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New DotCMS 2.1 Release Offers Easier Administration and Manageability

mike-johnston Profile
Sitefinity Review

DotCMS 2.1 has been released today and with it come a number of improvements to the java based, open source CMS. Specific changes include an improved site search, scheduled workflow tasks, content improvements, remote widgets and an integrated help system.

New & Improved Site Search

First off, DotCMS 2.1 offers an improved upon site search using ElasticSearch to allow the creation of independent indexes for different search sections on your website. The new site search indexes all popular office document formats, pdfs, pages and content. You can even back up and restore indexes as needed.

dotcms site search

Workflow Tasks Can Now Be Scheduled

You can now schedule a Workflow Action to automatically execute if the task remains on that step for a certain length of time.  This allows you to create automatic review dates for content, escalate content stalled in workflow or perform any other workflow action on a timed basis.Workflow search has also been improved upon for those wanting to search for old tasks.

Improved Administration and Management

Two of the more valuable additions to the administration and management of the CMS:

  • You can now get Index Details and Cluster Statistics by hovering your mouse over the Cluster Health Bar under CMS Maintenance.
  • It is now possible to get a list of users currently logged in under the CMS Maintenance section.

Content Improvements

  • Via a REST URL you can now retrieve and search for content. Results can be XML or JSON. http://www.dotcms.com/docs/2.0/ContentAPI
  • dotCMS now ships with a 508/WCAG Accessibility Checker. This functionality is built directly into the WYSIWYG editor. Look for the green check mark icon in the WYSIWYG editor.
  • Binary Content – Will now attempt to use Hard Links for file storage.

Remote Widgets

  • dotCMS Widgets can be delivered into 3rd party and remote systems using a high performance restful API, as either code snippets or as full blown applications.

Integrated Help System

  • dotCMS has started a Help System built into the backend.
  • Users will be able to get documentation help on areas of dotCMS linked directly from the dotCMS backend.

A full list of changes to this section can be found in the release announcement.