Release notes for Magnolia CORE 5.5.6

This release introduces a completely new authoring interface, the Content Editor, with lots of white space and undisturbed flow of content. Use the content editor to write news articles, blog posts and press releases – anything that is a mix of structured form fields and free-flow composition. You can publish content directly from the editor which helps get new information out without delay.

Also in this release, developers will enjoy the new JavaScript template models and more ways to reuse configuration in light modules.

Changes for authors

New editor for easy content creation

Content Editor is a new editing interface that lets authors create content easily and publish it instantly. The new editor provides ample white space and an undisturbed flow of content. It is ideally suited for long-form content where you mix structured form fields and free-flowing composition such as news articles, blog posts, product pages and press releases.

The new Stories app provides a ready-to-use implementation of the content editor and is included in the Magnolia enterprise bundles. Customize the Stories app to suit your needs, or use it as a blueprint to create your own content editor app. The Magnolia travel demo provides sample content and pages to demonstrate the capabilities of the content editor.

Benefits:

• Easy content creation. You don't need to be a CMS expert to compose and publish content. Now you can let any type of author create rich and reusable content. Authors don't need to become experts in the tool first. Authors can focus on what they love to do: write great stories and get them out immediately. You control what content blocks are available – authors have the freedom to arrange them into a compelling story. 
• Publish before competitors. Consumers can get information from various sources today at incredible speeds. It is critical to get a breaking story out first. The first story that reaches the audience is the one that will be read. Being first in social feeds also means better acceleration and ultimately more traffic coming your way. The Stories app can bypass workflows to let authors publish content in seconds. Get the first draft out as soon as a story breaks. Keep publishing more detail and add depth as the story develops.
• Reusability and flexibility at the same time. Content management systems often ask you to choose between editing content in rigid forms and very flexible pages. Forms give you reusability while page layout gives authors flexibility to control the experience. Magnolia's Stories app is right in the middle of those poles. Authors can input the right amount of metadata and structured content to make the content reusable, while at the same time have enough freedom to craft a rich end-user experience.

CONTEDIT-111

Reclaiming workflow tasks

If a user has the publisher role, they can now reclaim a publication task that was assigned to another user. This avoids one person becoming a bottleneck in the publication workflow.

For example, if a publisher assigns a task to himself and then goes on vacation, leaving the task incomplete, another user can claim the task for himself. The absentee publisher is informed of the change in the Pulse. 

MGNLUI-4232

Changes for developers

JavaScript template models

Magnolia speaks the language of front-end developers. Now you can supply a JavaScript template model in a light module. Develop and deploy faster without the need for Java, Maven or WAR deployment.

• Front-end developers have access to rich Magnolia functionality that was previously only available in Java.
• JS models are performant and fun to work with. Changes are picked up instantly, just like any other file in a light module.
• You can simplify template scripts by moving complicated logic to template models.

See: How to work with JavaScript models

JSMODELS-1

Reusing configuration with YAML inherit and include

Your ability to reuse configuration has improved, boosting productivity for front-end development with Magnolia.

You can now reuse configuration easily with YAML !inherit and !include directives. Both inherited and included definitions can be modified and overridden. You can !include from YAML-based files and !inherit from registered definitions (such as YAML or JCR definitions).

Benefits:

• Easier to create new definitions.
• Reduces duplication of configuration which improves maintenance.
• Makes it clearer how your new definition is related to existing ones.

Use cases:

• Want to create a new dialog that is almost the same as the MTK Text & Image component? Inherit it and specify what you want to change.
• Want to create a new app that is almost the same as the Pages app? Inherit the Pages app.

!inherit

A new !inherit directive allows a YAML file to inherit any other registered definition from any source: Blossom, Java code, JCR or YAML. The result is a new definition that you can modify further. In this way, the new YAML !inherit directive is very similar to the JCR extends property.

Reference the inherited definition by its identifier.

Example: Define a new renderer json . Inherit everything from the freemarker renderer but specify a different contentType .

!inherit:freemarker
contentType: application/json

!include

The existing !include directive has been improved. Now you can override the included values. For example, a YAML file that defines an link field can be included in two different dialogs: one dialog definition modifies the required property to make the field required and another dialog that keeps the field optional.

Reference the included definition using its resource path. You can include a complete definition at the top of your new definition or a fragment at a sub-level.

