Sitefinity 13.0 Beta Announced

Posted by idimitrov on 16-Mar-2020 16:15

Sitefinity 13.0 BETA Guide

Welcome to Sitefinity CMS 13.0 Beta

Dear Sitefinity CMS customers and partners! We are excited to invite you to the Sitefinity CMS 13.0 Beta program. The Beta program is expected to continue from Mar 16 through at least Apr 10. We are looking forward to working with you to help you test drive the Beta version in your environments and get comprehensive feedback on this latest Sitefinity update. At the end of the Beta period, we'd also like to discuss with you the possibility of contributing a quote for our Sitefinity 13 official press release.

Below you will find the details about what is included in this Beta release, how to obtain the Beta software, and how to communicate with us in case you encounter any issues or have any recommendations. 

What's new in v13

Reinvented Digital asset management (Images)

We redesigned the  Images  module, and it now uses the new interface. We have retained all existing capabilities of the module, and also developed a number of new features and improvements. You can work with all existing capabilities of the module that you are already familiar with, plus a variety of new features and capabilities. Using the new Timeline view, you can browse all images, or, in case you cannot find what you are looking for, benefit from the improved search and filtering capabilities that work in all folders and libraries. You can make sure you are selecting the image you need with the help of the enhanced preview options and larger thumbnails.

 What to focus on:

  • New views and previews of images
  • Search and filter across all folders and libraries
  • Improved reordering experience

Note: There are some improvements which are still in development and not included in this BETA, such as navigation between libraries, replace file and bulk actions.

Learn more...

images-timeline-view

Reinvented Classification management

We redesigned the  Classification  module, and it now uses the new interface. We have retained all existing capabilities of the module, and also developed a number of new features and improvements. You can work with all existing capabilities of the module that you are already familiar with, plus a variety of new features and capabilities. With the new interface, you will benefit from a simplified UI for managing a large number of items tagged, using the new merge and move capabilities. Working with a large number of taxonomies will be much easier now with the ability to sort by most or least used, as well as by filtering tags by letter.

What to focus on:

  • Simplified interface for managing of tags and categories
  • New features like merge tags
  • New order and filter options

Learn more...

categories-grid

Redesigned personalization setup

Personalization in Sitefinity allows you to segment your audience and deliver personalized content or experience to each user depending on their matching segment.
For v13, we improved and streamlined the dialogs to create user segments. All characteristics (criteria), grouped in categories, are now available through a single drop down. A mapping of a criterion to a category is defined in the Advanced settings, Administration > Settings > Advanced > Personalization section. If you have custom personalization criteria, they will be displayed in category Other by default, and then you can specify a desired category name for them in the same section. The Search characteristic is now deprecated as we can no longer get the necessary data from the public search engines.

What to focus on:

  • The updated flow of creating a segment
  • Consistency of display of existing segments if upgrading from an older version
  • Managing custom criteria for add-on connectors (e.g. Pardot from the Sitefinity Marketplace) or custom implementations

Please note that we are expecting to release a completely redesigned personalization report in DEC in time for v13 GA release but it is not yet available for the Beta.

Learn more...

dec-characteristic-redesign

Personalization segments based on DEC contact properties

You can now create user segments in Sitefinity CMS that are based on DEC contact properties.
This allows  more choices in and a more scalable implementation of personalization for sites connected to DEC.

What to focus on:

  • Availability of all contact properties defined in your DEC datacenter for personalization

Learn more...

contact-properties

Indication when content has been (Site)synced

We have been putting effort to extend and enhance SiteSync to enable more flexible use by content editors. In previous releases, we introduced a new capability for content editors to sync content directly from the page/content edit screen. A missing piece that has been requested by our customers is the "evidence" ! How to make sure that the content has been really promoted?
With v13 release, we are introducing an additional column on each page or content item's revision history showing whether a particular page or content has been promoted, when, where, and which version.

Instructions:

  • Prerequisites:
    • SiteSync is configured to connect a source and a target environments 
    • At least one content item or page in a source environment
  1. Open page/content item for editing and make some changes
  2. Sync the edited page/content item
  3. Open the revision history to check the timestamp of the sync

Learn more...

revision-history

Support for Keyboard shortcuts

We have introduced new keyboard shortcuts to speed up the most commonly used tasks.
In the 13.0 Beta, in addition to the standard shortcut keys, you can use list action shortcut key combinations.

