Dear Sitefinity customers and partners! We are excited to announce the release of Sitefinity 14.4. Below, you can find details about what is included in this release.

What's new in Sitefinity 14.4

Decoupled .NET Core Frontend and Page Builder

Support for .NET 7

With release 14.4, the Renderer is upgraded to .NET 7. If you are using the 14.4 packages, you are required to change the target framework to .NET 7. 

Page editor navigation tree enhancements

Sitefinity .NET Core page editor navigation tree displays the page structure in a tree view. It simplifies the navigation and management of pages with complex layouts and lots of widgets. 

Now the navigation tree displays not only widgets, but also section columns, thus giving a more detailed view of the page structure.
In addition, you can now use the tree to add, rename, or reorder elements on the page. 

Learn more...

Page editor enhancements

Additional new features for the new Page editor: 

• You can quickly configure the margins and the padding of the Section widget and all other widgets, without opening its settings.
• Content block widget now has TOP, LEFT, RIGHT, and BOTTOM margins and paddings added to its settings.
• When editing an image widget, the Title and the Alternative text properties are prepopulated for the selected image.

Learn more...

Control the addition of widgets at the root level in templates and sections

Sitefinity now provides control over adding widgets at the root level in templates and sections to ensure better consistency in the page presentations. This enhancement allows power users to lock certain areas in the templates and not allow editors to add, move, or remove widgets in them.

To restrict users from adding and editing widgets in templates and sections, Sitefinity introduces a new lock mechanism.

Learn more...

Search facets widget in .NET Core

Facets enable easier navigation and drill down of search results. Visitors can use faceted navigation to filter the search results in Sitefinity CMS by properties such as categories, brands, authors, etc.
Facets can be configured for Azure Cognitive Search and Elastic search. Administrators can select which fields are facetable and how facets are ordered.
Use the Search facets widget in combination with the Search box and Search results widgets.

Learn more...

Dynamic list widget for .NET Core forms

Use content data from built-in and dynamic content types in dropdown controls in your forms. Change content once, use it everywhere with the Dynamic list forms widget.

Learn more...

Resource packages

With this release, Sitefinity .NET Core supports the concept of resource packages. This allows frontend developers to use multiple frameworks of choice to style their websites. In addition to Bootstrap, we introduce Foundation and Minimal packages.

Learn more about Foundation package...

Learn more about Minimal package...

Output cache via cache dependencies and cache invalidation in CDN

Sitefinity .NET Core pages leverages the output cache feature of ASP.NET Core 7. You can configure the .NET Core Renderer in the following caching modes:

• .NET Core output caching
  This type of cache can be absolute or distributed, with or without cache invalidation
• CDN caching
  If the Renderer is hosted on CDN, you should configure CDN cache with or without cache invalidation. By default, the CDN cache is controlled through the caching policy for the pages. This can be configured through the Output Cache Settings. The Renderer respects this cache profile and will forward the corresponding cache control headers to the CDN.

Learn more...

General Enhancements in the Content Management UI and Functions

Set homepage permissions

Administrators are now able to restrict the set homepage operation via the Multisite management permissions screen and the  Create and Edit a site, set Homepage option. This is done to prevent accidental changes of the home page.

Reinvented Forms management UI

All Forms screens have been reinvented in the new user interface, including:

• Forms grid - create, delete, bulk operations, filters, etc.
• Edit form properties
• Form responses grid - export to excel and delete operations. Export to excel operation now orders the fields in the excel as they are ordered in the form.  Create and Edit operations for form responses are no longer available.
• New Preview response screen introduced

Learn more...

Bulk assign of tags and categories for content items

You can now assign tags and categories to content items in bulk. To do that, select multiple content items and click the Bulk actions button and then Assign tags and categories.

Learn more...

Languages UI improvements

To make synced and split pages more distinguishable there is now a more visible indication when editing synced page. There is an specific icon on the language badge for synced pages, as well as a message letting you know that changes will affect all translations. What is more the Translations column is now expandable/collapsible not only per item but for the entire grid. 

"Last modified by" filter is now language-specific

The Last modified by filter for pages and content items now correctly uses the language data and displays  the editor(s) who last modified a page/content item in any language available. The filter is now also available for media content (images, videos, and documents).

Learn more...

