Sitefinity 4.0 Webinar Questions – Round 2

Sitefinity 4.0 Webinar Questions – Round 2

Posted on August 05, 2010 0 Comments

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Another round of questions & answers from the Sitefinity 4.0 BETA webinar.  It’s really hard to organize these questions and answers into a reasonable format.  Hopefully you are getting some value from this.  From my perspective, it feels like stream of consciousness.  Sorry if this is a bad format.  We’re trying to address these questions in the midst video production, documentation creation and polishing the BETA.

I should have another round of answers tomorrow. 

Questions about the Form Builder

Q:  Can the forms responses have permission level visibility?

Yes, this is in our plans. It will be released after the BETA.

Q: If you delete a form, does it delete the table?

No.

Q: Can I configure where and how this form get sent?

Yes. you will be able to configure where a form is sent. This will be done after BETA.

Q: Can forms be styled fully through CSS?

EVERYTHING in Sitefinity 4.0 is driven by templates and styles.  You are free to override these templates and styles to modify how content is displayed.

Q: Any validation on forms - example email address?

Sitefinity 4.0 will include plenty of pre-created validation rules.  You will also be able to create your own custom validation rules as well.  This is not yet available in the BETA.

Q: Can Captcha be included into forms?

This is planned for the Sitefinity 4.0 RC release.  It will not be included in the BETA.

Q: Can forms be sent through e-mail as well?

Yes, but this feature does not exist in the BETA.  This will be possible with the RC.

Q: Can you have attachments on a form?

This will be done in some of the next releases.

Q: Can you export the [form] responses?

Yes.  Responses can be exported in excel format.

Q: New table per form, wouldn’t that bloat the database?

No.  It’s far easier for databases to deal with multiple tables than deal with a single table that is choked full of generic data.  Queries run against tables do not need to filter unrelated data.  This makes everything perform better.

Q: Can actions be taken as a result of form submission (i.e. an email, a workflow trigger etc)?

Yes, this is planned for after BETA.

Q: Do forms use a generic common table to store data or will it be creating new tables\fields as it goes?

Telerik’s OpenAccess ORM has the ability to generate new tables & columns at runtime.  Consequently, Sitefinity will create tables & columns as needed.

Q: Can custom widgets' properties be configured to be something different than a textbox.  Perhaps a select box, image, or multi line text box, etc?

All of these are supported by Sitefinity 4.0’s form builder.

Questions about everything

Q: I was told that Multiple domain is supported with single SF instance in 4.0? can you show it later?

It is supported, however I was unable to show this during the webinar.

Q: Currently user controls needs to show in edit dashboard, it needs to be added in web.config, I was told that it was made simpler in 4.0.

Yes, custom controls (widgets) are now added to Sitefinity through a web-based configuration editor. 

Q: Can User controls easily plugged in without web.config changes?

Yes, use Sitefinity’s new web-based configuration editor.

Q: Any changes in workflow?

Lots of changes, although workflow is not in the BETA release.  Workflow will be delivered with Sitefinity 4.0 RC and we will fully support Windows Workflow 4.0.

Q: Will the Beta upgrade cleanly to RC and the release when they come out?

The BETA should upgrade cleanly to the RC and the official release.

Q: Does rollback create a new version or delete all back to there?

Rollback creates a new version.  Content is never removed.  With Sitefinity 4.0 it will be possible to rollback and roll-forward.

Q: How does 4 handle deleting stuff (pages?) over 3.x ....can a user delete an entire tree still?

Using the bulk edit operations in Sitefinity, it will be easy to bulk delete or modify groups of pages.
Permissions can be used to restrict deletion of pages to some users only.

Q: Is page editing working?

Yes.

Q: Can SF4 be used for multiple top-level domains?

Yes, although additional licenses might be required.

Q: Will all 3.7 modules be available in 4.0 Final?

No.  At the time of release, Sitefinity 4.0 will not contain the following modules:  Wiki, Newsletter.  These missing modules will be re-added in the months after Sitefinity 4.0’s release.

Q: Can localization be enabled for the CMS and NOT for the website itself?

I assume you mean enabling different set of languages for the backend and for the front end.
Yes, this will be possible. The implementation of localization is scheduled for RC Release.

Q: Can permissions for users be set per album?

Yes.  Permissions in Sitefinity are very granular.  Permissions can be attached to any album, item or property.  (Permissions for properties are currently not implemented by Sitefinity’s UI.  However, these permissions can be configured through the API.)

Q: Can images still be moved between albums?.

Yes.

Q: Please have a peek at localization!!!!!!

Page localization does not exist in the Sitefinity 4.0 BETA.  This feature will exist in the RC.   You can however examine localization of Sitefinity labels in the CTP and BETA.  This is done through Sitefinity’s Label & Message editor.

Q: I was curious if the Beta would include any tools for upgrading from 3.x?

This question was answered in Round 1.   Short-answer, no.  These tools will be delivered as soon as possible.

Q: Ivan, is a copy of your Fluent API PowerPoint presentation available to us?

Yes, you can find it here.

Q: We need to create a new web site that includes lots of content . Each piece of content needs to be categorized or tagged using multiple categorization schemes. We’d like more information on Facet Taxonomy and there is very little information on the Sitefinity site. When/how could we find out more? 

