OpenCms 10.5 Beta available

September 26, 2016

OpenCms 10.5 Beta provides a complete look at OpenCms 10. This will be the only pre-release version before OpenCms 10.5.0 is published, which is expected by the end of November. Download this beta release to get an advance look of the great new user interface and the other improvements of the next OpenCms generation.

This beta version is considered feature complete! All important functionalities are in place. Only minor GUI updates, as well as improvements to the demo template, will be made for the final release. In case you plan to upgrade to OpenCms 10.5 when it's released, we recommend to use this beta for testing your templates in the new version.

OpenCms is one of the most popular Open Source Content Management Solutions. This new version was developed by Alkacon Software GmbH with the support of the international OpenCms developer community.

New in OpenCms 10.5

• Localization: Compare localized subsites side-by-side.
• Localization: Copy pages from one language to another, including content.
• Localization: Message bundle translator.
• Localization: Connect the same page in different languages using locale relations.
• Localization: Connect the same page in different languages using locale relations.
• Localization: Support for localized properties.
• Asset Connection: Data view widget API allows to natively integrate external assets in the content editor.
• Asset Connection: Support for using external assets in templates through EL functions.
• Enhanced online preview in the page editor hides all OpenCms added markup for HTML debugging.
• The Apollo Template has been greatly enhanced with new options and functionality.
• Security: Added password expiration option.
• Security: Added password strength indicator in password dialog.
• Security: Added dialog "Edit user" so users can update their personal information.
• Security: Added optional "Confirm personal information" dialog after user login.
• Unified toolbar appearance and context menus for editors and workplace.
• Improved behaviour when switching between workplace and editor views.
• Support for high resolution retina screens by using font icons.
• Keyboard shortcuts: Added "step through element views" to page editor (Ctrl-E).
• Keyboard shortcuts: Added "step through overlapping edit points" to page editor (Ctrl-Shift-E).
• Keyboard shortcuts: Added "save" and "save and exit" to content editor (Ctrl-S, Ctrl-Shift-S).
• Keyboard shortcuts: Added option to show "copy or reuse" dialog after drag & drop (Ctrl + mouse up).
• Page editor now "remembers" the last formatter set for a content type as default.
• Added optional "Show copyright" column to the Explorer.
• Categories attached to contents are now by default stored in the relation engine, not the XML.
• Added JSP EL functions to read categories from a resource.
• Added JSP EL functions to read locale relations for a page.
• Transferred edit JSP permission from "Template developer" role to "VFS manager" role.
• Extended macro formatters for better handling of new contents.

Please check out the release notes for further details regarding the changes in this release.

General OpenCms features

• The page editor allows WYSIWYG inline editing of web pages and arrangement of content by drag & drop.
• The form based editor allows editing of structured content in a well defined form mask.
• The sitemap editor allows to create new pages and re-arrange the navigation tree by drag & drop.
• Responsive demo template based on Bootstrap 3.
• Content creation for mobile devices with preview and device specific content control.
• Structured contents can be defined using a simple XML schema.
• Easy to use "Online / Offline" workflow, changes must be approved before they become visible.
• Link management for all internal resources with broken link detection.
• Integrated image scaling and cropping.
• SEO features with automatic sitemap.xml generation and page alias support.
• Full featured user management that supports the concept of "Organizational Units" (OUs).
• Allows management of multiple websites within one installation.
• Contents can be served dynamically or exported to static HTML files.
• Direct access to the OpenCms content repository over a shared network drive.
• CMIS and WebDAV access to the OpenCms content repository.
• Integrates Apache SOLR for powerful content searching and noSQL like queries.
• Full text search for web pages as well as in office documents like PDF, MS Office and Open Office.
• Extensions can be added through a flexible module system.
• The "time warp" feature allows to view resources which are expired or not yet released.
• JSP integration for dynamic functionality in templates, dynamic forms etc.
• ... and many more

We recommend everyone who uses OpenCms to test the 10.5 Beta release. OpenCms 10.5 Beta is fully backward compatible to all prior 9.x  and 10.x versions. Templates and other OpenCms developed code from these versions work "out of the box" with version 10.5 Beta.

Users of Alkacon OCEE require a new OCEE version for OpenCms 10.5. There will be an updated OCEE package available for the final release of OpenCms 10.5. The update will be free for Alkacon customers with a valid OCEE update subscription.

About OpenCms

OpenCms is a market leading solution amongst Open Source CMS systems. The software has been in continuous development for the last 15 years and has an active community of Open Source developers.

OpenCms is an enterprise - ready web content management solution build in Java and XML from open source components. OpenCms can easily be deployed on almost any existing IT infrastructure and provides powerful features especially suited for medium and large enterprise internet or intranet applications. OpenCms is open source software distributed under the LGPL license.

Alkacon Software GmbH is the company responsible for the development of OpenCms. Today OpenCms is a leading open source CMS solution in widespread use all over the world. Many businesses and organizations use OpenCms as a cost effective, professional alternative to expensive license products.

Alkacon Software GmbH offers its customers training, support and add-on products for OpenCms. This gives our customers a layer of security and convenience often required for mission critical OpenCms installations. Please see the Alkacon product overview for more details.

The team at Alkacon Software - The OpenCms Experts wants to thank everyone who has contributed to this release of OpenCms.

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