Ektron Fall Updates

Ektron Fall 2016 Updates

Episerver interacts with customers at many stages of their digital marketing journey, and we are very proud to be considered great listeners. Beyond listening, we gain an equal amount of pride delivering solutions to solve problems, which makes this journey together successful!

The Episerver Digital Experience Cloud™ represents the convergence of the Ektron and Episerver product lines, as well as substantial new features and functions previously unavailable with either. While the strongest value for clients is the Episerver Digital Experience Cloud™, we understand there are reasons for continuing to use the Ektron CMS.

As part of the Episerver fall product release, we are excited to announce Ektron 9.20. This release includes useful enhancements, product updates, and platform updates. Ektron 9.20 is available for download and use. 

Enhancements

The Ektron CMS features and enhancements added in version 9.20 include:

• Change Auditing - Ektron 9.20 now has change auditing functionality to help with your authoring needs where compliance may be important. You can configure content, folders, menus, and taxonomies to protect or log the activities.
• Recycle-bin - The Recycle-bin like functionality makes use of the change auditing feature. This provides a more visual way for content authors to delete items while maintaining the ability to restore them, preventing accidental deletion or simply as an added safeguard to a workflow.
• Strategies Wizard - You can now easily create Ektron Strategies using a point and click wizard. This new interface helps speed up the creation by presenting a list along with automating some configuration details.
• IQueryable Data Sources for Ektron Data Types - For developers that prefer to use Linq queries, an IQueryable interface is now available to interact with most core Ektron data types.

Product Updates

As part of our release scheduling, all updates from Ektron 9.10 were added to this release, including 3 service packs, over 100 cumulative updates, general performance enhancements, and all applicable security patches. Full regression and acceptance testing were performed to ensure proper test coverage for all core functionality with the common configurations. All relevant documentation was also updated to coincide with the product changes. 

Platform Updates

In addition to the mentioned updates, we also extended support for the latest platforms and technologies used with the Ektron CMS. Support for Microsoft SQL Server 2016 and .NET 4.62 are included and validated to ensure compatibility with the latest versions from Microsoft. We are also happy to announce support for the latest Solr Manifold version. As many have been requesting the ability to update to the latest Java Runtime, you can now upgrade to the current version of JRE. Ektron Digital Experience Hub users that have or would like to integrate with Microsoft SharePoint 2016 can now upgrade and use Microsoft SharePoint 2016.

For complete details on what’s included in Ektron 9.20, please visit the release notes.

How do I move to the Episerver Digital Experience Cloud?

Our next-generation platform features many capabilities that Ektron CMS users enjoyed but re-envisaged in an improved manner. The Digital Experience Cloud brings together the best of the Ektron and Episerver products and is easy to adopt for users on current versions. That said, it is a major new release and, as users of Ektron who moved from version 4 to 6 to 9 know, major version moves need planning and some services. Episerver partners and customers who have made the move will tell you it’s one worth making. To start, it is best to speak with your account manager, as there are many options and resources they can provide, including:

• Licensing and current Ektron contract information
• Upgrade options and product offerings specific to your needs and interests
• Episerver Expert Services site assessment - If you are planning a site redesign or have other goals, this may be an ideal time for an assessment, which will reduce the risk of a move
• Connecting you to one of our partners willing to help with your implementation and/or re-design needs

Not quite ready to switch to the Episerver Digital Experience Cloud?

Episerver continues to support the Ektron platform with updates to address issues and add enhancements based on customer feedback. Your M&S subscription includes access to the Episerver Support Portal, which also provides:

• Episerver developer support
• Software downloads and updates for all products, including past versions
• Helpful articles and news about the Ektron platform for developers, administrators, and end users
• Updates through RSS feeds
• Ability to view and submit support tickets
• Links to product documentation
• Access to Ektron developer resources including:
  • Developer reference library
  • Community resources (forums, blogs, etc.)
  • Archived articles and other information

If you have suggestions for what you would like to see in future releases of Ektron CMS, please contact us today!

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