Sitefinity 6.3 Beta Released

Hi all,

We are glad to announce that Sitefinity 6.3 Beta is available for download here.

This version contains:  Custom URLs in Pages,   SEO improvements, Custom Taxonomies as filtering options in Content Widgets, Comments Notifications, improvements in Sites Sync, Ecommerce Tier Pricing, and Taxes import. Details are below.

Please, try to upgrade your project and let us know of your feedback and comments!

! Important: Note that this build is for preview purposes only and upgrades from it will not be supported.

RELEASE NOTES

Custom URLs in Pages

When editing Page Title and Properties in Backend, users can set a custom URL for the page which is independent from the page position in the hierarchy.
To illustrate:
In the following page hierarchy:
page 1
       page 2
          page 3
Automatically, the default url of page 3 is: ~/page1/page2/page3
Now, users can make the default URL of page 3 to be:  “~/anything”

 SEO improvements

• Once a page or content is published, subsequent changes to the title of page /content do not update the URL automatically.
• When there are special symbol is in the beginning or the end of page/content title, nothing is inserted in the URL. For example title “?news?” generates URL “news”
• When there is a sequence of special symbols in the title of page or content, and URL is generated, one replacement is be made for all symbols. For example: title “news???us” will generate URL “news-us”

Custom Taxonomies as filtering options in Content Widgets

Comments

Site Sync

• Implemented option to Cancel site syncing
• Improved UI for picking items waiting for sync - included filtering by taxonomies, showed parent item, enabled sorting
• Added syncing of custom fields data in built-in modules

Ecommerce

Tier pricing
Tier pricing allows store managers to set different prices depending on the quantity of the ordered product. Thus, customers can order bigger quantities at reduced price per item.
To enable this functionality, log in to Sitefinity back-end, open a product and create a tier price rule. After the changes are published, the tier price rule will take effect.

Taxes import and export
Taxes can be imported from a CSV file, thus saving the time for manual update via the Backend interface.
Note: To create a CSV import template, create a sample tax and export it to a CSV file.

Image thumbnails
Products image thumbnails allow store admins to reduce the loading time of ecommerce pages by using smaller optimized image files. The following widgets can be set to use thumbnails: Product list, Shopping cart, Shopping cart summary, Checkout, Wish list, Buy now, Orders list, and Order invoice.
To apply a thumbnail, open the respective widget designer and select the desired thumbnail to be displayed by the widget.

 We look forward to receiving your feedback!

Sitefinity Team

This is just a wishlist thing, but ANY chance of a pages SEO improvement to remove redundancies?

I find users creating pages don't even look at the urls, they just type in the titles, so you end up with things like
/ug/procomp/procomp-sessions/procomp-details
...etc etc

Where it'd be nice for it to automatically be 
/ug/procomp/sessions/details

Hi Kalina,

Thanks for making available this beta release. The custom page URLs are a really cool feature I have been waiting for since 2012. Great to see this implemented now. This is a real step forward for SEO with Sitefinity. I have tested it and will email the detailed results.

@Kali
This is just a small "bug" thing...no need to fix yet, but I added a custom taxonomy to "news" and I noticed your popup Add Field Designer (Classification) is still using the Sitefinity Skin for the RadCombo...this is being depreciated by the ajax guys right?...skin won't be in the Telerik.Web.UI skins anymore

**SIDENOTE**
I'm so happy custom classifications are now in the widget designers!  Is there any chance to get them to appear on the "Content" backend menu as well automatically...instead of the "All Classifications" link?

Steve,

On removing redundancies from URL: what we can do is run an
URL analyzer which analyzes URLs and suggest ones suitable for optimization.
Then users can edit them. I am worried that if we cut URLs automatically for
users we can never be as smart as them, and the implications are quite
significant. In the case above we need to automatically edit 3 URLs for each
page in the hierarchy.

We’ll see to remove the glitch with the Add Field Designer.

We are considering how to include all classifications in the
backend menu. However, we need to decide how to handle very long menus first,
probably by introducing columns. This can come in some of the next releases .

-Kalina

I don't think the analyzer would be necessary then...I mean they BARELY ever see the url input to change it anyway...at least I've never seen a page editor who's changed it.  They always leave it as the default bloated url.

