[nickmoreton]

TWE-728: Quarterly maintenance: Wagtail 7.4 → 8.0

Component	Before	After
Wagtail	7.4	8.0
Django	5.2.14	5.2.18
Python	3.13	3.13 (no change)
Node	24	24 (no change)
Debian	trixie	trixie (no change)

Stacked PR: #470 Python 3.13 -> 3.14

Wagtail 8.0 release notes

• The construct_wagtail_userbar hook now receives a third argument page in addition to request and items; hook functions that only accept two arguments will now fail.
• The JavaScript functions buildExpandingFormset and initPrefillTitleFromFilename are removed.
• The settings TAG_LIMIT and TAG_SPACES_ALLOWED are replaced by WAGTAIL_TAG_LIMIT and WAGTAIL_TAG_SPACES_ALLOWED.
• Custom listing views using the template wagtailadmin/generic/index.html must now provide a breadcrumbs_items context variable.
• The template wagtailadmin/pages/_editor_js.html is removed.
• The PageListingButton, SnippetListingButton and UserListingButton classes are removed in favour of ListingButton and Button.
• The function wagtail.admin.signals.init_new_page is moved to wagtail.signals.init_new_page.
• The module wagtail.telepath is moved to wagtail.admin.telepath.
• The module wagtail.widget_adapters is moved to wagtail.admin.telepath.widgets.
• The JavaScript include wagtailadmin/js/telepath/telepath.js is removed.
• The INDEX option on WAGTAILSEARCH_BACKENDS is replaced by INDEX_PREFIX (for example, "INDEX": "mysite" now becomes "INDEX_PREFIX": "mysite_").
• Userbar items now follow the template component API and do not provide a render method.
• The resetValue property is removed from TeleportController.
• Wagtail 6.4 release notes
• Wagtail 7.0 release notes
• Wagtail 7.1 release notes
• Wagtail 7.2 release notes
• Wagtail 7.3 release notes
• AVIF and WebP images are no longer converted to PNG by default
• Support for legacy versions of azure-mgmt-cdn, azure-mgmt-frontdoor, and azure-mgmt-resource packages will be dropped
• Support for custom base page models in add-on packages
• Custom permission policy in viewsets must be registered separately
• SnippetChooserViewSet.widget_class is now a class
• ViewSet.menu_order is now respected when used in a ViewSetGroup
• Setting submissions_list_view_class on form page models no longer works
• request argument to Page._get_site_root_paths is now cache_object

Changes made

• Platform upgrade — confirmed no-op: Python 3.13, Node 24, Debian trixie were already current (green Docker build, 141 tests OK)
• Wagtail 7.4 → 8.0, Django 5.2.14 → 5.2.17
• Node dependencies refreshed (includes a Tailwind patch bump, IE11-drop cleanup, new typescript hold)
• Completed a previously-partial Tailwind v4 migration (tailwindcss was already ^4.3.0 on main; this finishes the remaining catalogue items — stylelint override for v4 at-rules, @config fallback documented)
• Trivy vulnerability triage (0 findings)

Requires manual attention

• wagtail-upgrade-audit 0.19.2 has no wagtail80 ruleset yet — its bundled definitions top out at wagtail74, so the Wagtail 8.0 audit could not run its automated checks against the new target. A genuine, demonstrated tool-coverage gap (confirmed by inspecting the tool install and attempting an upgrade), not a skipped step.
• IE11 support was presumptively dropped as part of the Node bump (browserslist ie 11/not ie_mob 11, the closest/foreach polyfills, the svgo IE11 override, tsconfig target es5→es2016) — object if this project is actually on the paid legacy-browser tier.
• Untested JS entry point after the Node bump: .eslintrc.js — no reachable live surface to ground; needs at least a happy-path check.
• Pending toolchain migrations declined this cycle at the approval gate: Poetry → uv, npm → pnpm (ESLint → Biome is blocked on npm → pnpm). Available to stack on a future run.
• ruff pre-commit hook held back at v0.15.15 (poetry-managed ruff is now ~0.16, locked at 0.16.5) — bumping the hook to match surfaced 459 new lint findings across the codebase (dominated by RUF012 firing on idiomatic Wagtail/Django patterns), traced to a ruff 0.16 default rule-selection change (a bare ruff check with no explicit select now enables nearly every rule category, vs. just E and F on 0.15.15). Needs its own dedicated piece of work — deliberately deferred, not fixed here.

Testing

All sub-MRs green. Platform: confirmed no-op via a green Docker build and full test run (141 tests, OK, 2 skipped). Python bump (#452): two-commit split for the Wagtail MAJOR, wagtail-upgrade-audit run (see attention item above), full test suite green twice (once per commit), CI green via gh pr checks (compile_static, lint, test_js, test_python all pass) — used as the certification substitute since tbx-support mr pipeline does not support GitHub. Node bump (#453): CI green via gh pr checks (all 4 jobs pass). Tailwind v4 migration cleanup (#454): build/lint/test green locally and in CI. Trivy scan (#455): 0 findings; its diff is docs-only so no CI workflow triggered (paths-ignore: ["docs/**"]) — confirmed structurally, not a red or stuck pipeline.

Visual QA attestation: the Node bump's gate reported an outstanding Tailwind v4 completing migration (tailwindcss was already ^4.3.0 on main; this cycle finished the remaining catalogue items and bumped the patch version to ^4.3.3), which triggers the same post-integration visual-QA gate as a full MAJOR crossing — so it was run against the fully assembled integration branch regardless. Nick Moreton (nick.moreton@torchbox.com) confirmed on 2026-09-01 against an ephemeral environment (compose project tbx-standup-2d9df799, http://localhost:32770/) — homepage, pattern library, and dark/light mode toggle all rendered correctly. The environment was torn down after confirmation.

[damwaingames]

I made a commit cleaning up upgrading.md and also completing the tailwind 4 work properly. You may want to double check it.