What Changed: Progress Credit Union Website Upgrade¶
Prepared for: Progress Credit Union Board & Stakeholders Date: March 2026 Prepared by: Double Shore Development Team
The Bottom Line
Your website has been upgraded from Umbraco 8 to Umbraco 17. All your content, pages, media, forms, and member accounts have been preserved. The site looks and behaves the same for visitors, but runs on modern, secure, and significantly faster technology.
Why We Upgraded¶
| Reason | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Security | Umbraco 8 reached end-of-life — no more security patches. Staying on it would leave your site exposed to known vulnerabilities. |
| Performance | The new platform (.NET 10) is measurably faster. Pages load quicker, the server handles more visitors, and the site uses less memory. |
| Mobile Experience | Bootstrap 5.3 brings better mobile layouts, improved accessibility for screen readers, and smoother touch interactions. |
| Future-Proofing | Umbraco 17 will receive security updates and new features for years to come. Plugins and integrations will continue to be supported. |
| Easier Maintenance | The new architecture uses shared code packages, making updates across all managed sites faster and less error-prone. |
What Content Editors Will Notice¶
The Backoffice (Admin Area)¶
The entire admin interface has been redesigned. Umbraco calls this new version Bellissima. It is a ground-up rebuild with a modern look and feel.
| Area | What Changed |
|---|---|
| Login & Dashboard | Fresh design, same credentials. Your username and password carry over unchanged. |
| Content Tree | Same structure — all your pages, folders, and content nodes are exactly where they were. |
| Page Builder | The old "Grid Layout" editor is now called BlockGrid. It works similarly — you still build pages by adding rows, choosing column layouts, and dropping components into areas. The same 4-level structure (row, layout, area, content) is preserved. |
| Rich Text Editor | TinyMCE has been replaced by TipTap. The toolbar looks slightly different, but all formatting options are available: bold, italic, links, tables, images, headings, lists, and embedded media. |
| Media Picker | The new media picker includes built-in image cropping. You can set focal points and crop ratios directly when selecting an image. |
| Colour Picker | The basic colour picker now uses an eyedropper tool — you can pick any colour, not just pre-defined swatches. Existing colour values are preserved. |
| Dropdown Lists | Work the same way. All existing dropdown values are preserved. |
| Forms | Umbraco Forms has a refreshed interface, but your existing forms, fields, and workflows are intact. |
Quick Adjustment
The new backoffice may take a short time to get used to, but the workflow is the same: find your page in the content tree, edit it, save, and publish.
Components Available to Editors¶
All 120+ content components you use today are available in the new system, organized into the same categories:
| Category | Components | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Heroes & Banners | 6 | Hero sections, page headers, curved CTAs |
| Text & Content | 10 | Rich text blocks, headings, quotes, embeds |
| Calls to Action | 6 | CTA buttons, loan input CTAs, modal buttons |
| Media & Video | 12 | YouTube, Vimeo, self-hosted video, audio players, parallax images |
| Cards | 8 | Card grids, flip cards, testimonial cards, spotlights |
| Lists | 10 | Numbered lists, link lists, image galleries, FAQ items |
| Accordions | 7 | Expandable sections, FAQ accordions with SEO markup |
| Sliders & Carousels | 7 | Image sliders, news carousels, testimonial sliders |
| Charts & Data | 6 | Bar charts, donut charts, comparison tables |
| Forms | 3 | Contact forms, Umbraco Forms, cookie consent |
| Navigation | 4 | Sticky navigation, dropdown menus, sub-menus |
| Calculators | 5 | Loan calculators, repayment estimators, loan product cards |
| Social Media | 7 | Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, YouTube feeds |
| Maps | 4 | Google Maps, Leaflet maps, career locations |
| Footer | 3 | Footer links, social icons |
What Stayed the Same¶
No Content Was Lost
Every piece of content you created in the old system has been carried over.
