We are so excited to bring about the release of ContentBox 3.0.0 Release Candidate to you today. It has been a monumentus milestone for us at Ortus Solutions as we have devoted almost a full year's worth of development, which has been unusual for our releases, but so worth it for ContentBox ColdFusion CMS.
This release candidate is a major release and with a completely rewritten administration module and with a collection of more than 150 tickets resolved. It has been a massive undertaking with some great results. We also are in the documentation process and our book is available as well now: contentbox.ortusbooks.com
Download ContentBox 3.0.0 RC Today!
What's New
We have created a very comprehensive what's new guide in our documentation book here: http://contentbox.ortusbooks.com/content/introduction/whats_new.html.
We have divided all the major updates in this release by category, so let's get started in discovering ContentBox 3.0.0.
Architecture
ColdBox 4
We have updated the entire core to leverage ColdBox 4 and modularity. We have completely re-architected all modules to adhere to ColdBox 4 standards and rely on CommandBox CLI for package management and resolutions. This update in itself is worth noting as it not only modularized even more ContentBox, but gave it a source code reduction and performance boosts.
Oracle + PostgreSQL Support
Oracle and PostgreSQL are now fully supported.
BCrypt Support
The default algorithm for passwords is now based on BCrypt with work factors for better security and entropy. You can read more on bcrypt here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bcrypt
Password Policy
A new password policy is now in place for ContentBox for new and current users, which must be greater than 8 characters with at least one:
- Lower case character
- Upper case character
- Digit
- Special character
Login Tracker
The ContentBox administrator module now comes with a login tracker which if enabled can track invalid logins and be able to block individual ip addresses from brute-force attempts. We even track all valid logins into the new ContentBox Security Audit Log.
Rate Limiter
ContentBox now comes with a rate limiter module that can limit count and duration and very configurable. This can stop denial of service attacks or just penetration hacking attempts.
SSL Support +
SSL support can now be found everywhere in ContentBox for both the UI and admin modules. Users can even select specific pages for users to transition into or out of SSL for richer eCommerce or secure experiences.
Internationalization
The majority of all modules have been now translated into English, Spanish, Italian, German and French. There is still work to do to localize the entire source, but it is coming.
Automated Asset Pipeline
We have completely re-architected our asset pipeline and ContentBox now comes with an integrated development pipeline for front-end development. All assets are now tracked via bower and npm. We have created a developer guide for anybody working with the admin assets and collaborating.
Front End
New ContentBox Theme
We have a new official UI theme that you will come to love. It has over 10 different skins and configurations that will give you a plethora of configuration patterns for your site. It is based on bower and grunt assets, so you can easily fork and customize.
RESTFul Response Formats
The UI module now allows you to be able to export your pages, or blog entries in many response formats by adding the formats as extensions to the URL or using a ?format=XXX URL variable.
- json
- XML
- word
http://localhost/home.json http://localhost/blog.json http://localhost/blog/websockets.xml
The JSON and XML support means you can now build alternative UI modules based on modern JavaScript or other language frameworks. This is a game changer for ContentBox as it will provide you with the ability to export any piece of content or blog in a tranportable RESTFul format. You can get a response format from any page, blog entry, blog archive, and blog filters.
JSON Output
{
"HTMLDescription": "",
"HTMLKeywords": "",
"allowComments": false,
"categories": [
{
"category": "coldbox",
"slug": "coldbox"
}
],
"children": [],
"comments": [],
"content": "Support services
\r\n\r\nSorry, no related content was found.
\r\n\r\nLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut odio. Nam sed est. Nam a risus et est iaculis adipiscing. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Integer ut justo. In tincidunt viverra nisl. Donec dictum malesuada magna. Curabitur id nibh auctor tellus adipiscing pharetra. Fusce vel justo non orci semper feugiat. Cras eu leo at purus ultrices tristique.
",
"contentID": 147,
"contentType": "Page",
"createdDate": "20 Jul 2013 03:38 PM",
"customfields": [],
"excerpt": "",
"expireDate": "N/A",
"featuredImageURL": "",
"isDeleted": false,
"modifiedDate": "May 3, 2016 4:23: 25 PM CDT",
"publishedDate": "20 Jul 2013 03:38 PM",
"relatedcontent": [],
"showInMenu": true,
"slug": "support",
"title": "support"
}
Administrator
Admin UI
The administration module sports a completely re-designed responsive UI. Our goal was to think mobile first and build from there. So you will see tons of great additions for working on mobile devices, new editors, new fullscreen mdoes and much much more. Below is a nice image gallery of all the changes in the administration module. Please note that every single screen has changed.
Markdown Native Support
ContentBox now sports native Markdown support for writing all content objects. You can even choose markdown on a per-user level as your preferred writing style.
New Code Editor
We have included a new code editor that supports HTML and Markdown natively. This will allow developers or editors to write in native markup and have all the integrations into ContentBox. It also sports realtime previews and side-by-side editing in full screen. Your editing experience is about to get a whole lot better now.
Editor Auto Save
We have introduced local storage auto saving capabilities for all editors in ContentBox. No matter the implementation, we will provide auto-save capabilities. This is a great way to know that silently your work is secure.
Editor Responsive Previews
All live previews are now responsive. Meaning you can choose from the responsive previewer the type of device and get immediate feedback of the content result in real-time.
Admin Fullscreen Mode
We have added HTML5 fullscreen mode capabilities for the admin UI. This will allow you to go full screen to edit, create and manage in a gorgeous huge display.
Content Featured Images
All content objects now have the ability to set natively a featured image alongside the content.
Theme Updates
Themes not Layouts
Themes is our new mantra. We have transitioned layouts to what we now call ContentBox Themes. They have been revamped to support ColdBox 4.
Theme Setting Groups
You can now create theme setting groups in the theme descriptor Theme.cfc and the new admin UI will present them in a categorized and ordered format. This is a great way to visualize theme settings.
Theme Modules
Themes can now include ContentBox modules in a new folder convention called modules. This allows you to ship your theme with 1 or a billion modules.
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