Learn more...

Simplified connection between Sitefinity CMS and Sitefinity DEC

We simplified the way to set up the connection between Sitefinity CMS and Sitefinity DEC. You will experience this directly if you are connecting your Sitefinity Beta with a DEC instance. Everything you need to do now is to provide the Sitefinity DEC Access key, and Sitefinity CMS automatically configures the access to the correct data center. Click the link for the specific steps.

Learn more... 

Expose an easy way for users to retrieve an access token from the DEC connector

We simplified the way you authorize your custom code to work with Sitefinity DEC API. We simplified the API, and the Sitefinity DEC connector automatically takes care of token expiration, renewal, and caching.

Learn more...

Other changes

Support for SharePoint 2019 Server

You can now create connections and configure synchronization between Sitefinity CMS and SharePoint sites using SharePoint 2019 Server. 

Developer Tools updates - JQuery

The jQuery library that is bundled with Sitefinity CMS has been updated to the latest jQuery version 3.4.1 from version 1.12.1 and includes the latest stability and securities fixes.
If you use the Sitefinity CMS built-in library in your custom JavaScript code, you may need to migrate your code to the newly referenced version. To see a summary of all breaking changes, visit the official jQuery upgrade guide.

The Sitefinity DEC JavaScript SDK does not depend on the jQuery library anymore. This change could speed up your site because it enables you to stop distributing jQuery.

What's improved

Long-running operations, which were previously executed in a single request, are now performed in a scheduled task named Duplicate site and Reindex.

How do I get the Beta release?

Only current Sitefinity CMS customers with active maintenance and registered Sitefinity partners are eligible to participate in the Beta program. Sitefinity CMS 13.0 Beta is provided to customers via their customer accounts. To obtain the Beta installation, login to Your Account and click on Downloads → Sitefinity CMS. Switch to the Betas tab, where you can find the download link to the Sitefinity CMS installer and the Beta license file, valid for 30 days.  

When you install the Beta version, as usual, you need to accept the Terms and Conditions for the Beta program as a click-through agreement. We do not recommend updating your production environment to the Beta release, as we will not support version upgrades from the Beta versions. However, you can certainly use our Export/Import option to recreate a version of your site for working with the Beta version. 

If you are using NuGet, NuGet packages are available on http://nuget.sitefinity.com/ (use pre-release tag)  and the package name is 13.0.7250.0-beta . For this case, please contact us for a Beta license at  sitefinitybeta@progress.com

How do I communicate with the Sitefinity team regarding Beta? 

We have set up a dedicated email alias,  sitefinitybeta@progress.com , for all Beta users to directly contact the Sitefinity product team regarding Sitefinity CMS 13.0 Beta topics. We will respond to every single email.   Also, please feel free to initiate threads in the Progress Sitefinity community group on community.progress.com as well as the Progress community Feature Preview and Betas group for broader discussions concerning the Beta program. We will monitor these forums.

What do we expect from Beta participants?

The Sitefinity team is very grateful to all participants who will dedicate their time to help us validate our new release. This is a feature-rich release, and it will be impossible for Beta users to examine all the new features and updates. Therefore, we recommend that you focus on those (few) that are most applicable to your current or anticipated usage of Sitefinity CMS. We have been in contact with a good number of customers and partners to review the features in the design phase, and we expect these users to focus on the features that we have discussed, as that fits their context best. 

It would be ideal if you, as a Beta user, prepare a Beta report at the end of the Beta period. This will inform us which new features you evaluated, whether everything worked in accordance with your expectations, and whether you have any further suggestions regarding the features. In any case, should you need to communicate anything to us as the Beta program goes on, please use the Beta program email. 

We also intend to send a Beta survey at the completion of this Beta program to all of you who downloaded the Beta. Thus, you can provide us with any valuable feedback, comments, and suggestions about the Beta features at the end of the program through the survey. 

Regards, 

Progress Sitefinity Team

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