Latest – Sitecore basics!

Challenge:

I’ve heard of Sitecore 6.4 Since its first release (yeap I know it’s not yet Recommended Version) and 6.5’s Technical preview is also available in market. But finally I got some time to thoroughly read on Sitecore 6.4 (I mentioned thoroughly here, because in my FF I opened Sitecore 6.4 blog so many time. But never got good time to read it thoroughly 🙂 ) So, I did a good reading and just pointing you to good resources on it and sharing my notes with you.

Solution:

First of all It’s Level 2 Update (Do you know about Sitecore Version Recommendation Policy and Version Policy? No? then worth to read my earlier article here)

Indicates a release that introduces new features, these are typically UI changes and updates of, for example, XSLT files, ASPX files, or APIs. Documentation and training materials will be updated.

I gone through following articles and documents:

http://adeneys.wordpress.com/2010/10/13/sneak-peek-at-sitecore-6-4/

http://sdn.sitecore.net/upload/sitecore6/64/what%27s%20new%20in%20sc6.4-a4.pdf

Read it through – both resources are really good. My Notes:

1. New and Unified Page Editor : Looks awesome, Have you seen VS 2010 ribbon? It looks similar to it! And very useful, lots of improvements you will see with Page Editor! (e.g. Layout Presets, Item Thumbnails, Page Editor Modes, Components)

2. Updated WYSIWYG editor : As you might be knowing Sitecore uses Telerik’s RadEditor and now it has been updated to “RadEditor for ASP.NET AJAX” — provides inline AJAX Spell checkers and automated HTML indenting. NEW UI and It’s faster!

3. Cloning – Create Clones [Remember Reference types in .NET ? same concept] from item, when parent item changes reflected to Clones, When Clone Changed and than Parent changed it asks what to do Sir?, When you delete parent item it lists all Clones and if you still delete parent item then clones will be simple item. It’s Reusable!

4. Layout Deltas : Earlier to Sitecore 6.4 If you have created item from Template and You do any changes in item’s layout details then Inheritance will be broken and it will say “broken link” and if you do changes in template’s standard values it will not be reflected and you have to go to everything Manually. Sitecore 6.4 does everything for you automatically! [smart right?] It store Delta of presentation details.

Conclusion, Lots of basic and simple change. But really effective features are there in Sitecore 6.4. Personally I liked Page Editor’s new Ribbon most! It looks simple yet professional! Let’s see when Sitecore makes it Recommended Version.

Happy Sitecoring! 🙂