Example: Define a new form. Include a tab and actions from other definitions. Modify a property.

form:
  label: lazy-component
  tabs:
    # an include within a list, here adding a complete tab
    - !include:/module-a/includes/categorization-tab.yaml
      label: Yo! 1-tab-only!
      fields:
        # modify properties of the field blackOrWhite which comes from the include
        - name: blackOrWhite
          label: Choose color
# an include within a map, here adding the actions for the root (map) item "actions"
actions: !include:/module-a/includes/common-actions.yaml
  # add another action to those which already exist from the include
  doit:
    label: Same as cancel
    class: info.magnolia.ui.admincentral.dialog.action.CancelDialogActionDefinition

• Line 6: Modify the label of the included tab.
• Lines 9 and 10: Modify the label of the blackOrWhite field from the include.
• Lines 14 to 16: Add another action to the imported actions.

With Magnolia 5.5.6 the syntax has changed slightly. The old syntax still works. When using the new version, you can modify and override the included part of the definition, see syntax versions.

See: YAML include

MAGNOLIA-6664, MAGNOLIA-7060

Known issue: MAGNOLIA-7126 - Getting issue details... STATUS

Inspecting an object's structure and content 

To get a better understanding of any object, you can use the new  cmsfn.dump  function in a template script to output an object's structure and content. By default the function looks down to the 3rd level of an object and produces the output in plain text, optionally in a simple HTML format.

Example:

${cmsfn.dump(content, 3, true)}

Improved virtual URI mappings

As a frontend developer, you can configure virtual URI mappings in a YAML definition file inside a light module folder.

Example:

class: info.magnolia.virtualuri.mapping.DefaultVirtualUriMapping
fromUri: /ee
toUri: forward:/enterprise-edition

MAGNOLIA-7016

Use placeholders to describe expected field values

Use the placeholder property to give the user a hint about what they should enter into text and link fields. For example, you can show the expected format for a phone number or give a hint about the importance of entering metadata for SEO purposes. A placeholder text can prevent input errors before they happen.

The placeholder property is available in text field and link field definitions. The property allows you to define a text (i18n compliant) to be displayed in a field before a user enters something. The earlier purpose-built PlaceholderTextFieldDefinition class is now deprecated.

form:
  tabs:
    - name: tabMain
      fields:
        - name: imgCaption
          class: info.magnolia.ui.form.field.definition.TextFieldDefinition

        - name: imgLink
          class: info.magnolia.ui.form.field.definition.LinkFieldDefinition
          targetWorkspace: dam
          appName: assets

actions:
  commit:
    class: info.magnolia.ui.admincentral.dialog.action.SaveDialogActionDefinition
  cancel:
    class: info.magnolia.ui.admincentral.dialog.action.CancelDialogActionDefinition

# Image Properties
module-foo.components.imgProperties.label=Image
module-foo.components.imgProperties.tabMain.label=Properties
module-foo.components.imgProperties.tabMain.imgCaption.label=Caption
module-foo.components.imgProperties.tabMain.imgCaption.placeholder=Enter the caption text for the image here ...
module-foo.components.imgProperties.tabMain.imgLink.label=Link
module-foo.components.imgProperties.tabMain.imgLink.placeholder=Provide a valid link to the image here ...

MGNLUI-4240, CONTEDIT-131

Relocation and expansion of LDAP module's configuration

Released almost simultaneously with Magnolia 5.5.6, version 1.9 of the LDAP Connector module is now configured under the appropriate node in /server/security/userManagers. The configuration also allows a more convenient customization of its properties.

MGNLLDAP-86, MGNLLDAP-110

Security and library updates

Others

5.5.6 changelog with all the changes.

magnolia.resources.dir=${magnolia.home}
magnolia.resources.classpath.observation.pattern=.*\\.(ftl|yaml)$

magnolia.ui.vaadin.widgetset=info.magnolia.widgetset.MagnoliaProWidgetSet

magnolia.repositories.jackrabbit.config=WEB-INF/config/repo-conf/jackrabbit-bundle-h2-search.xml

<SearchIndex>
  <!-- more params here -->

  <!-- needed to highlight the searched term -->
  <param name="supportHighlighting" value="true"/>
  <!-- custom provider for getting an HTML excerpt in a query result with rep:excerpt() -->
  <param name="excerptProviderClass" value="info.magnolia.jackrabbit.lucene.SearchHTMLExcerpt"/>
</SearchIndex>

...
 <category name="org.apache.jackrabbit">
    <priority value="WARN" />
  </category>
 <!-- Reflections library spoils logs with hundreds of harmless warnings; tries to look into native libs but none of its DefaultUrlTypes can handle them. -->
  <category name="org.reflections">
    <priority value="ERROR" />
  </category>
  <category name="com">
    <priority value="WARN" />
  </category>
...

Acknowledgments

The Magnolia team would also like to thank everyone who reported issues, contributed patches, or simply commented on issues for this release. Your continued interest helps us make Magnolia better. Special thanks go to: Marcel Boer, Marcus Büttner, Andrea Castelli, Chris Jennings, Jens Kolb and Ronald Ten Berge.