Release Notes - EPiServer CMS 5 SP2

This document contains notes about the changed functionality in EPiServer CMS SP2. For further informaton about the changes in other EPiServer CMS 5 versions, please read the release notes for that release.

EPiServer CMS Manager 2.0.19.8 will be automatically installed if the server is connected to the internet. An offline installation is also available if the server is not connected to the internet.

Migrating EPiServer CMS 4.62 Sites to CMS 5 SP2

We only support upgrade of EPiServer CMS 5 sites to EPiServer CMS 5 SP2. A migration tool is now available as Release Candidate 1 for migrating EPiServer CMS 4.62 sites to EPiServer CMS 5 SP2. Download EPiServer CMS Migration Tool RC1.

New and Enhanced Functionality

EPiServer CMS 5 SP2 mainly contains bug fixes and no new functionality. A list of issues that have been solved in this release is available on EPiServer World. http://www.episerverworld.com/Support/Bug-List/ (partner access required).

Support for 64-bit Windows 2003 Server

EPiServer CMS 5 SP2 has been tested on 64-bit version of Windows 2003 Server, which is now officially supported. No special instructions are required for this scenario.

Configuration Changes in EPiServer CMS 5 SP2

Some configuration changes have been implemented due to a requirement to support multiple sites in IIS with a single EPiServer CMS installation with all sites using the same start page. The requirement to use the same start page for the different sites makes it impossible to use the standard Enterprise-style configuration with multiple <site> sections in web.config, since each Enterprise site must have a unique start page.

Prior to EPiServer CMS 5 SP2, EPiServer CMS used the IIS application ID to identify the correct <site> section and it was impossible for two or more IIS sites to use the same <site> section. Each IIS site had a unique application ID.

Summary of Changes

• Attribute applicationID on the <site> element is deprecated. If present it will simply be ignored.
• The <site> element to use is defined by the <siteHosts> element. The host name of each incoming request is mapped against the host names listed in each <siteHosts> element.
• Attribute siteID is now used to identify the <site> elements. Each <site> section should have a unique siteID value. The attribute has been present since EPiServer CMS 5 R1, but has not been used previously.
• Attribute siteShortName on <siteSettings> is deprecated. Use the siteID instead where you previously used siteShortName.

Backwards Compatibility

An existing web.config file should continue to work unmodified, even though it is recommended to implement the changes above. Compatibility mechanisms are:

• If no siteID exists, use the value from siteShortName.
• If both siteID and siteShortName exists, they must have the same value.
• If you try to access siteShortName when the attribute is not defined, you will get the value from siteID.

New Supported Scenarios

With the changes outlined above, several new configuration scenarios for EPiServer CMS are supported.

1. Multiple IIS sites can use the same <site> section when sharing the same set of files between IIS sites. This is the scenario that caused the changes.
2. You can set up an Enterprise configuration with multiple EPiServer CMS sites installed in virtual directories under a single IIS site

Note Scenario 2 also has a potential risk with the following web.config (very abbreviated). When configuring a single IIS site to respond to both www.company.com and www.othercompany.com, you have the possibility of entering an URL like http://www.company.com/othercompany, i.e. by the hostname you are identifying Site1, but the virtual path belongs to Site2. This will be regarded as an error and an exception is thrown.

Changed Settings in web.config

There are several changes affecting the properties in web.config. Further information about the settings in web.config can be found in the technical note Configuration in EPiServer CMS 5.

• siteShortName is obsolete from CMS 5 SP2.
• errorMailHandler is new in EPiServer CMS 5 SP2.
  This setting is used when error handling is used and an e-mail address is set in globalErrorMail. In this case a form will appear for the user when errors occur. Before CMS 5 SP2, the form always posted to SendErrorReport.aspx, which sent an e-mail to globalErrorMail, making it easy to overload the e-mail address. This has been changed so that it uses the value in errorMailHandler instead. This makes it possible to manage the posted information, making it easier to reduce spam.