Pre-Migration Checklist: Mosaic to Fresco

This document outlines some essential tasks that are required, or we recommend you complete before migrating your website from Mosaic to Fresco. Completing these activities will help ensure a smooth and efficient transition. 

Mandatory: These tasks must be completed before migration. They address critical technical compliance requirements that, if ignored, will cause issues or risks during or after migration. 

Highly Recommended: These tasks should be completed to ensure a smooth migration and to minimise post-migration workload. While not strictly required, skipping them may create unnecessary complications. 

Recommended: These are best-practice improvements. Completing them will enhance the quality, performance and long-term maintainability of your site, but are less urgent than mandatory or highly recommended tasks. 

Governance and Communication 

1. Identify Go-Live Approvers (Mandatory) 
   • Reason: To ensure that all parts of the site, including departmental sections and overall content, are thoroughly reviewed and approved. This will enable you to confirm that you can publish your newly migrated Fresco site. 
   • Action: Follow local governance procedures to determine approvers. 
2. Notify All Site Editors of Upcoming Changes (Mandatory) 
   • Reason: To ensure all editors with access to the Mosaic site, not just the primary migration contacts, are fully informed about the migration timeline and their responsibilities. This includes awareness of upcoming changes, agreement on any content updates required before migration, and confirmation of the change freeze date (Note, if you don’t freeze your content during the migration period, you will need to update both your live Mosaic and your Fresco sites with any changes to ensure they remain in sync). 
   • Action: Communicate details clearly and share information from the Migration Project Page. 

Content Review and Cleanup

1. Analyse Site Analytics (Highly Recommended) 
   • Reason: If your site has had Google Analytics (GA) enabled and has collected enough data, this can be a powerful tool to support content and structure decisions. GA reports can show which pages are heavily used, rarely visited, or underperforming - giving you an evidence-based foundation for deciding what to retain, revise, archive, or remove prior to migration. 
   • Action: This only applies to sites that already have GA tracking and sufficient usage data available. 
2. Update or Delete Outdated Content (Highly Recommended) 
   • Reason: Doing this ensures that only accurate, up-to-date content is carried over to your new Fresco site. Removing outdated material not only improves the quality and relevance of your website but also reduces the risk of errors or confusion post-migration. It will also help streamline your site structure and make the editorial review process more efficient. 
   • Action: Review your current content and remove or update anything outdated. 
3. Delete Unpublished or Draft Pages (Highly Recommended) 
   • Reason: While draft or unpublished pages will be migrated to Fresco (keeping their status of being draft or unpublished), it’s best to delete any that are no longer needed before migration. This helps reduce clutter, free up storage, and ensures that only useful, relevant content is carried forward. 
   • Action: Go to Mosaic > Manage Content > filter drafts > delete unnecessary pages. 

Usability, Accessibility, and Sustainability 

1. Conduct a Usability Review (Highly Recommended) 
   • Reason: Improving usability ensures your site is intuitive, efficient, and user-friendly. Running a usability review before migration helps you identify unclear navigation structures, problematic layouts, or outdated content presentation. Fixing these before the move avoids replicating issues on Fresco and saves time during post-migration editing. 
2. Conduct an Accessibility Review (Highly Recommended) 
   • Reason: Accessibility is essential for compliance with legal requirements and University policy. Addressing accessibility concerns before migration means your content is already inclusive and easier to maintain in Fresco. This helps avoid reactive fixes later and supports a better experience for all users. 
3. Conduct a Sustainability Review (Highly Recommended) 
   • Reason: Every website contributes to digital energy consumption. A sustainability review helps reduce your site’s environmental impact by trimming unnecessary pages, removing bloated media files, and improving performance. Doing this early supports the University’s broader sustainability goals and results in a faster, leaner website. 

