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Fresh Release: dotCMS 3.1

John Scudder

Fresh and just out of the development kitchen, dotCMS 3.1 is now available and ready to go. There are a number of powerful new features to look for in this update and they'll be particularly helpful in designing more dynamic and compelling user experiences (UX). Here's what's on the menu with dotCMS 3.1:

Pages-as-Content - allows you to extend dotCMS content concepts to pages; including custom Page types, different versions for different language and the ability to create custom attributes per HTML page. Pages are also able to be used in queries and searchable like other content types in the dotCMS Authoring Environment. Also added with this feature is the ability for pages to have any extension i.e., .html, .json, .dot, or even have no extension at all.

Since Pages are handled as content, Custom Workflows can work with HTML Pages and you can include "whole pages" in a workflow. This capability will help user experience designers use dotCMS custom workflows more effectively and efficiently, with less code.

DotCMS has always performed well in multilingual site development and now (since pages are "content") multilingual site management can be made even easier since the same page can have variants for different languages. This means, if you choose to do so, you can have one template for your site in French and another template for your site in English and can still toggle languages on a page by page basis. It's some added efficiency for those managing multilingual sites and apps or for those wanting to deliver more personalized experiences.

Finally, by popular demand, based on your feedback, Pages can be added to the root of a website (host). Previous versions would allow files only. Now you could eliminate the "home" folder for example.

UTF-8 URL Support - Furthering new capabilities, dotCMS 3.1 now includes support for UTF-8 encoding in URLs - an important addition for your I18N efforts and powerful for hyper-local marketing and personalization.

Elasticsearch - Enhancements have been made to Elasticsearch in dotCMS. Elasticsearch libraries have been upgraded and enhanced for improved indexing and performance. dotCMS now includes an enhanced Elasticsearch Query Tool that provides a RESTful api that allows you to run native Elasticsearch queries. DotCMS content is now enabled out of the box with Geolocation, Facets and "Did you mean?" suggestions, giving you more content pulling power, and allowing you to provide better UX for your users by personalizing their results.

For front-end developers, dotCMS 3.1 includes a new Elasticsearch Portlet too. - Admin > ES Portlet. The Portlet allows developers to tune and create queries to build better user experiences with Search. You can see a working example of Elasticsearch using Geolocation on the dotCMS Starter Site.

NOTE: The new Elasticsearch features are available with the dotCMS Enterprise Edition only.

Keeping it Fresh

If you are running the dotCMS 3.x series you can use the Autoupdater to upgrade to the new features of 3.1. Remember, 2.x series users need to manually upgrade for the major version upgrade from 2.x to 3.x. Check the blog: A Square Look at What's New in dotCMS 3.0 for links and resources about 3.x. If you need help or have questions about upgrading your system, just give us a call. We'll be happy to hear from you.

Clearly, those that upgrade to dotCMS 3.1 will be getting some key features that bring more power and creativity in delivering dynamic, content driven user experiences across devices and platforms. Get the freshest dotCMS available. Download the dotCMS 3.1 update today.

Helpful Links:

John Scudder
Marketing Strategist
March 16, 2015

Filed Under:

dotcms 3.1

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