New Features to Look Forward to in the 10.6 Release

The next release of Ingeniux CMS – Version 10.6 – will bring a number of new features, usability improvements, performance enhancements, and security updates that will affect users at every level.

Ingeniux CMS Version 10.6 will be released later this year. Keep an eye out for more details and official announcements around release date. 

In the meantime, let's take a look at some of the most notable updates you’ll find in the new release. And because some of these updates will require a bit of strategic planning and preparation, we’ll include our advice on what you should plan for when heading into your upgrade.

Expanded In-Context Editing Experience

For those who are unfamiliar with In-Context Editing (ICE), it is a CMS feature that allows content contributors to edit content in a visual preview of the page. In the preview view, editable regions of the page are highlighted so users can easily identify where they can edit content.

In previous versions of the platform, users were limited to certain types of content elements that would work in ICE. In 10.6, content creators will notice that they’re able to work with an expanded number of elements, including components and lists of components. This means reusable and embedded components will now work in ICE, bringing content creators working in ICE almost all the flexibility and functionality they have when working in the edit form view.

What do you need to plan for?

In-Context Editing works by extending your DSS (Dynamic Site Server) implementation to identify editable regions of the page displayed in preview and mapping those regions back to the corresponding fields on the edit form. You will need to update your code and potentially adjust your schemas to add this feature to your editing experience.

If your goal is to upgrade to 10.6 and launch with the new ICE features fully functional, you’ll want to plan for at least a two-week development and QA cycle as you prepare for the UAT process. Your current implementation may be ready for the new ICE features, but you may need to design, architect, and develop updated content features if you want to take full advantage of the updated ICE functionality. You can do this within your own development team or work with Ingeniux Development Service to plan and execute your upgrade with ICE considerations in mind.

OAuth Identities for CMS API Access

Application Programming Interface (API) integrations enhance and extend the functionality of the CMS. These integrations have a few typical points of access. When an integration is made it requires that the user who runs the code go into the CMS to make the changes that the code is processing, such as creating and updating content. In previous versions, the calls to the API would involve logging in as a user of the CMS with a username and password that was secured in the application settings.

To further enhance the security of authentication in 10.6, OAuth identity configuration has been added that allows you to use OAuth client secret tokens within integration applications to authenticate against the CMS rather than using the traditional CMS user/password authentication model.

CMS administrators can create and manage as many OAuth identities as needed for each of their different applications. This will make it easier for auditing of integration app usage, as well as revoking identities immediately from within the CMS if an integration point is no longer needed.

One of the ways that the CMS allows access to its API is through our Automated Task Framework (ATF), a secondary application running on a server that authenticates against a CMS to execute scripts on a provided schedule. This program is usually used to run updates to the CMS at night when users are not using the system to minimize the impact of large processes taking up system resources, such as imports of substantial amounts of data, large reorganizations of content, or archival and removal processes. With the release of CMS 10.6 comes an updated version of ATF that will leverage usage of the new OAuth identity access model.

What do you need to plan for?

If you have previously existing code that is running as a Custom Tab or Custom Workflow Action using the Ingeniux CMS SOAP API or the REST API you will most likely want to update your scripts to use these new OAuth client tokens rather than one of the hard-coded users of the CMS. This change is not required for upgrading to 10.6 but is highly recommended.

Prior to upgrading to 10.6, make sure to plan development and system administration time into your UAT process. You can have your own developers manage this process or engage Ingeniux Development Services to help plan and execute your upgrade.

InSite Search Configuration and UI

InSite Search (ISS) includes a variety of configurations to customize and optimize your website’s internal search functionality. As a stand-alone product, ISS has many settings and configurations in files that it reads as it processes the indexing of content from the CMS or sources outside the CMS.

To enhance the experience of customizing the product to index CMS content, in the new version these settings have been added to the administration panel. Notably, you can now add and manage your settings for Keymatch pairing from within the CMS, which will publish your settings to the DSS where ISS can read and adjust to the new settings.

Additionally, the InSite Search interface in the administration panel has been completely refreshed with a new look. It is now easier to use, and the user experience has been improved to help facilitate editing your ISS configurations for CMS content.  

What do you need to plan for?

First off, you’ll want to orient yourself to the new user experience design of the InSite Search interface in the administration panel to make sure you know where your current settings are found and find new features. You should find the new experience friendly and easy-to-use, though, if you need a guide, we will soon offer a video tour of the new InSite Search interface.

If you are already using Keymatch in your ISS implementation your CMS is most likely storing and publishing a file from within your asset system to give you easy access to editing your settings. You will simply need to redirect the path of the Keymatch settings to read the default file and move your existing settings to this file location.

If you are already using the default file location and updating the file through a direct file access protocol such as FTP (File Transfer Protocol), then you will just want to change from editing in this manner and use the new CMS interface to perform your future edits to the settings.

Ask your System Administrator if you are not sure which method your CMS is set up to use for managing your Keymatch settings. Or, if you are hosted with Ingeniux hosting services, our Support Team can help you.

Other Notable Considerations

For those who author in DITA and use the CMS to publish documentation to their website or portal, a new DITA direct editing and publishing pipeline has been added to the CMS in Version 10.6.

This DITA publishing pipeline can facilitate adding and editing complex documentation and seamlessly publish it to multiple formats (pdf, html5, etc.) with a standards-based presentation of the documentation that can be used as its default to minimize design and development efforts.

We will be covering this new feature in depth in future articles, tutorials, and webinars. For those who are interested in investing in instructor-led training and consultation to learn more about the DITA publishing pipeline, those opportunities will be made available as well.

Minor Changes and Updates

On top of the major updates to the CMS there are many minor changes to the user interface and settings that users may want to consider prior to upgrading as these changes will affect developers, administrators, and content contributors to varying degrees.

As the release approaches you can look forward to webinars, tutorials, workshops, and training courses designed to help you take full advantage of new features, administrate the CMS environment, and prepare your end-users for changes that may affect their work.

For those looking for more technical details around upgrading, these will be announced closer to the official launch of 10.6.