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EPiServer 7.1 CMS available in the Add-on Store
Apr 03, 2013
Today we're releasing EPiServer 7.1 CMS. This release not only contains new features for marketers, it's also utilizing the new functionality that we introduced in EPiServer 7: The Add-on Store. Instead of downloading the release from EPiServer World you find it directly in the EPiServer UI and you can install it with just a few clicks. The EPiServer platform takes care of the upgrade process as well as dependency handling, which minimizes the IT involvement. For customers this means a much faster way to adapt to an ever changing market and moving forward you will see us focusing on making sure that our customers have the latest tools available at hands. With this release it means multi-variate testing that learns which content that gives the visitors the best experience as well as a new way of personalizing content blocks such as teasers and forms.
Intelligent optimization
The new multivariate test feature is intelligent. It learns over time what content works best for your visitor segments and displays that more often. This allows marketers to optimize the customer experience with less effort. You will notice that you work with test and optimization following the same pattern as for content - using drag and drop. We're also introducing the notion of a goal driven content pattern: you start with the goal for your page or block and then you create the content that should drive the visitor to that goal.
Personalization of blocks
Personalization has been a key part of EPiServer CMS since version 6 R2 and was one of the most loved features in Composer since it was easy for marketers to setup different messaging to different target segments. In EPiServer 7.1 CMS we're taking it one step further making it possible to create blocks in one place that later can utilize information about the visitor and target the message accordingly. This information, or user context, can for example be the location of the user, what type of content he or she has interacted with on your site earlier or what device that's being used. Since blocks can be re-used across channels this becomes really powerful. Another example is to run a multi-variate test only for a specific visitor segment.
Workflows and languages
With EPiServer 7.1 CMS the standard workflows makes a comeback. This means that you can use all workflows from within the UI. Active workflows are highlighted making it easy to find what's assigned to you and take action on it. We have also made improvements to the language handling. You can now toggle between different languages using the View Settings button and all content, including blocks, can be in different languages.
Other improvements include a faster and more responsive UI and a settings header available on all content giving you quick access to the most important properties. Just scroll up when inside edit mode to see it.
Social Reach
A new version of EPiServer Social Reach is also available through the add-on store. Social Reach drives traffic from social media to owned media and connects the content creation process with social media communication. The add-on allows for social messages to be created, delivered and tracked within a single interface. New features include scheduling, the possibility to re-send failed messages, and on page access to social engagement. By removing many small steps such as publishing content in social networks, creating shortened URLs, and adding analytic tracking tags, marketers become more agile in increasing traffic to their sites.
Related documents
- Release notes for EPiServer CMS 7.1
- Installation instructions for EPiServer CMS 7.1
- User guides for EPiServer 7.1
- User guide for EPiServer Social Reach
- User guide for EPiServer Self-Optimizing Block
Comments
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Great news! One Q though - how does CMS 7.1 relate to CMS 7 Patch 2? Is it included or do we need to apply patch 2 on top of 7.1?
I have the same questions as Johan. And I hope that we don't need to apply the patch as well.
Both the 7.1 and patch2 broke my Alloy demo site which didn't feel so good.
Patches to EPiServer 7 are neither required nor included in the system add-ons. If you look at Linus image in the this article: http://world.episerver.com/Blogs/Linus-Ekstrom/Dates/2013/3/Information-regarding-add-ons-and-dependencies/ the patches apply to the gray box and the 7.1 release is basically a new version of the green box.
With that said, since the green box have a dependency on the gray box, a patch applied on the gray box will impact the green box (hopefully for the better). :)
Per, have you reported this issue, if not, please send me (ft at ep dot se) or developer support the details so that we can have a look.
Where's the installation downloads for 7.1?
If I want to do a fresh install, do I need to install 7.0, and then upgrade it to 7.1 via the add-on store?
Can I use the old-fashioned way of upgrading a site by using the installer?
Stephan, You need to install the Add-on via the addon store to get 7.1
Note that if you're updating 7.1 on your development environment and using TFS, the .dll files in the /modulesbin folder in your web home directory will probably be read-only. This ends up in a login-window when trying to update + some removed files in your VPP/ModulesRepository.
Make sure that /modulesbin/ files are "checked out for edit" or at least not read-only.
I've installed the Add-on store, via the Add-on store and now the add-on store doesn't work, it just remains blank. I've cleared all temp internet files as well... any ideas?
I must say that these releases have been terrible.
The first patch caused the site to crash and i probably spent 4-6 hours just to get the project working again.
The update to 7.1 crashed and now both the edit and admin mode have dissappeared.
Earlier i have been a firm preacher about how well tested episerver products are but i am not so impressed on the later releases, EPiServer 7.0 is more or less a Beta release and neither of the two updates have been successfully installed.
@EPiServer: Please let us download the files only so that we can upgrade safely, the "one click install" is just useless when something goes wrong!
