Sitefinity – This is what you missed in September 2011

September was a very busy month.  Even being on the inside the news and information has flown faster than I can digest.  If I’m overwhelmed, then I’m guessing everyone else is too.  Below I’ve summarized the highlights from this past month.

Major Highlights

• Sitefinity 4.2 SP1 was released – This release includes fixes to 90 issues, performance improvements and a handful of new features.
• Design contest concluded – Our contest for new design submissions has concluded.  As a result, everyone wins with lots of new marketplace designs.
• New Roadmap published – This roadmap brings us through the end of 2011.
• A/B Testing Whitepaper – This paper serves as a nice introduction to this topic.

Team Posts

Must read:

• Anatomy of a Sitefinity 4 Widget
• Creating Advanced Sitefinity 4 Widget Control Designers
• How to Publish Content Items in the Past
• How to use jQuery and other JavaScript Libraries in Sitefinity
• Windows Azure: What You Need to Know About the July/September Upgrades and Sitefinity

Other great posts:

• 404 and custom Parameters
• Adding a new Content Type to Search
• Avoiding uneditable content in your Sitefinity Templates
• Bringing Responsive Web Design to Sitefinity CMS
• Edit content in full-screen with Sitefinity CMS
• Extend the Image Selector for Content Items with Filtering by Album
• How to style the Sitefinity Navigation Widget
• My 3 favorite customizations to Sitefinity’s Rich Text Editor

Community Posts

These are the recent resources that I spotted via Twitter, my email or Google Alerts:

• Sitefinity 4 Control Templates – Michael Russell is bringing WebEditors back.
• Sitefinity 4 custom password strength logic
• Anonymous checkout in Sitefinity eCommerce
• Finding the turbo switch in Sitefinity development
• Positioning in Sitefinity 4 – Layout tips from Steve McNiven-Scott
• Falafel.TV – Lots of incredible Sitefinity training videos.

If I missed something, I apologize.  Never hesitate to email me (sumner@telerik.com) and tell me if I’m missing or neglecting something.  We’re always happy to see constructive informative contributions.

On the horizon

• Visiting Telerik HQ – Josh Morales & I are visiting Telerik HQ in Bulgaria during the DevReach conference.  I’ll take pictures.  It’s been a full year since my last visit and we’ve grown a lot.  I’m looking forward to putting faces to names.
• Sitefinity 4.3 – Our release schedule for the remainder of 2011 is exhausting.  Check our roadmap to see the enhancements that are still coming this year. 
• Educause – This is our first time attending this conference and, sadly, I’ll miss it while I’m in Bulgaria.  However, my colleagues Christopher Park and Stanislav Padarev will be attending and representing Sitefinity.  If you’re attending, be sure to say “Hi”.
• Redesigned Sitefinity.com – We’re in the midst of redesigning Sitefinity.com to create a better user experience.  I’ll release more details as we get closer to launch.
• Academic pricing – These details will be announced soon, but this is currently being hatched behind the scenes.