Hi Kalina,

On the roadmap it said that there would be custom attributes in Pages, Taxonomies and Forms. I've looked for these attributes in pages, but I can't seem to find it. Is it included in the beta version (if so, where?) or will it be added in the final release?

On a small sidenote: the Project manager and license still say 6.2.5031.0 :)

Hi Rick,
The custom attributes in Pages, Taxonomies and Forms will be accessible via code and will not exist as options in the backend interface.
However, such options can be easily enabled by developers, and we will deliver documentation on how this can be done.
Regards,
Kalina

@Kali,
 ...wait...what?  Please explain.

Have you guys backtracked and aren't making a UI to add "custom fields" (I know they're stored as attributes, but same diff)

Or will the UI be in release?

on the multisite feature, created a second site, and when trying to create a page, it comes back with

To complement my previous post,
the issues mentioned are resolved if I host the beta site from IIS, the issues are only present when browsing the site from the project manager.

Hi readonlychild,
Thanks for the report. The issues were fixed and will be included in the official release.
- Kalina

FYI,
I enabled the Staging and Syncing module for the beta, and try to play with it but when I click on the "Synchronization Settings" link (

localhost/.../) it comes back with an IIS 404.0 Not Found

Hi readonlychild,
This is a bug which was fixed and will be included in the official release.

Hi Steve,
Interface for Page attributes can be easily added by developer. We will prepare instructions on how this can be done and will post it with the release.

Regards,
Kalina

@Kali
  We were told that "Custom Fields for pages" would function as fields do for the rest of the CMS.

If I add a new "CssClass" custom field on pages, then SF would be generating me a new input box to add that automatically without custom code

...I'm really just sick of custom code for everything...why has this all changed?

Hey Steve,

The feature is coming, and it's called Custom Attributes for Pages.
We're also about to produce a short tutorial video which will show how this works and how you can easily manipulate a page's content based on those attributes to (the customization possibilities for this feature are endless).

@Alon,
  I trust you, but I'm nervous about spiraling into another required custom code disaster :)  ...like needing to use thunder all the time to "fake" relate content together. 

When you say it's "coming"...in 6.3?

Steve

Yes, (coming == 6.3) = true;
As for the custom code, it depends on your needs alone. Adding custom attributes is done by configuration changes, no code required at all. Setting the attributes' values is also through the UI.
From that point on, you have a custom descriptor attached to the page (persisted and cached on the PageNode), based on which  you can manipulate the page (e.g. subscribe to a page-related event, and inject any manipulation based on the attribute value.

return (nocode == true) ? "Awesome" :"Boo-urns"

Okay so lets say what I'm trying to do is allow the user to assign a sf image to a page so that the menu renders that node with an image.

...I'm thinking there won't be a media selector in the UI?....or WILL THERE!? :)

Hi,

I urge the need for a Media Selector and Page Selector in Static Content Modules and Dynamic Modules.

Today I'm 'wrestling' again with implementing a good looking, solid solution for my customers to select Image(s) and Page(s) with News, Blog and List Items...

Daniel.

Hi Daniel,
this ability to link to other content items/pages will be included in our next 7.0 release.
When we have the wireframes and specifications for that, we will post them here in the forum (early next year).
Best,
Kalina

Hi Kali,

Would it be possible to deliver a PageSelector / ImageSelector for the community until that release comes out?

What I need, and probably others too is:

- PageSelector that stores one or more pages in a Guid[], but shows the Title of the pages (like taxonomies)
- ImageSelector that stores one or more images in a Guid[], but shows the Title of the images (same for Documents and Video's)
- It should be possible to also 'delete' the selected images
- The selectors should work in a multilingual environment

Thanks,
Daniel

Hi Steve,
this is a video demonstrating the Page attributes feature:
www.youtube.com/watch

Let us know if you have questions.
Best,
Kalina

I haven't checked the preview but I didn't see anything about a Multi-Site migration tool to migrate content from a single site to a multi-site instance.  We were told about the possibility of this feature being out with 6.3.  Has this been nixed in this version?

Hi Brett, 
Unfortunately, the feature you inquire about will some time to implement. It is tentatively planned for release sometime next year. We are currently surveying clients, asking them about the expected functionality. Our rep will get in touch with you with more detailed questions.
Regards,
Kalina