Preview of the New EPiServer 7 CMS Editorial Interface

In this public preview, we will share a glimpse of the changes that are to be implemented in the coming upgrade of the EPiServer 7 CMS editorial interface (Sparrowhawk).

Now you can upgrade the Sparrowhawk as an add-on from the feed in Add-ons Store inside EPiServer, which means that you will be able to install it directly without the need for complex update routines.

Table of Contents

• Features in this Preview
• Upgrading to Dojo 1.8
• Installing Sparrowhawk CTP 12

Features in this Preview

The following features for Sparrowhawk are included in this CTP 12 preview:

Improved Language Handling of the Website

Now you can translate blocks and their folders in the same way as for pages with the option Show All Languages for the shared blocks gadget. This option will show blocks and folders for all languages. Not translated blocks have a language code representing the fallback language, and when this is turned off only blocks and folders that are available for the current language will be shown.

The flow of language handling has also been improved with a new option under the view settings.

Upgraded TinyMCE Editor

Sparrowhawk has been upgraded to the latest version of TinyMCE (3.5.8) to get the latest features such as HTML 5 support and non-content editable areas. Custom code in the personalized and dynamic content plug-ins will eventually be removed and replaced by the built-in features instead. HTML 5 media with the brand new video streaming will be supported.

Upgrading to Dojo 1.8

Upgrade to Dojo 1.8 is required. Note the following project changes (breaking change) after the upgrade:

Package Name Changes

Installing Sparrowhawk CTP 12 

Install the Sparrowhawk CTP 12 update as follows:

1. Backup your site and VPP folder. The CTP is work in progress and does not have the same amount of testing and you might want to be able to roll back you update after testing.
2. Configure the add-on system to be able to locate the CTP update by changing the <episerver.packaging> section in web.config as follows:
   

   <episerver.packaging ... >
    <packageRepositories>
      <add name="CTPAddOns"
           url="https://addonsctp.episerver.com/feed/"
           requestApiKey="true"
           sendLicense="true"
           filterTag="EPiServerAddon" />
    </packageRepositories>
</episerver.packaging>

3. Log in to EPiServer, select Add-ons in the global menu > Updates.
4. You should be able to see the following new updates:
   • Edit UI
   • UI Platform
   • Add-on UI
   • Add-on Platform
5. Select Update on the Edit UI add-on to install all available updates in correct order (because of their internal dependency configuration).
6. When the installation is finished, you will be requested to restart the site. When you are done, Sparrowhawk CTP 12 is installed on the site.

Known Issues

Make sure that that the application pool user of the target site has read, modify, and create permissions in the site folder and in the site VPP folder or your update will fail.

Comments

Björn Olsson Jan 8, 2013 01:50 PM

What do you mean by this exactly?

"Custom code in the personalized and dynamic content plug-ins will eventually be removed and replaced by the built-in features instead."

Regards

Jan 9, 2013 02:38 PM

The personalized content and dynamic content features in EPiServer CMS include extensions to TinyMCE. These extensions contains code that potentially can be obsoleted by functionality that is now built into TinyMCE. In practice this will not have any impact on the actuall functionality, it's just an opportunity for us (internally) to clean up the implementation of these features in the future.

Steven Smith Jan 17, 2013 01:00 PM

Hi Fredrikt
Thanks for this info. Having installed CTP 12 locally, I was wondering where I find the "Show All Languages" option?
Also, can you confirm this process:
- First of all download CTP 12
- Then add the packageRepositories section to the episerver.packaging property
This is how I've got things set up now.
Before installing the updates, we were having a few hanging issues when navigating around our installed CTP12 test sites. I brief check of my local post installation of these updates seems to have resolved this. :-)
Cheers
Steve

Jan 22, 2013 12:18 PM

Steven, you can find "Show All Languages" for pages in the following section of the user guide (web help): http://webhelp.episerver.com/CMS/7.0/EN/Default.htm#Globalization/Edit_Globalization.htm. It works in a similar way in the block tree as in the page tree.

Calle Bjernekull Feb 1, 2013 02:45 PM

Thanks, just installed the AddOn. However I got some issues with my texteditor. None of my XHTML-string-properties works. Just an empty textarea and no TinyMCE