I also had problems with the update to 7.1. The solution was to manually copy the add-ons from modulesrepository to modules and then delete all temporary asp.net files. I must say that this solution wasn't very obvious.
@DanielNordmark: Thanks for the information, this did however not work for me so I will have to continue digging....
Here comes an update:
If you have basePath pointing towards a test server (for shared vpp files) the upgrade process will fail.
Solution: Change the basePath to a local folder and re run the upgrade, manually copy the add-ons, clear the temporary asp.net files and run iisreset.exe.
Obvious, isn't it!
tjompa, I'm guessing your issue with not seeing Edit/Admin related to the ASP.NET cache. For anyone with similar issues post install I'd try this first.
If I switch UICulture in web.config to en, da, de and fi the edit/admin mode loads fine but not with sv :-(
Hi Martin,
I have not been able to reproduce this. Can you make sure that the file exists in the vpp/modules folder? If not, can you have look and see if there is a Modules\shell\1.0.456\ClientResources\EPi\shell\nls folder that contains that file? If that's the case I suspect that NuGet thinks that this file has been "touched" and therefor avoids replacing it.
@Tomas,
We are addressing the deployment issues, trust me we want to get this right. This will not mean that our add-on deployment will go away. Instead we want to make it more robust to handle different environment configurations better.
@Fredrik,
It sounds good that you are looking into the deployment issues.
I as many else would however like to have the possibility to download the files separately and do the update process manually since this gives us full control over what happens.
I suspect from your answer that this will not be the case?
I'm also having some issues upgrading, upon restarting site i get 'An item with the same key has already been added.'
the full problem is noted in this forum thread:
http://world.episerver.com/Modules/Forum/Pages/Thread.aspx?id=70106&epslanguage=en
@Martin,
Is it possible for you to zip up your solution including vpps so that we can have a look? Mail me (ft at ep dot se).
Thanks,
@Mike,
We have seen this issue on projects that have a assembly reference to an add-on assembly. When the add-on gets updated now suddenly to versions of the same assembly are loaded which causes this issue. The rule is that anything that is taking a dependency on an add-on needs to be an add-on itself. See "Taking dependencies to an assembly located in an add-on" in Linus blog http://world.episerver.com/Blogs/Linus-Ekstrom/Dates/2013/3/Information-regarding-add-ons-and-dependencies/ .
No problems at all over here! Knock on wood. Great work!
I'd like an article on advice on what to put under source code control and not. And what the roles are of each path I've seen affected, /AppData/Modules /AppData/ModulesRepository, /modules, /modulesbin etc and also on how and when the Program Files-paths are overridden.
>I'd like an article on advice on what to put under source code control and not...
+1
@Fredrik,
Yes the file exists there and to make this even more odd I've noticed that this behavior only occur in Firefox, I'll try to pack things up and send them to you.
What Kronberg said - it would be really helpful to have an explanation for the AppData files and folders. Should they be source controlled? Should they be part of the deploy package?
Like it has been said before - What should be included in source control and handled through normal release procedures and what should not?
Also I have a question on the following advice from the Installation Instuctions: "Make sure that that the application pool user of the target site has read, modify, and create permissions in the site folder and in the site VPP folder. If not, your update will fail."
What specific folders/files is subject to be modified by the AddOn store? I'm reluctant to give the apppool modify permissions on the entire site folder.
I'm also facing most of the problems mentioned above. I have VPP with modules folder on shared location, project in TFS and after unsuccessful update CMS and Add-ons disappeared totally. What would be the best practice for storing modules and modulesrepository folders as in project template they are located in same folder with other VPP folders?
...and in addition to "modules" and "modulesrepository" there is also folder "modulesbin" under project root to which some dll get copied while installing add-ons. I would really like to see someone creating a blog entry or similar about what is the preferred way handling these.
... And yet another folder "modules" under project root, package "Self optimizing block" was installed to this folder, and I should probably add this too to TFS. Confusing...
Due to a bug in TinyMCE EPIServer advised me to do the update. After doing it all my MainBody content on generic content page has been lost and i cant logon into Edit mode (Legacy Edit and Admin mode still works)
The error i see is
Server Error in '/' Application.
Compilation Error
Description: An error occurred during the compilation of a resource required to service this request. Please review the following specific error details and modify your source code appropriately.
Compiler Error Message: CS1061: 'System.Web.UI.Page' does not contain a definition for 'ConfigureDojo' and no extension method 'ConfigureDojo' accepting a first argument of type 'System.Web.UI.Page' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)
Source Error:
Line 14:
Line 15:
Line 16: <%=page.configuredojo(false, true, true) %>
Line 17:
Line 18: <%=page.clientresources("shellcore", new[] { clientresourcetype.style })%>
Source File: /34563414f3432ed23/ui/Shell/Views/Shared/Sleek.Master Line: 16
Show Detailed Compiler Output: