designed to encourage content quality by guiding editors on missing fields
• A mechanism to prevent the recreation of unwanted user accounts, supporting spam prevention
• A one-time password (OTP) feature adding an additional layer of security to form submissions
• A configurable promotional pop-up component, including a less intrusive display option

These demonstrations highlighted the contribution-driven nature of OEL development and the continuous efforts to improve both technical capabilities and user experience.

Looking ahead

The session confirmed the ongoing evolution of the OpenEuropa Library, with continued focus on accessibility, usability, and integration of new functionalities.

The next “OEL – What’s new” session is planned for June 2026, where further updates and contributions will be presented to the community.