Documentation on taxonomies will be released with BETA. Please, review the developer manual for more details. We will be adding topics on a weekly basic. Let us know if there is anything you are missing.

Q: Is granular document security part of the 4.0 BETA?

Yes, permissions are very granular.  You can attach permissions to individual documents in Sitefinity 4.0.

Q: Have there been any improvements to the Wiki module?

No.  This module won’t exist with the Sitefinity 4.0 release.  It will be re-released in the months after the official release.  Suggestions for improvements are welcome. – More details can be found in Round 1.

Q: Are the services embedded in WCF and do they require that site be "alive" to call?

Not sure if I understand you correctly, but if you are asking whether the RESTful services are implemented with WCF - yes. And the application must be running so that the service calls can be served.

Q: Has the message forums been dramatically improved?

Forums are not included in the BETA.  Forums are planned for the Sitefinity 4.0 though.  The new forums module will be based on the Telerik.com forums.  These forums will include support for profiles, gravatars, notification, etc.

Q: Will the slide decks be available online for our us to view after the webinar?

Yes, please go here.

Q: Will the forums module come back? There used to be talk that the existing forum on telerik.com would be available in 4.0 ...

This is still planned.  We’re hoping to deliver the forums module with the Sitefinity 4.0 official release.

Q: Can we implement directory security based on existing ASP.NET membership tables while having SF login and roles tied to the Telerik tables?

Yes.

Q: So Generic Content item fields are no longer configured in the web.config?

Correct.  All configurations are handled through Sitefinity’s web-based configuration editor. 

Q: Does 4.0 include a staging and production instance? Meaning that your production site lives on another web server than the staging area.

With the BETA, this process is still handled manually (you much handle migration of files & date).   However, we do plan to address this topic.  I do not have details about which release we’re targeting however.

Q: What ASP.NET runtime are you using? 3.5 or 4.0?

3.5 in the BETA.  4.0 for the upcoming RC.

Q: Documents: we have many in current Library module with extended fields.  Will there be conversion or will we have to redo all these in SF 4.0?

There will be some conversation supported out of the box but you might need to implement custom logic for the customizations.

Q: Why won't there be a community edition?

A community edition will exist for Sitefinity 4.0.  However, the features and license will be changing.  More details will be announced with the RC.

Q: Question - When editing a page, we want to have a widget that separates the content from the presentation of the widget, I know we can add properties to do that.  With 4.0 are we able to define the field type of each property so that they're more than text fields?

More clarification is needed. You might try to achieve that with the widgets in Beta, and let us know if you encounter any problems.

Q: Will Groups be available in Sitefinity 4? I would like to make 100 users a member of a role. For a school moving users from the 3rd grade group to 4th Grade group would make this easy

Bulk edit operations are available in Sitefinity 4.0.  This feature would make quick work of this move.

Q: Are custom dashboards going to be available (example Personalization provider and web parts)

Yes, in the official release.

Q: Have you guys already talked about whether User Groups have been added?

Sitefinity 4.0 supports roles.  Roles offer the same functionality as groups.

Q: Can users be grouped, and can groups be placed in a role?

I’m confused.  How are groups different than roles.  It seems like semantics to me.  Please provide more details about your use case.

Q: What about combined permissions, like someone must be in the 4th Grade Role and Teachers Role??

You can associate one user to more than one role.

Q:  Is there any improvement in Search index especially for Generic Content

This feature is still in progress. Improvements are planned.

Q: Are there any improvement in WYSWYG editor available in Sitefinity for HTML contents... as current (3.7) is not SEO friendly especially generate own garbage code

We are using the latest version of RadEditor.

Q: Is it a completely new dashboard?

Dashboard doesn’t currently exist in the BETA.  The dashboard will be implemented with the RC and it will be completely new.

Q: I don't have vs2010 only vs2008, do I need 2010 with the new SF upgrade

No.  Sitefinity 4.0 will work fine with Visual Studio 2008.

Q:  Will this work the same way from a multi-language concept

We are planning to compare versions in the same language.

Compliments, Apologies and Pronunciation

Q: Editorial comment from a current Sitefinity Standard Edition customer: our company has been consistently impressed and delighted with Sitefinity 3.x and with your superb tech support. We look forward to using 4.0, too!

Thank you.  :)  These compliments mean a lot.

Q: Armysniper here...:) Ivan you guys at SiteFinity rock. You guys are a consultant's best friend. I have new projects coming in all the time that fit for SiteFinty and not others. Your support is the best on the planet and a model for other companies. Tell the guys in Sofia they are the best!

Again, thank you.  An army sniper is definitely a person we want to keep happy.  :)

Q: Incredible, great decision on the Fluent API

Thank you.

Q: Thank you both so much for providing us with the webinar - Sitefinity keeps getting better & better!

Thank you.

Q: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Facade (click on the pronounce button to hear it. :)

:)  If only my Bulgarian (and Croatian) were as good as Ivan Osmak’s English.  Then I would know what the Sitefinity team is saying behind my back  :)

Q: No worries so much about the accent, the world is diverse, we need to attune our ears more too

:)

Q: 4 question, no answer :(

Sorry.  Hopefully you’re getting answers now.  As mentioned, we had a lot of questions.

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