This handbook is for the Drupal 7 Drupal Express distribution. At this time, it has no relevance to the Drupal 8 Drupal Express installation available through OIT Web Hosting.
This handbook is still relevant to existing Drupal Express based Drupal 7 sites. However, developers are strongly encouraged to build any new sites on Drupal 8 or an alternative Content Management System, as support for Drupal 7 will end in November of 2022.
It should be noted that there are no plans to provide a migration path for the Drupal Express super blocks and custom content types (Multipurpose Pages, Horizontal Landing Pages, and Vertical Landing Pages) to Drupal 8. So, if you should still choose to build on Drupal 7 Drupal Express, avoid those content types and use only Basic pages to make your future Drupal 8 migration easier.
If you can convince your stakeholder(s) to forgo a carousel, that is always the best option, as a static hero image is much easier to implement on the front page of a Drupal site and can be just as effective (if not more). If freshness of the front page is a concern, the hero image can always be swapped out manually on a regular basis.
You can no longer request Drupal 7 Drupal Express sites from OIT. All new Drupal Express sites will be built on Drupal 8. (This handbook only applies to the older Drupal 7 version of Drupal Express.)
The following pages explain how to install and set up an instance of Drupal Express: