DotNest sites upgraded to the latest Orchard Core (2.1.6) version
We have recently finished upgrading DotNest to the latest Orchard Core version (2.1.6) so that you can enjoy the very best and latest Orchard has to offer on your own sites too!
Coming from version 1.8.3, it was a fairly large task as both .NET/ASP.NET Core and Orchard introduced tons of changes: Some of them breaking, but also a large number of bug fixes, improvements and new features. Version 2.0 was especially impactful, as it includes important changes under the hood that increase the overall performance and reliability of the whole application. We are thankful for the huge (and ongoing) community effort that went into these releases!
Besides making everything more stable and better overall, how does this affect you as a site owner/operator? There's no easy answer, because it depends on how your site is configured, but we encourage you to check out the Orchard Core 2.0.0 and 2.1.0 release notes. Here are some of the highlights:
- We disabled the Email feature on sites that do not send emails (e.g., for user registration, password recovery, workflow email activity) so it won't bother you. Please let us know if this happened on your site by mistake.
- The Twilio SMS provider is no longer enabled by default, so if you use it to send text messages, enable it under the SMS settings.
- Media Indexing is now split up into a handful of features specific to a file types, so enable those if you want to keep indexing PDF, plain text, and Office files.
- Improvement: Dashboard Widget stereotype makes it easier to create dashboards.
- New features:
- Azure AI Search
- User Localization (on the Admin Dashboard)
- Secure Media Files give you control over how your media files are accessed.
- URL Rewriting for improved SEO.
- Workflow Trimming cleans up workflow instances beyond a specified retention period. This feature cannot be disabled and the retention period is maximized in 180 days.
- New workflow event: User Confirmed
- New permissions:
- Site Owner permission is deprecated, Administrator role is now a system role.
- Improved culture support in Liquid. Also see our tips on customizing the theme of your site.
How do you like this upgrade? Let us know in the comments below and thanks for using DotNest!