Editable "FIeldName" for forms widgets

The  FIeldName of a widget used on a form can now be edited after the form is saved. The initial value is autogenerated and now it can be changed not only during the creation of the form but at any time. This applies for both .NET Core and MVC forms. FieldName can be found in Advanced section of the edit widget window.

Breaking change

With release 14.4, FieldName is removed from the abstract class  Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Forms.Mvc.Controllers.Base.FormFieldControllerBase<T>.
If your project is created on a version prior to 14.4 and you are using this property, you must start using  FieldName from  Telerik.Sitefinity.Metadata.Model.MetaField.

DateTime range and number range options for Search facets

Sitefinity search facets for Azure Cognitive Search and Elasticsearch services are now enriched with the ability to create date-time, number, and decimal number ranges. The configuration can be autogenerated for a given value or custom by defining from-to values for each range. There is also an option for the user to create a custom range directly on front-end.

Additionally, the PublicationDate and LastModified fields for each item are now facetable. They will be added in the facet widget by default and can be removed when they are not needed.

Learn more...

Improved NativeChat widget

We have integrated the NativeChat widget into the .NET Core Renderer and you can use it immediately without integrating separate source code into your Sitefinity CMS sites.
For both MVC and .NET Core sites, you can now configure the chatbot to automatically popup when your site visitors open a page on your site, thus driving up engagement. This option is personalizable by segment.
You can now configure the chatbot to show above or inline with the content of your site.

Learn more...

Link selector field for static and dynamic content

A new type of custom field has been added for both static and dynamic content - Link selector. It allows you to select content or page from Sitefinity or an external link and add it to the current item. The field can be single select or multiple select type. The link can carry additional data, similar to the Insert link functionality in the rich text editor (for HTML fields) - link text, anchor, query parameters, and, introduced now - link style class, tooltip, and additional attributes. The Insert link dialog in the rich text editor has been extended as well. The field does not provide an out-of-the-box implementation for MVC widget templates.

Learn more...

Link selector for autogenerated widget designers

With the introduction of the Link selector field for content, the same field is now available for the autogenerated designers for MVC widgets and .NET Core widgets, via the LinkModel class and with the addition of the attribute  [DataType(customDataType: "linkSelector")] to the property. It provides the same functionality as the Link selector field for content and the resulting data can be consumed by the widget or its frontend. The .NET Core  widgets  Image and Call To Action now use the new Link selector.

Learn more...

Personalization: Segmentation by device type

You can now segment your site visitors based on the device types (desktop or mobile) they are using during the session and apply appropriate personalization, if desired.

Learn more ...

Backend interface settings - additional improvements

Three new settings have been added:

• Content items per page - allows you to configure how many items per page are listed in the backend grid in the new UI for content items. Value ranges from 1 to 50.
• Media items per page - allows you to configure how many media items (albums, folders, images, videos, documents) are listed in the  List view. Other views such as Timeline and Thumbnails do not respect that setting. Value ranges from 1 to 50.
• Custom toolsets - a configuration that can  specify different rich-text editor toolsets per content type.

All of the fields with the exception of Display hidden columns have been updated with the New UI, which should make it easier for users to set them up. The Toolset field is renamed to Default toolset and is still used for the rich text fields of all content types, but for the ones with a custom toolset configuration.
A Preview button is now added under the Default toolset field. It allows you to see instantly what the rich text editor would look like with the specified JSON configuration.

Learn more...

Email campaigns use MVC widgets

Email campaigns now support MVC widgets. The Web Forms widgets have been deprecated. 
By default, only MVC widgets are available for new email campaigns. Any existing campaigns with templates based on Web Forms (for upgraded projects) can use both MVC and Web Forms widgets. This can be enabled via a dedicated toggle setting.

The following MVC widgets have been added: Content block, News, Blog post, Event, and Image.

Learn more...

New Sitefinity training courses

Deprecated capabilities

• Legacy authentication modes have been removed (OpenID, SWT, and Forms)
  Internal Identity Provider in Sitefinity is no longer supported. The following packages and libraries are removed:
  • IdentityServer3 package
  • Progress.Sitefinity.IdentityServer3.IdentityModel library
  • Progress.Sitefinity.IdentityServer3.Validation library

• Analytics module is removed
  The Analytics module has been removed, including all analytics backend pages, dashboard timeline widget, and the analytics dashboard link in content grids.
  With deprecation of Universal Analytics support, you can use the new Script Manager to effortlessly integrate Google Tag Manager and GA4 (or, virtually any other analytics solution) into your sites.
  Learn more...

• The following JavaScript libraries are removed:
  • mootools-1.2.2-core-yc.js
  • prototype-1.6.0.3.js
  • jquery-ui-1.8.16.typeFieldEditor.min.js
• Discontinued support for SharePoint 2010 and 2013
• Frontend package imagemin-cli is removed from Bootstrap5

Refer to  Deprecated capabilities in Sitefinity CMS  for a complete list of discontinued capabilities per product version.

What's fixed

Pages:

• Sitemap generator throws StackOverflowException when there are concurrency conflicts with scheduled tasks (492130)
• Sitemap: Recurrent schedule duplicate sitemap scheduled tasks (495502)
• Sitemap: Stackoverflow when manually running sitemap (495503)
• Pages: Encoded special characters in pages search results (490448)
• Duplicate pages when creating a new site fails (488137)
• Sitefinity backend pages not loading when the browser language & culture is Finnish (485229)

Page Templates:

• Page Templates: Controls within Duplicated page templates lose their placeholder (485280)
• Page Template Name used in the code change causing issues (491225)
• No error in logs when having orphaned page data and accessing Page templates (469565)

Forms:

• Issue syncing Form responses to SalesForce connector with an error message 'Cannot reference converted lead' (474377)
• Forms: Duplicate IDs for grid widgets (480772)
• Forms: Client-side validation for fields does not work in case the form has a CAPTCHA field (489478)
• Forms notification emails display developer name of fields instead of labels (483781)
• File upload link in Forms widget does not show up in form response preview screen (485728)

Revision History:

• RevisionHistory: Back to pages does not work for pages with '#' in the title (489486)
• RevisionHistory: Empty search results when back from Revision history of a page with parenthesis in title (489488)

Site Sync:

• SiteSync does not disable the Form notification email setting at the target site (490546)
• SiteSync does not synchronize (update) the sf_language_data table -> last_modified (489704)
• SiteSync: Documents scheduled for publishing on the Source are visible on the frontend of the Target after sync (487344)
• Unable to filter a list of items waiting to be synced using input box in SiteSync menu (489055)
• Site Sync: Unable to sync documents from a .Net Core Renderer app to another. (491280)

Media: 

• Scheduled Document is shown as Awaiting approval in Dashboard widget. (489601)
• Unable to change the url of a library if there are items from this library in the Recycle bin (301017)
• When uploading image to library, the tooltip link to show 'Instructional Text' by mistake is rendered in the dialog screen (484667)
• URLs of uploaded images and documents are not automatically converted to lowercase (487523)
• Items are not loaded in 'Items where image is used' view when Cross site data access restriction level is set to restricted (472095)
• Display empty state in media selectors (485105)

Authentication and Security:

• Non-defined 'frame-src' directive in the CSP header is removed after upgrade (486099)
• Authenticating with an external membership provider when acquiring token does not work (490959)
• Unable to access site using Site Shield when setting Authentication mechanism to OpenID (487461)
• Web Security: RedirectValidation is not working (486512)
• Precompile tool not working when using SWT authentication protocol and AuthKey (486456)
• XSS in Sitefinity media libraries (CVE-2023-29376)
• Potentially dangerous file upload through SharePoint connector (CVE-2023-29375)
• Security improvements and enhancements are provided in the CMS backend (483894)
  Special thanks to:
  Lucas "luriel" Carmo from Hakai Offensive Security

Web services:

• OData: No s-maxage directive in cached responses (486563)
• OData output cache does not vary by Origin header (489676)
• Cache single item requests for OData web services (493200)
• The request to Default.GetTemplateStatistics uses a frontend OData route (489485)
• Getting 500 Error status when a Webservice route is mapped to a non-existing field of a dynamic item (489706)
• Graphql: custom Web service results in error (489285)

Other:

• ReturnUrl generated with httpss when SslOffloading is enabled and request is over https (484989)
• Site-specific settings and read-only mode of configurations improvements
• Address field generates JS error due to changes in Google maps API (491150)
• "Item has already been added" errors in the logs related to the Output Cache module (491321)
• Sitefinity with mysql db cannot be created- index sf_idx_vrsn_chngs has Inconclusive column sorting error (490238)
• Icons are not loaded correctly in old mvc selectors (489358)
• Javascript error when checking checkbox in define workflow dialog (488726)
• Message template color settings in inline styles are being converted from Hexadecimal to RGBA (489390)
• Description field is not added to the index when indexing static HTML (487578)
• Backend interface settings not working in read-only mode (488498)
• In Module Builder adding content with Choices property is defaulting to NULL (475052)
• Non-admin users cannot manage items (487797)
• Revision history scheduled task performance improvements (487399)
• Slow request on the Create item screen of dynamic types (487328)
• SQL Server limitation when there are a lot of libraries at the root level (489416)
• Rss Feed errors not shown to user (490635)
• SitefinityRedirectUriValidator.IsUriValid throws exception when the requested uri is not valid (491421)
• Backend interface settings not available in read-only mode (491272)
• Deterministic metadata hash for layout service (492386)
• Concurrency issue in ZoneEditorService when dragging controls on a form/page (480312)
• Category field: does not respect RootTaxonId (480934)
• Personalization: Pages in Draft with personalized widgets throw exception when Preview link is shared with anonymous users (490349)
• Filter by last modified by is appearing in content list widget (484645)
• Cannot switch between shared providers (487451)
• URL field should place cursor on focus when editing (337755)
• Styling issue in content list filter by date published selector (484890)
• Content in the new UI screens in Basic settings must be left aligned, not centered (485149)
• Link style dropdown in RTE not according to design (485160)
• Background color tool change is not preserved (479452)
• List items are created with GUID as a value for the UrlName (488627)
• Custom fields: Predefined value not respected (470909)
• Mirror field does not respect the regular expression filter set in URLRulesClient (471828)
• Turning off the onboarding tips should not hide the contextual help from the bottom-right of the screen (389531)
• Publish and Save as draft buttons missing when Insight connection is broken (484753)
• Widget designer does not persist SelectionMode (489628)

.NET Core Renderer:

• Add configurable tag name property for section widget (483759)
• Checkboxes/Choices/Dropdown fields are not showing correct labels when creating a response from Sitefinity backend (480417)
• Color Palette returns null for default color property (489687)
• Add support for custom thumbnails in Renderer (487316)
• Search box widget does not persist characters after & sign from the search query (487316)
• Error for duplicate URLs not thrown when resolving detail items (489215)
• Unable to access detail pages of content if there are more than 1000 items (489517)
• Error for duplicate URLs not thrown when resolving detail items (489215)
• Links from HTML fields are rendered as absolute (488487)
• Images with umlauts in title throw error in the net core renderer (484207)
• Cannot select template when there are too many templates created (487730)
• Additional URL for detail view of content list widget adds unneeded query params when redirecting (487465)
• Pages where this image is used not working for image widget in .NET Core Renderer (486786)
• SearchBox, set to not show autocomplete, shows a JS error when typing (491874)
• Fix invalid assembly name error when loading widget resources in .NET Core Renderer (492027)
• API for filtering widgets in selector (491718)
• Proxying of unknown resource packages (491956)
• Fix renderer without Control templates module (488270)
• Performance issue when .NET Core renderer accessed under https (489034)
• Personalized pages show JSON content after being cached (492619)
• Cannot change page template (492694)
• ThumbnailDTO Name property is returning null, so it is set as obsolete (481052)

Developer tools updates

• Progress Kendo UI updated to 2022.3.1109
  • CDN default urls for Kendo are now empty and scripts are loaded as embedded resources, distributed with Sitefinity CMS by default.
    As of the R3 2022 release, you need to activate the Kendo CDN distribution by using a license file.
• Progress Telerik UI for ASP.NET AJAX updated to 2023.1.117.45  2023 . 1 . 117
• Progress Telerik UI for WPF updated to 2023.1.123.45
• jQuery updated to 1.13.2
• jQuery UI updated to 3.6.3
• HtmlSanitizer updated to 8.0.645

API and Database changes

• API changes
  Learn more... .
• Database changes
  Learn more....
• .NET Core Renderer breaking changes
  Learn more...
  
  

Regards,
Progress Sitefinity Team