DNN Release Notes — 2016 Jan 14

DNN PLATFORM 8.0.0

CodePlex

The following are breaking changes that can impact upgrades as well as third-party extensions:

  • .NET 4.5.1 or higher is now required.
  • Removed the following administration modules from the product: Site Log, Newsletters, Vendors, and Banners. Although no longer supported, these can be downloaded from DNNCommunity in GitHub.
  • Removed the following navigation providers: ASP2Menu, DNNDropDown, DNNMenu, DNNTree, Solpart.
  • Removed the following functionality/modules: What’s New, Feed Browser, Widget Framework, Getting Started, Content List.
  • Removed the legacy appSetting connection string. Modules that have not been updated for this change in the past years will now break.
  • Moved Telerik controls to a new assembly, requiring third-party extensions to recompile to continue to work. This will be phased out completely in subsequent releases.
  • Removed support for Internet Explorer 8.
  • These third party modules (core modules that formerly shipped with the Platform) break in this upgrade and must be upgraded:

The following updates are geared towards extension developers and theme designers:

  • Single Page Application (SPA) and MVC modules are now supported, so developers can create non-Webforms-based modules. Visual Studio 2015 templates for both types are also released.
  • The module settings API was updated to support strongly typed settings.
  • Incremental upgrade support is now possible through SqlDataProvider, cleanup files, and configuration merge files. This allows changes to the platform or third-party extensions without requiring a new versioned release.
  • Extension developers can now create admin and host pages through the DNN Manifest (.dnn).
  • Developers can now exclude individual CSS and/or JS files from being loaded or combined during minification through a new control.
  • Default.css now has versioning support, which can be set by theme designers to reduce the CSS that their themes need to override.
  • Third party components (CodeMirror and Newtonsoft) were upgraded to newer versions.
  • DAL 2 is enhanced to add a fluent configuration API that allows developers to separate their data implementation details from their models.
  • The DNN Platform now uses Web API 2.0.
  • JSON Web Token (JWT) authentication support is added to allow developers a way to expose WebAPI services for consumption outside of the framework, such as mobile applications. Warning: This feature is still in beta.

Additional changes:

  • A new image handler is exposed to developers to be used for profile pictures throughout the application.
  • CK Editor is the new default HTML provider in new installations (replacing the Telerik RadEditor as default).
  • A number of Administration modules (including Vendors, Site Log, Newsletters) were removed from the base installation.
  • A new default theme that uses Bootstrap 3 is now available.
  • The base project was converted from a Website Project (WSP) to a Web Application Project (WAP) to help reduce application startup time.
  • The page output caching provider was moved from Evoq to the DNN Platform.
  • Password resets now use the same token as long as it isn't expired. This means that, if the user clicks Send password multiple times quickly, only a single token will be generated.
  • Password inputs now allow 39 characters instead of 20.
  • The default robots.txt now allows client-side resources to be indexed.
  • Text used throughout the entire application were reviewed for consistency.
  • The Breadcrumb theme object now outputs schema.org markup.
  • Fixed: The issue where some platform functionality injected CSS files too late, so that they couldn't be modified by skin.css.
  • SMTP now supports TLS authentication.

DNN EVOQ 8.3.0

DNN EVOQ CONTENT BASIC

  • All updates included with DNN Platform 8.0.0.
  • Added ability to manage a user’s roles within the Users section of the Persona Bar.
  • Corrected several problems around generating URLs for Digital Asset Manager.
  • Additional minor enhancements and bug fixes.

DNN EVOQ CONTENT

  • All updates included with Evoq Content Basic 8.3.0.
  • Added Optimizely connector and module that provides a way to do A/B (split) testing within Evoq.
  • Additional minor enhancements and bug fixes.

DNN EVOQ ENGAGE

  • All updates included with Evoq Content 8.3.
  • Added ability to subscribe to activity stream posts and their comments (for items created within the activity stream).
  • Added emoji support in activity stream.
  • Updated activity stream comment area to provide the same experience as creating a new post (support for images, videos, etc.).
  • Removed notifications for votes on Ideas.
  • Added ability to sort comments in Discussions module by newest or oldest (also available for third party extensions utilizing the commenting control of Engage).
  • Made it possible for users to delete posts from other users on their own activity stream.
  • Corrected problems where Ideas votes may not be returned or added back.
  • Additional minor enhancements and bug fixes.