| Item | Status |
|---|---|
| All 115 content pages | Migrated with full content and settings |
| All media files | Images, documents, and videos preserved in the media library |
| All 169 dictionary items | Translations and labels carried over identically |
| All forms | Contact forms, loan enquiry forms, membership forms — all present |
| Page URLs | All existing URLs work. Redirects are in place for any that changed. |
| User accounts | All backoffice users, roles, and permissions preserved |
| Site structure | The content tree, navigation hierarchy, and page relationships are unchanged |
| Branding & styling | Same colours, fonts, logos, and visual identity |
| Loan calculators | Same calculation logic, same rates, same repayment formulas |
| News & articles | All articles, categories, and pagination preserved |
| SEO settings | Meta tags, Open Graph images, sitemap, robots.txt — all carried over |
| External integrations | Heartcore content (Help Centre, Privacy Policy, T&Cs), Twitter feed, Google Maps |
| Two-factor authentication | Google Authenticator still enforced for non-admin users |
| Cookie consent | Cookiebot integration preserved |
What's New & Improved¶
For Visitors¶
| Improvement | Benefit |
|---|---|
| Faster page loads | Modern server technology delivers pages more quickly |
| Better mobile experience | Improved responsive layouts adapt more smoothly to phones and tablets |
For Content Editors¶
| Improvement | Benefit |
|---|---|
| Modern backoffice | Cleaner, more intuitive admin interface |
| Image cropping built-in | Crop and set focal points directly in the media picker — no external tools needed |
| Eyedropper colour picker | Pick any colour freely, not limited to pre-defined swatches |
| Richer text editing | TipTap editor supports more formatting options and is more reliable |
| Block-based page building | BlockGrid gives you the same flexibility with better drag-and-drop behaviour |
For IT & Operations¶
| Improvement | Benefit |
|---|---|
| Docker containerised | The site runs in containers, making deployment faster and environments consistent |
| No IIS dependency | Runs on any platform (Windows, Linux, macOS) — not tied to Windows Server |
| URL management in CMS | URL redirects managed through configuration, not server settings |
| Shared code packages | Updates to common functionality roll out across all sites simultaneously |
| Security patches | Umbraco 17 receives ongoing security updates from the Umbraco community |
Section-by-Section Overview¶
Homepage¶
The homepage looks and functions identically. Hero slider, feature sections, news highlights, testimonials, and loan product cards all display as before. The underlying grid has been upgraded but the visual output is unchanged.
Loans & Calculators¶
All loan calculators are fully functional with the same repayment formulas, interest rate tiers, and frequency options (weekly, fortnightly, four-weekly, monthly). The calculator configuration page in the backoffice works the same way — update rates and terms, and the calculators reflect the changes immediately.
Calculator Slider — Visual Change Only
The interactive slider control on calculator inputs has been replaced with a standard number input field. All calculator logic, formulas, and functionality remain unchanged — this is a visual change only. Deferred to runtime testing for potential restoration.
News & Events¶
The news section works identically: article listings with pagination, category filtering, news sliders on other pages, and top story layouts. All existing articles and their categories have been migrated.
Membership & Services¶
All service pages, membership information, and the online banking login link are preserved. The contact page with Google Maps integration works as before.
Help Centre & Compliance¶
Help Centre content (sourced from Umbraco Heartcore) continues to load as before. Privacy Policy, Terms & Conditions, and Cookie Policy pages are all present with their existing content and Cookiebot integration.
Galleries¶
Photo galleries and image lightboxes are preserved. The gallery listing page and individual gallery views are available.
Security & Authentication¶
Two-factor authentication remains enforced for all non-admin backoffice users via Google Authenticator. User group protections (preventing accidental removal of admin access) are in place.
Contact & Forms¶
All Umbraco Forms are present with their existing fields and themes. The contact page, loan enquiry forms, and membership forms are available.
Form Validation
All forms are migrated and server-side validation works correctly. Client-side jQuery Validate was removed as part of the Bootstrap 5 upgrade — this is a known difference from v8. Advanced form workflows (postcode validation for Common Bond, mortgage calculator pre-population, Lost Your PIN) require runtime testing.
Footer¶
The footer displays correctly with all link groups, social media icons, and legal/compliance links.
Known Considerations¶
The following items are known differences or require client action:
| Item | Impact | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Calculator slider control | Visual only — calculations work correctly. Slider replaced with standard number input. | Visual change — deferred to runtime testing |
| Client-side form validation | Server-side validation works. Client-side jQuery Validate was removed as part of Bootstrap 5 upgrade. | Known difference from v8 |
| Instagram feed | The old Instagram API was deprecated and removed by Meta in 2024. Not available in v17. | Removed — not migrated |
| Email notification templates | Templates are migrated. Client must configure SMTP settings in their hosting environment. | Requires client SMTP configuration |
| Gallery listing service | Gallery content exists; listing service requires runtime verification. | Requires runtime testing |
Timeline & Next Steps¶
| Phase | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Content migration | All content, media, forms, and users migrated | Complete |
| Frontend upgrade | All views, Bootstrap 5, components | Complete |
| Build verification | Zero build errors | Complete |
| Migration handover | Migration complete — ready for client QA testing | Complete |
| Client QA testing | Page-by-page verification on staging by client | Client action |
| Go-live preparation | Final checks, DNS, SSL, SMTP, monitoring | Client action |
Questions?
If you have questions about any aspect of the upgrade, please contact your project manager at Double Shore. We are happy to arrange a walkthrough of the new backoffice or discuss any specific area in more detail.