Cascade Server 5.5
Release Summary
Highlights of Cascade Server 5.5:
Content Types
The addition of Content Types with the release of Cascade 5.5 provides users with a way of formally aggregating Configuration Sets, Metadata Sets, and Data Definitions into a single Administrative component that can be applied to pages. Content Types provide an intuitive and logical way for end-users to identify the proper type to associate with a page by grouping together the necessary configurations for predefined page types with familiar names, such as Blog Posts, Press Releases, Announcements, etc. Much in the way Cascade Server utilizes Asset Factories to create predefined recognizable assets such as pages, templates, etc., Content Types are given simple names that clearly identify their purpose to end users. The addition of Content Types simplifies the page edit interface by consolidating previous options into one Content Type chooser. This provides a single point of control for Administrators to modify a page's Configuration Set, Metadata Set, and/or Data Definition for selected pages without requiring a Bulk Change operation.
Customizable Roles
Customizable Roles allows all administrator-level users to enable or disable the capabilities associated with each of the five existing roles. Roles in Cascade will continue to come with a set of default capabilities as they have in the past. However with the release of 5.5, these roles can be completely customized, if desired.
The following are just some of the customizable role capabilities available on the edit screen to be modified by administrators with the release of Cascade 5.5:
Administration
- ability to access Asset Factories
- ability to access Publish Sets
Security
- ability to create users
- ability to delete groups
Home Area
- ability to modify Content Types
- ability to assign workflows to folders
Publishing
- ability to view publish queue
- ability to publish Publish Sets, Targets, and Destinations
Workflows
- ability to bypass workflows
- ability to approve steps in workflows
New User Preferences
Left-Hand Side Navigation Tree
A new user preference has been added that will allow a user to specify whether or not the left-hand asset navigation tree will be shown by default upon login. This preference will only apply if the user's cookie to show/hide the left-hand navigation has not been set. This cookie is set whenever a user clicks on the arrow to expand or collapse the left-hand navigation. The old system preference regarding the left-hand asset navigation tree has been converted into a more general system preference. It no longer references a particular role; it exists solely to be a default value for the new user preference when the user preference is not set.
Bypass Workflow by Default
A new user preference has been added that will allow users, who have the ability to bypass workflow, to specify whether or not workflow should be bypassed by default. This preference is used to determine the default state of various checkboxes labeled "Bypass Workflow", "Workflow", etc on screens throughout the system. The old system preference regarding bypassing workflow for Publishers and above has been converted into a more general system preference that will act as a default for the new user preference. To reiterate, this user preference is only available to users who have the ability to bypass workflow which can be configured through the new role editing interface.
Other Important Preference Changes
- Publish Job Reordering Required Minimum Role (Removed) - The ability to re-order the publish queue was previously controlled by a System Preference. This now appears as an Ability on the Role edit screen. A reasonable default was assumed for this ability which is to only allow Administrators to re-order the publish queue.
- Allow all roles to upload zip files (Removed) - Granting users access to the zip archive upload tool is now controlled at the Role level. This ability can be toggled on or off for any Role. A reasonable default was assumed for this ability which is to only allow Administrators and Managers to upload zip archives.
- Default Tidy Behavior (Added) - A new checkbox has been added to the Content tab of the System Preferences area which sets the default tidy behavior. When this preference is enabled, the tidy checkbox on various editing screens will be checked by default.
- Un-publish checked by default on entity delete screen for all Publishers and above (Moved) - This preference has been moved to the user preferences screen. Because roles can now be customized, any role may have the ability to publish assets. This preference will only appear on the user preferences screen if the user has the ability to publish assets in Cascade.
- Allow Managers to create users (Removed) - The ability for Managers to create users has been removed as this ability is now controlled at the role level. By default, Administrators and Managers have the ability to create users.
Release Notes
Issues Resolved in 5.5
Bug
- [CSCD-4178] - Error when Publish clicked: "An error occurred during publish: query did not return a unique result"
- [CSCD-4250] - Editing a folder validates all the descendants and fails if any of them are invalid
- [CSCD-4318] - "Advanced Options" checkboxes don't work properly for low-level users that have them disabled
- [CSCD-4334] - Web Services assumes static 5 static role names
- [CSCD-4365] - Database Update 5_0_315 fails on Oracle 9i when upgrading to 5.x series
Improvement
- [CSCD-4207] - Make Full Name and Email not required for editing and creating Users in WSDL
- [CSCD-4362] - Add HTML Tidy preference to enable/disable this option by default
- [CSCD-4363] - Add System/User layered preferences for controlling default behavior of "Workflow" checkboxes
- [CSCD-4364] - Add System/User layered preferences for controlling whether or not the LHS is collapsed for users with no cookie
New Feature
The complete 5.5 Change Log can also be found in JIRA.
Upgrade Guide
Upgrading to Cascade Server 5.5 from All Previous Versions
General Notes
Upgrading to version 5.5 of Cascade Server requires a full database clean which will cause the upgrade to take longer than other 5.x to 5.x upgrades. Please be patient and allow all startup tasks to complete before shutting down the server.
These tasks include:
- Applies structural changes to the database
- Verifies all indexes, primary keys, foreign keys
Upgrade procedure
Before attempting to upgrade, please perform the following steps:- Clear the Publish Queue -- All jobs currently in the publish queue *must* be removed before upgrading. The publish queue has been re-designed to alleviate CSCD-4178. Leaving jobs in the publish queue will likely cause the upgrade to fail!
- Re-compile Custom Plugins -- The Cascade Server Plugin API has been modified and will require that all custom plugins be recompiled using the updated API libraries. This includes Asset Factory plugins, Publish Triggers, Custom Authentication modules. As with all upgrades, please test all custom plugins in a test environment before deploying them to a production server. Instructions explaining how to deploy plugins can be found in the general upgrade guide.
- Asset Factory Plugin ( Documentation | SDK | API JAR )
- Publish Trigger ( Documentation | SDK | API JAR )
- Custom Authentication ( Documentation | API JAR )
- Test/Update Web Services Scripts with latest WSDL -- The Cascade WSDL API has changed; therefore, all web services scripts must be re-compiled (if using Axis stub classes generated using WSDL2Java) and tested in a test environment. Most scripts will not require any code changes, but stub classes will need to be re-generated and re-compiled.
- After taking any pertinent actions listed above, please see our general upgrade guide for step-by-step upgrade instructions.