Introducing Kentico CMS 7 RC

   —   
8 months after the release of Kentico CMS 6, I am happy to announce our Release Candidate version of Kentico CMS 7. Read this article to learn more details...
Hi there,

It has been a very busy 8 months for all of us here at Kentico software. After we released Kentico CMS 6, we had another challenge ahead of us. We already had a lot of features planned for the next version, but also a lot of suggestions from our clients that we wanted to implement.

As I announced in my other blog post: http://devnet.kentico.com/Blogs/Martin-Hejtmanek/June-2012/Kentico-CMS-v7-Release-Plan-Update.aspx, we changed our original release plan for version 7 to be able to deliver a higher value of product.

That is why today we are releasing Kentico CMS 7 Release Candidate. In fact we were able to fix more defects than expected, so this version is definitely stable enough for development and we have stuck to our plan of having no known defects at the date of release, offering even more value. There is no single person behind this achievement, everyone in our team contributed their best efforts to make this happen, so if you feel like saying thanks to anyone, go ahead and say it to whoever you talk to from our company, and we will pass it on to one another.

Similar to version 6, I have prepared a document which will give you a brief overview of all the new features that are available in version 7 RC. With over 80 pages, it will guide you through this new version with brief comments and screenshots, so it is easy for you to learn about all the new features and focus on those which interest you most.

You can download this document from here: KenticoCMS_7_Features.pdf (6 MB)

Or you can see this file for a very brief list of new features: V7FeatureList.txt

There is a special presentation on our web site for the new version. To get the new version, visit this page: http://www.kentico.com/Product/Kentico-CMS-7/Overview

Note that this version is intended for development purposes only and you shouldn't put it into production. If you don't need version 7 features, it is safer to start your development on version 6 SP1. Version 7 is a Release Candidate, so we won't be providing hotfixes for it. Also, our Tree's for Bugs initiative will continue to be for bugs found in version 6 until we release v7 final and our 7-day bug-fixing policy also only applies to version 6 until then.

However, if you need to report any issues or get some advice, you can contact our support team as with the standard version. We will do our best to help you overcome any issues that may arise.

Here is a list of known issues to date for the release of RC: V7KnownIssues.txt

You may also use our documentation for v7 RC as a source of information. However, this documentation is not complete and may be missing some important information about a particular feature or very new modules which are not yet documented. You can download or see the documentation here: http://devnet.kentico.com/Documentation/7_RC.aspx

We will be releasing an automated upgrade procedure from this version to the final version of Kentico CMS 7 after its release, so you are able to put your v7 RC-developed into production.

Should you need any help with this new version, let us know.

Enjoy this release and let us know your opinions about this new version and features!

UPDATE: I forgot to provide you with the list of API classes and methods that were changed or replaced by something else, here it is:  V7DeletedObsoleteMethods.xlsx
Share this article on   LinkedIn

Martin Hejtmanek

Hi, I am the CTO of Kentico and I will be constantly providing you the information about current development process and other interesting technical things you might want to know about Kentico.

Comments

Martin Hejtmanek commented on

Yes, we are releasing the final version at the Kentico Connection 2012 in Denver as promised

SR commented on

Is Kentico still on track to release CMS 7.0 this month? thanks

Charles Matvchuk commented on

Version 7 is outstanding. We have have redeveloped a site that was scheduled for launch in the next couple of weeks, it consists of approximataly 1200 pages. We have a multitude of custom modules, 19 to be exact, and ran into a couple of snags with API, but have worked them out. The productivity with side by side enhancements is excellent. I am utilizing most of the additional features as well. Great work and many thanks.

Martin Hejtmanek commented on

Hi Fredrik,

Thank you for letting me know about API changes. I totally forgot about those. I added them to the end of my blog post and I also re-uploaded the document with fixed header and reviewed English :-)

fredrik-gearserp commented on

Hi,

Looking forward to digging deeper into K7. I've run into a few issues already, and I'm wondering if there's a list of API changes done from v6 to v7, similar to the ones published for differences between v5.5 and v6.

Specifically, one such example would be:
CMS.TreeEngine.TreeNode --> CMS.DocumentEngine.TreeNode for example.

Alexandre Rafalovitch commented on

Nice "summary" document. We are really looking forward to translation improvements. Of course, lots of other features look good too.

Even more information on faceted search would be very welcome.

Note on the document: The page header area still says "Kentico 6.0".

Regards,
Alex.

Martin Hejtmanek commented on

Hi Eric,

If you use the Mixed mode, you should be able to use the device layout in the page placeholder as well. The main advantage is that this layout doesn't load the content of web part zones so it really is useful only for portal parts of the page. For standard controls which are already part of ASPX markup, you can use standard placeholders and set their visibility based on CMSContext.CurrentDeviceProfileName value.

Rashed commented on

Excellent, punch of new features , I like the wireframe & onsite editing features.

for GoeIP , is it contains
I think you have to update pages headers in (KenticoCMS_7_Features.pdf ) to be "What's new in Kentico 7"

Eric Rovtar commented on

Great stuff! First new thing I can wait to play around with: device profiles! Is it possible to implement different layouts in ASPX templates too? Or is that restricted to the PortalEngine?

Thanks!