10/26/2006 - Kentico CMS 2.0 Released

Kentico releases a new generation of its CMS system with easier development and deployment.

What's new:


Framework and infrastructure changes:

· All code rewritten to C# 2005, VB.NET version is no longer available, but development in VB.NET will be still supported.

· Visual Studio 2003/ASP.NET 1.1 is no longer supported.

· Improved and enhanced API. All operations are now accessible through the object model.

· Custom event handlers throughout the whole system that allow developers to enhance the code with custom actions when e.g. a new document is created, when a user is authenticated, etc.

· All possible settings (web.config settings, transformations, etc.) are now stored in the database instead of the file system.

· It’s possible to configure the web site so that it doesn’t write into the file system.



New Portal Engine

· It’s now possible to create pages using webparts in the web browser, without having to use Visual Studio.

· Several webparts are now available: navigation, content, membership etc.



Multi-site Management

· It’s now possible to run multiple web sites using a single database and code installation.

· The web sites can have different or shared users, content, structure and settings.



Content Management

· New database structure for storing content.

· Every site is “multilingual” by default, even if it uses only a single language. It means that it’s not necessary to configure multilingual support.

· Multilingual web sites may have different structures – it’s no longer necessary to have all documents in the default language.

· New, easier-to-use user interface with preview functionality (without staging) and simplified editing.

· It’s now possible to sort all content tree items manually using arrows instead of setting Menu item order value.

· All documents (not only pages) now can have their menu item caption, page title, keywords, order and page template.

· All documents can be restored from the recycle bin after being deleted accidentally even without versioning.

· Workflow can be assigned to particular site sections and document types, instead of per-document type basis.

· Global search & replace.

· Improved link management using the permanent links that keep working after the target document has been moved or renamed.



Security

· Added membership provider implementation that enables use of Kentico CMS user management with standard ASP.NET 2.0 membership controls.

· Support for custom authentication (user and role information) from an external source.

· Support for automatic import of user account and roles from Active Directory/NT domain.

· Users can change their profile (e-mail, password, preferred culture) in the My Desk section.

· Customizable user profiles

· New user attributes "is editor" and "is global administrator".

· Local deny permission overrides the global permissions.

· Secured areas can be easily defined through the user interface.



Form Engine

· It’s possible to specify custom form layout for editing forms and BizForms.

· Custom validation (value range, regex) is now supported.

· Custom styles for every control.

· Support for field groups.



Deployment

· It’s possible to export the whole web site or its parts (e.g. document types) into a single file (on the development machine) and restore it on the target (production) server.

· Global search & replace enables easy updating of links.

· Kentico CMS now can run without disk write permissions and in the medium trust environment.



File Management

· All files are now stored in a special folder and retrieved using a dedicated ASPX page.

· It’s possible to store files only in the database.



URL Rewriting

· URL Rewriting now supports extension-less URLs without extra “dummy” files on the disk.

· Custom actions and URL rewriting rules are now supported.



BizForms

· Optional switching to advanced user interface with more options.

· Custom form layout, validation and styles.



Newsletters

· Completely new, more robust interface and API.

· Support for dynamic newsletters (such as last week's articles, etc.).



Forums

· Simplified, more flexible configuration.

· Forums can be optionally opened only for registered users.

· Support for ad-hoc forums.



Scheduling

· New scheduling sub-system enabling scheduling of custom tasks.



Search

· New provider-based model enabling use of custom search engine.

· Customizable search results design.

· Search results can be paged.



CMS Controls

· DataGrid, Repeater and DataList controls now support selection of only top N rows.

· DataGrid, Repeater and DataList controls now support paging.