Over the last 6 months a quiet revolution has been occurring in the DNN Community. Last fall I asked the community to join me in charting a new course for how we build and maintain DNN Platform. Since that time community members have been joining in to help with the development and maintenance of the platform. They are also working to improve the content on the community site, creating original blogs and videos and otherwise just helping to educate and grow the community.
On February 4th we'll be releasing DNN Platform 7.4. This release includes a large number of community enhancements and bug fixes, and would not have been possible without the hard work of the many community members who worked on this release. The 7.4.0 release includes a couple of great enhancements and was really an opportunity for us to put into action our new joint development approach to building DNN.
Workflow & Versioning API
DNN 7.4.0 includes a robust workflow and versioning API which is built around the DNN Content Item store. Workflow is one of the most requested features for DNN Platform and in DNN 7.4 we finally have a great API so that you can implement workflow in your own modules and extensions. In upcoming releases we'll include workflow management tools that will help you create custom workflows and assign permissions to the various workflow stages. We'll also modernize the HTML module to use the new engine and workflow management tools to provide a great out of the box example for people wanting to implement workflow in their own modules.
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Multi-Language Site Settings*
DNN has long had robust multi-language support. With DNN 7.4 we have extended this to include the ability to customize site settings on a per-language basis. DNN 7.4 supports localization for 21 different settings which will provide greater control when implementing multi-language sites.
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Improved HTML5 Support*
2014 saw the long awaited release of the final HTML5 specification. With this release, more and more sites are making the transition to support this new standard. DNN 7.4 improves our support for HTML5 and makes it easier for developers to deliver sites with valid HTML5 markup. As part of these improvements we give site administrators greater control over what markup is included in the HTML head section and whether or not to use anchor tags for internal page navigation.
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Maintenance and Repair*
One of the often overlooked features of many releases is the work that goes on under the covers to keep the platform operating at its best. In DNN 7.4 considerable effort went into refactoring many internal classes to provide a better foundation for future development. The PortalSettings classes and the EventLogs were overhauled to improve the overall architecture and to pave the way for future enhancements. While most people will never see any of these changes, this work is critical to maintaining the long-term health of the platform.
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* These features and enhancements were provided by community contributions
It's great to talk about DNN 7.4, but it is even better to get your hands on it and put it through its paces. Download the DNN 7.4 Release Candidate which is available on CodePlex. This is your last opportunity to kick the tires before our release next week. Also, please join us for our Community Hangout next week where we will talk with a few of the people who helped deliver awesome features for DNN 7.4.
I am very proud of the Community's effort in working with DNN Corp to deliver a great DNN 7.4 release, and I look forward to delivering even more great DNN Platform releases in 2015.
While we are on the topic of great releases I wanted to take a minute to recommend you join our webinar for a look at the all new Evoq 8. Over the last 2 years we have been working to tailor our commercial products to better meet the needs of digital marketing professionals. Evoq 8, with its simplified interface and fluid user interactions does a great job of addressing many of the requests I have seen from our commercial customers. So take a few minutes today and see what all the buzz is about.