Cascade CMS 8.11

Features/Improvements

• We've updated the on-submit Accessibility content check to reflect HTML5 recommendations for table captions.
•   Cascade Cloud users can now enable additional WCAG 2.0 tests in the on-submit Accessibility content check.
• We've introduced Shared Fields for Data Definitions, which allow you to manage, update, and share individual fields and field groups across Data Definitions and across sites.
•   Cascade Cloud users can now integrate with Widen Collective or Webdam to allow users to browse and select assets in their digital asset management library from within the WYSIWYG editor.
• The Database Optimizer Tool will now run as a background task and appear in the Background Tasks Report. A notification will be sent to the user when the task is completed.
• We've added more fine-grained formatting controls to WYSIWYG Editor Configurations. Individual built-in formats in the WYSIWYG Formats dropdown can now be enabled/disabled and advanced custom formats can be used to target and/or generate styled content.
• Preview options will be pre-populated when editing a Format from a page's region assignments. Selected preview options will also be retained to prevent having to select the same options again.
• When editing a Format, you can now increase the height of the bottom preview pane.
•   Cascade Cloud users have a new site-wide Accessibility Report, which allows you to monitor and review WCAG 2.0 accessibility issues across your entire site.
• When publish requests expire, they're now properly deleted. This prevents issues when deleting Sites and Destinations caused by leftover expired requests.
• We've added indexes to metadata columns in tables to improve the speed of metadata-based API queries.
• The "Save & Preview" button is now the "Preview Draft" button. We believe this better describes the function of the button and should help reduce confusion on the part of users submitting content.
• Users will now be asked to confirm if they want to navigate away from content checks when submitting content.
• A new custom Metadata field type, the date/time field, is now available. This offers an alternative to using the static Start/End Date metadata fields or Data Definition date/time fields.
• A new Cascade API method, DynamicMetadataField.hasValue(), is now available. Much like StructuredDataNode.hasTextValue(), this new method checks if a custom Metadata field contains the specified value. Review the API changelog for this and other improvements to the internal API.
• Labels can now be added to checkbox, radio, drop-down, and multi-select values in custom Metadata Set fields and Data Definition fields. This allows developers to change the visible label for field values without affecting existing stored values.
• A new report, User Activity, provides statistics on a number of common actions such as asset creations, deletions, edits, and user logins.
• When editing Velocity Formats, a button has been added to the code editor to display information about the various tools, methods, and properties available.

Issues Fixed

• Tags are now included when copying a Site.
• The Default setting for Dynamic Metadata field values will once again load properly when editing a Metadata Set. For radio and dropdown fields, this setting will once again be restricted to one per field.
• Index Blocks which index Feed Block content will no longer be cached if there's an issue loading the feed.
• The New Content dashboard widget will once again use the selected Site's base Asset Factory Container, configurable in the Site Settings, when determining what Asset Factories to load.
• Viewing audits will once again default to being sorted chronologically.
• Addressed an issue where orphaned structured data nodes in assets using a Data Definition could prevent changes to the asset from being submitted.
• Orphaned unpublish requests will no longer prevent their associated Destination and/or Site from being deleted.
• Groups with invalid names (e.g. containing single quotes) will no longer cause choosers in areas such as Site Role assignments and access rights settings to work incorrectly.
• Fixed an SSL handshake failure when enabling the Siteimprove CMS plugin. See Upgrade Guide for details on the upgraded Java JRE we've bundled.
• Addressed an issue where null values in the Broken Link Report could cause the report to fail to load when filtering.
• Fixed a typo in the expiration warning help text.
• Addressed an issue where folders may not be displayed in the folder tree or folder chooser if they had colliding folder orders.
• Addressed an issue affecting instances running on SQL Server where, under certain circumstances, Index Block rendering could result in higher than normal database CPU usage.
• Discrepancies between the displayed date/time and the date/time when hovering over timestamps throughout the system have been corrected.
• Non-current versions of child assets are no longer included when performing a read operation on a folder with Web Services or REST API.
• Searching for the same term more than once (e.g. about about) will no longer prevent search results from loading.
• We've reworked asset recycling in the system to address instances where assets can become corrupted on recycle. Folder recycling now occurs as a background job that's available to view in the Background Tasks Report.

• Java 8u191 Required
• First time installation?
• Upgrade Steps
• Which installer should I use?

Java 8u191 Required

Cascade CMS 8.11 requires Java 8u191 or later. The Windows and macOS installer packages are bundled with the updated JRE for easy execution. If you're using the ZIP installer, you'll need to ensure you're pointing the application to a Java 8u191 JRE. See this page for instructions on updating Cascade CMS to point to a JRE.

First time installation?

Be sure to import our default database schema prior to installing Cascade CMS for the first time. Then follow the appropriate installation instructions for your environment.

Upgrade Steps

1. Shut down your currently running Cascade CMS environment.
2. Before you upgrade, we strongly recommend that you back-up your production database as well as set up a test environment and perform a trial run of the upgrade. All customers are entitled to a test license for this purpose.
3. Read the release notes and upgrade guides for all releases between your version and the latest version.
4. Check the table below to see which installer type is required.

Which installer should I use?

With certain upgrade paths, a full installation of Cascade CMS is required in order to ensure that the application has the latest required libraries. See the table below for a summary of which installer you should use based on the version from which you are upgrading. For any versions that do not require a full installation, using the ROOT.war upgrade method is allowed.