Sitefinity 4.0 BETA2 is now available

Sitefinity 4.0 BETA2 is now available

Posted on September 27, 2010 0 Comments

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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

Microsoft .NET 4.0 Following in the footsteps of the Sitefinity 3.7 SP4 release, Sitefinity 4.0 BETA2 now fully supports .NET 4.0.  Or, more accurately, Sitefinity 4.0 BETA2 exclusively supports .NET 4.0.  We are not planning to support .NET 2.0 or .NET 3.5 in future versions of Sitefinity 4.0.   Standardizing on .NET 4.0 allows Sitefinity 4.0 to utilize.a variety of superior technologies (Workflow Foundation 4.0, dynamic types, code contracts, etc.) that are only available in .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:

Using taxonomy to display select content in Sitefinity 4.0

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.

Web analytics in Sitefinity 4.0

Scheduling support

All content items (images, documents, news, events) can now be scheduled to be published and expire on a specific data & time.

 Content scheduling in Sitefinity 4.0

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.

Versioning for images & documents in Sitefinity 4.0

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.

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The Progress Team

View all posts from The Progress Team on the Progress blog. Connect with us about all things application development and deployment, data integration and digital business.

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