Team ContentBox is delighted to bring ContentBox v2.0.0 finally to production release.  We have been very busy setting up internal system, automations and builds in order to make this release a reality.  This release brings in tons of fixes, ColdFusion 11 compatibilities and some great new features.  Not only that but version 2.1.0 and 2.2.0 are already under way as well, so expect them to be coming shortly as well building up on this new release.  You can either download the updates or use our auto-update panel to upgrade to this release.  Please be aware that this is a major release and you are most likely going to have to restart the CFML engine in order for changes to take effect, please also make any necessary backups.

As always, ContentBox can be downloaded in three different flavors.

• ContentBox Source: To deploy in any CFML engine (Adobe or Railo)
• ContentBox WAR: To deploy in any J2EE engine
• ContentBox Express: A pre-configured Tomcat+ContentBox engine

Download

Release Notes

You can read our very detailed release notes in our archive page so you can see all bug fixes, improvements and new features.  Below we will cover the major enhancements this release brings to the table, for bugs patched and improvements, check out the release notes.

Automation Has Arrived

We have been working hard to setup our integration servers and now you can enjoy of automated builds for ContentBox.  You can watch all the builds for each of our open source products but you can also get to our artifacts library for every single ContentBox version.  We have also automated the patching process and we now produce three patch versions:

• Standard: Which includes all file updates, database udpates and ColdBox updates
• DB Only: Which includes ONLY database updates
• No ColdBox: Which includes file updates and database updates but no embedded ColdBox

The last patch version is ideal for folks using custom Coldbox versions or centralized ColdBox versions.  The automation will also provide everybody access to our bleeding edge releases in full release, war, express and patch format.

Adobe ColdFusion 11 Compatibility

We have updated the core to support Adobe ColdFusion 11 due to some incompatibilities.

Media Manager Updates

We have completed our transition to HTML5 file uploads in our file manager and uploadify has bee completely removed now in favor of drag-drop and HTML5 file uploads.  We have also added a new setting called excludeFilter which allows you to exclude certain files/directories from showing in the manager.

excludeFilter = "Application.cfc";

UI Improvements

We have made several UI improvements for your usability pleasure:

• Stateful accordions, so now it remembers you :)
• User management ajaxified
  • Added filters for roles and permissions
  • Ability to see all users
• Nice User Gravatar for admin
• Updated JS libraries
• Migration to JavaScript Graphing tools for stats and reports

Comment Email Notifications

In our move to more notifications from ContentBox we have finalized Step 1: Comment Notifications.  All blog entries and pages which have comments enabled, now have the ability for the user to subscribe to comments from the comment form.  Once comments are made, they will be notified in a nice email template with the ability to unsubscribe or see all their comment subscriptions.

Related Content

All content objects (Entries, Pages, ContentStore) now have the ability to relate to other content and see which content relates to them.  We have also created a nice widget so you can display your related content items in the UI.  This is a great feature for localized sites, related articles and much more.

Custom Menu Builder

We have created a very flexible and powerful custom menu builder.  It will allow you to create as many menus as you like and have menu contributions from sources like JavaScript, URL, another menu, media, content objects, sub-menus and so much more.  With simple drag-drop you can be off and creating great constructed menus.  You also have a companion widget that will allow you to place the menu anywhere you want.  Menu's can also be exported, imported, shared and much more.

Enhanced Admin Menu Services

You can now influence the administrator top header menus and completely change the way the admin menu behaves, looks and feels.  Admin menu service methods that take in a 'label' and 'href' can now be a closure or UDF so it generates at runtime instead of inline.

Smart Editor Settings

You can now in any editor ask ContentBox to do setting replacements by using our ${setting_name} convention.  This allows you to create settings in your geek panel and retrieve them inside content very easily with a simple markup notation:

Hi and welcome to ContentBox version ${contentbox_version}

CBHelper Ability To Prepare UI Request

We have added a new method to the CBHelper object called prepareUIRequest() that can be used by module authors to tell ColdBox that the request is a ContentBox request. Thus, it will setup all prc/rc variables for you so you can even render your request in the current ContentBox layout.

Localization In Progress

We have started to localize all ContentBox modules, you will now see a language dropdown on your top-right corner on certain modules.  Not all have been translated, but it is a work in progress and the admin will be fully localized soon.

Widget Enhancements   

Widgets have been enhanced to support further UI annotations and inline help in the admin:

Methods

All widgets have a default method called renderIt() that executes when you call the widget. However, you can create as many public methods and ContentBox widget selector will allow you to select them. You can also ignore methods from ContentBox by annotating the method with a cbIgnore annotation:

Arguments

Every argument you create in these methods becomes alive in our widget inserter. The following properties of an argument are useful:

• Name: The name of the argument and also its label
• Label: The label to use for the argument instead of the name
• Hint: The help text shown to the user
• Type: The type the user must use and also adds validation
• Required: Used for validation
• Default: The default value for the argument

Drop downs & Multi-Select

You can create argument drop downs by using our options, optionsUDF, multiOptions, multiOptionsUDF annotations on your arguments. The options annotation is a list of options to show with a multiOptions counterpart. The optionsUDF, multiOptionsUDF is the name of the function in the same widget to call that MUST return a list or an array of options.

Recent Entries and Pages Sorting

You now have the ability to sort recent entries and pages by top visited, top popular and much more.

New Permissions

We have added some new permissions in this release thanks to our related content and menu builder features:

• EDITORS_RELATED_CONTENT : Ability to view the related content panel
• EDITORS_LINKED_CONTENT: Ability to view the linked content panel
• MENUS_ADMIN: Ability to manage the menu builder

New Interception Points

New interception points

• cbadmin_preDashboardTabContent : To influence dashboard content
• cbadmin_postDashboardTabContent: To influence dashboard content