The next pre-release version of Sitefinity 4.0 has now been posted. Earlier today, the Sitefinity team uploaded the BETA2 build of Sitefinity 4.0. This new pre-release version includes a lot more polish, support for .NET 4.0 and new features. The BETA2 can be downloaded, by everyone, in the downloads section.
Below I’ve detailed a few of the highlights found in this latest release.
Support for .NET 4.0
Filter content by taxonomy (tags, categories)
In past release builds of Sitefinity 4.0 we’ve shown Sitefinity’s powerful taxonomy engine. Taxonomy is the process of categorizing, classifying & tagging content. Once content has been classified, it’s possible to use these classifications to make content more discoverable.
Past releases of Sitefinity 4.0 have allowed content to be classified using categories & tags. However, the BETA2 begins to demonstrate how these classification can be utilized to display content. Using the BETA2, content widgets (news, events, blogs, etc.) now allow items to be filtered based on taxonomy and dates:
More drill-down reports for web analytics
Dozens of new drill-down reports have now been added to the Sitefinity Analytics Module. In addition, the analytics module is using the latest version of RadControls for Silverlight.
Scheduling support
All content items (images, documents, news, events) can now be scheduled to be published and expire on a specific data & time.
Versioning for images & documents
Uploaded files (images & documents) are now versioned by default. Changes to these files can be rolled forward or back quickly & easily.
Lots of additional polish
Over the past several weeks, I’ve done a lot of personal testing with various templates & customizations. Like many of you, I’ve discovered a few early bugs with the BETA. The BETA2 addresses a huge number of these issues. Please keep exploring and be sure to report your experiences.
Release Notes
Below I’ve posted the full release note:
What’s New
- .Net 4.0 framework support
Note: Support for .Net 3.5 will be discontinued because Sitefinity 4.0 relies heavily on.Net 4.0 features such as: Workflow Foundation 4.0 rule engine, dynamic types, code contracts, WCF improvements, Medium trust support of the Virtual Path Provider, etc. - Content - Implemented Scheduling
- Content Widgets (Blogs, News, Events, etc.)
- Enabled filtering by categories, tags, specific blogs, date ranges
- Extended URL Evaluators work in two modes - UrlPath and QueryString
- Content Editor
- Implemented "Insert a document" option
- Implemented "Insert a video" option
- Configurations - Added option to configure the time zone (all dates are stored in UTC format)
- Page locking/unlocking – Improvements
- Navigation Control - Implemented "Custom selection of pages"
- Comments - Implemented Settings per module, Captcha
- Forms
- Added Limitations settings per form field
- Added export to CSV for form entries
- Added options to edit and add new entries in administration
- Implemented lifecycle
- Documents
- Enabled Versioning
- Videos
- Enabled Versioning
- Session expiration results in pop up screen
- Analytics
- Added drill down capabilities for each report
- Added sorting and paging in the grids
- Added encryption to the GoogleAnalyticsProviderConfiguration.config file
- RadControls for Silverlight are updated to Q2 SP1 release
- The map report now has multiple layers for showing countries, regions and cities.
- Fluent API
- Added Content life cycle
What’s Fixed
- Many fixes in content, pages, forms and feeds
Your feedback is welcome!
The purpose of these early releases is to solicit feedback from the community. Please download the BETA2 release and give us your impressions in the Sitefinity forums.