For more information on reviewing usability, accessibility, and sustainability, please refer to: https://communications.admin.ox.ac.uk/digital-communications  

Media and Assets 

1. Delete Unused Images (Highly Recommended) 
   • Reason: Unused images take up unnecessary storage space in Mosaic, making it harder to manage active assets. Deleting them before migration keeps the Media Library tidy and reduces clutter in your new Fresco site. This can also slightly improve performance, reduce migration times, and depending on the size of your site, could even bring your site into a lower site charging tier, saving costs long term.  
2. Resize Images (Recommended) 
   • Reason: Large image files can slow down page load times, especially for users on mobile devices or slower networks. Resizing and optimising images before migration results in a faster, more responsive site and improves user experience from day one on Fresco. Additionally, reducing overall media file sizes could help lower your site's total storage usage, which may bring it into a lower site charging tier and reduce ongoing costs.  
3. Move Locally Hosted Videos to YouTube/Vimeo (Highly Recommended) 
   • Reason: Fresco does not support uploading or storing video files directly. If your videos are currently hosted within Mosaic, they will not carry over automatically. Moving them to a supported platform like YouTube or Vimeo now allows you to embed them cleanly into Fresco's Video component later, avoiding disruption or broken media.  
4. Rename Image and Document Files (Recommended) 
   • Reason: Files named generically (e.g. “image001.jpg” or “document-final.pdf”) can quickly become confusing, especially post-migration. Giving your files clear, descriptive names make them easier to find, manage and reuse in Fresco, particularly when working with large volumes of content. 
   • Action: Mosaic > Manage Content > View Files > Rename clearly.  

Technical Adjustments 

1. Identify Special Integrations (Mandatory) 
   • Reason: Integration components such as Cosy or SDS Figshare, will not automatically migrate and must be reconfigured manually after your site is migrated. Some integrations may require redevelopment or approval for use with Fresco’s embed component. Identifying these early helps ensure the Fresco team is aware of your integration needs in advance, so they can assess whether the functionality needs to be redeveloped, approved, or made available by default for use in Fresco.  
   • Action: Notify the Migration Support Team about any integrations that could be affected - mosaicmigrationsupport@it.ox.ac.uk 
2. Convert Mosaic Forms to MS Forms (Highly Recommended) 
   • Reason: Mosaic forms aren’t compatible with Fresco, and Fresco does not currently offer its own built-in form functionality. Instead, external solutions like Microsoft Forms are required to create and manage forms going forward. Any existing Mosaic forms will need to be manually rebuilt in an alternative platform and integrated into your Fresco site using links or the embed component. 
   • Action: Recreate your forms in MS Forms - https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/create-a-form-with-microsoft-forms-4ffb64cc-7d5d-402f-b82e-b1d49418fd9d 
3. Remove Custom CSS/JavaScript (Highly Recommended) 
   • Reason: Fresco does not support custom CSS or JavaScript. Any custom code currently in use such as enhancements added to the footer, embedded in WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) content areas, or elsewhere will not function after migration. Instead, this code will display as plain text on your new site, which can confuse users and negatively affect the site's appearance and usability. Addressing these before migration helps ensure a clean, professional result in Fresco.  
   • Action: Locate and remove any custom code from your Mosaic site. 
4. Audit for Hardcoded Links (Highly Recommended) 
   • Reason: Ensures that links to internal pages still work correctly after migration. In Mosaic, some users have linked to other pages using the full website address (e.g., "www.yoursite.web.ox.ac.uk/anotherpage"). However, if these full URLs are carried over to Fresco, they will continue pointing to the old Mosaic site rather than your new Fresco version.  
   • Action: Check your site's internal links and replace any full URLs with relative paths - just the part after the main domain name (e.g., "/anotherpage"). This ensures links remain functional after your new site goes live and avoids redirecting users to the old Mosaic site. 
5. Remove Dropdown List Widgets (Highly Recommended) 
   • Reason: Fresco doesn’t support Dropdown List widgets. This feature was not widely adopted on Mosaic and was therefore not prioritised for initial redevelopment within Fresco. While it may be introduced in a future update, at present, any content relying on dropdown lists should be restructured using supported components. This will help ensure your content is fully accessible and functional post-migration.  
6. Remove 'Share on Social Media' Widgets (Recommended) 
   • Reason: The 'Share on Social Media' widget is not supported in Fresco. This functionality was not considered essential and provided limited value in practice. Site visitors can still share content by copying and pasting the page URL directly into their social media platform of choice. Alternative approaches or future platform updates may address it, but for now, it’s recommended to remove the widget to avoid confusion or broken elements on your new site. 
7. Remove Tabs and Accordions within Advanced Tabs (Recommended) 
   • Reason: Tabs or accordions nested within Advanced Tabs will not be migrated to Fresco. Any content placed inside these nested elements will be lost unless manually recreated. Beyond the technical limitation, these complex structures often result in a poor user experience, especially on mobile devices or for people using assistive technologies. They can make content hard to find, disrupt navigation flow, and reduce accessibility. Removing or simplifying these layouts before migration not only preserves your content but also improves clarity, usability, and long-term manageability of your Fresco site. 
8. Remove Tabs and Accordions within Advanced Accordions (Recommended) 
   • Reason: Fresco does not support tabs or accordions that are placed inside an Advanced Accordion widget. Any content placed within these nested elements will not migrate and will be lost unless manually recreated after the move. Beyond the technical limitation, this kind of deep nesting creates a poor user experience. It makes content harder to access, increases the risk of confusion, and poses accessibility issues, particularly for mobile users and those using assistive technology. Removing or restructuring these layouts in Mosaic before migration helps protect your content and results in a cleaner, more accessible site in Fresco.  
9. Remove Sidebar Navigation (Highly Recommended) 
   • Reason: Sidebar navigation isn’t supported in Fresco and will be automatically removed during migration. This functionality was not prioritised for redevelopment in the new platform, as it was not widely used across existing sites and was not considered essential for most user journeys.  It may return in a future update, but at present, any content depending on sidebar navigation should be restructured using the available navigation options supported in Fresco. 
10. Remove Background Images (Recommended) 
    • Reason: Fresco does not currently support the use of background images. While background images used in Mosaic will be migrated into Fresco’s Media Library (meaning they won’t be lost), they will no longer appear as background visuals on your site. Any pages or components relying on background images for visual impact or layout will display without them. Removing these in advance avoids confusion during post-migration checks. 
    • Action: Mosaic > Edit page > Details tab > Remove background images. 

Structural Alignment 

1. Finalise Site Structure and Navigation (Recommended) 
   • Reason: Finalising your site's structure and navigation early gives you more time to gather feedback from colleagues and stakeholders before the migration begins. This helps catch structural issues or missed content areas in advance, avoids rushed decisions later, and ensures a smoother transition to Fresco. It also allows for a more refined and deliberate user experience design that’s aligned with the overall goals of your site.  
2. If applicable - Determine Public vs Internal Content (Recommended) 
   • Reason: This is an important opportunity to assess which content should be made public via Fresco and which should be internal-facing and therefore relocated to the University's new OxIntranet platform. Fresco does not support Single Sign-On (SSO) login walls, meaning all content published there is visible to the public. This is crucial to avoid exposing internal information. 
   • Action: Review and remove any content that relies on SSO restrictions if it should not be publicly visible. Although your site will not be live immediately after migration, all content will become public once published.

3. If applicable – Departments should follow the recommended shared Information Architecture (Recommended) 

   • Reason: A recommended Information Architecture (IA) has been developed to help departments and divisions structure their websites in a way that improves consistency and makes their content easier to find. It is based on a detailed review of 57 departmental sites and has been refined through workshops, traffic analysis, and user testing.

     While each site has its own identity and may require additional categories, many content types are shared across departments. Where this is the case, site owners are expected to follow standard naming conventions, for example, using “Research” rather than “Our Research” or “Latest Research”, to support usability and create a more coherent experience for users across the University.

     The recommended top-level navigation structure is: 

     • About 

     • Study 

     • Research 

     • People 

     • Get involved 

     • News & Events 

   • Action: Use the recommended IA as a starting point when structuring your site. Where content does naturally fall within the categories above, the expectation is that these naming conventions will be used.