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2sxc 8.1 with new WYSIWYG, file-library-fields, ADAM 1.2, Code-Editor and way more

Today we released 2sxc 8.1. It's an incredible milestone for us and the beta-testers were really, really excited. Here just the highlights, so you know what it's all about.

1. Brand New WYSIWYG Experience

2sxc is all about not using the WYSIWYG as the RTE (Rich Text Editor) is usually the biggest source of problems with content editors. Our goal was to revolutionize this experience and we've been at it for over half a year now. I wrote some blogs about the journey, evaluation and more - but the most important thing is the result, which looks like this: 

This is real - the WYSIWYG is basically invisible, and just works. Depending on the context and what you do, you'll see many toolbars supporting you as you work - as needed. For example, this is what you see when you enter the WYSIWYG-area: 

And when you are in a context - like a list or an image, the toolbars adapt:

And the thanks to a full integration of ADAM (see extensive blog about that) we now support dropping documents from your PC (to auto-upload-and-link) or images (to auto-upload-and-insert). 

Actually I'm writing this blog with 2sxc 8.1 and it's so much faster and just fun - compared to the times with the Telerik or CK-Editor before. Once you've given it a try, you'll never go back :)

2. New Field containing Library of Files (Assets)

There are many use cases where you have one entity (one record) which needs many files (images, documents), possibly grouped (folders) and also needing additional specs (metadata) for each folder (group-title, description) or file (image author, date, gps-coordinates, part-of-house-in-the-photo, etc.). 

Enter ADAM 1.2 which we developed exclusively to cater to this. This is now super-easy to use and implement - and looks like this:

Note that this also survives export/import of an App. Discover more in the blog post about ADAM 1.2

3. Code Editor with Intellisense and Sherlock Snippets

In brief: we completely replaced the view/code editor based on ACE editor. It's a brand-new experience and the new Sherlock-Snippets give you snippets based on your context. For example, if you're editing a Razor template and want to add a Snippet about the field Screenshots, then Sherlock-Snippets will realize that this is an ADAM File-Library and recommend C# snippets looping through all assets and showing metadata. Pretty cool (read more about it in the blog): 

4. Powerfull AG-Grid for Content-Items

When working with large lists of content-items then the current grid (which was just a table) didn't scale well. Now we rebuild it with AG-Grid and added features like column-sorting and filtering. Just like the WYSIWYG it's initially invisible and you won't notice it, but it will make your life much easier. Here's a screenshot:

5. Transitioning to Custom Font-Icons

So far our icons were based on the Bootstrap Glyphicons Halflings. There are many problems with such a setup, so we're now migrating to our custom font icons. This makes the solution faster and gives us more flexibility. I'll write about it someday. 

6. Page Template Import Export

A common use case is to create a template page with various modules, export it as a template and let your content-editors use this template to create new pages. Because of the unique way 2sxc handles content-items this didn't work well. It does now :)

7. Content-Type Sharing Now Easy

2sxc has supported content-type sharing across portals / apps since version 4 or 5, but it was well hidden and required SQL to configure it. Now it's in the admin-ui if you enter advanced mode. Read more about it here, and check out the screenshot: 

8. Designer (Admin / Host) In-Page Toolbar

Most commonly used features when configuring 2sxc or designing a template previously still needed the admin to enter the slow DNN Edit Mode. Not any more, the "..." more button has a new state for designing, showing all the commonly needed actions directly in the page. Read more about it here, the screenshot looks like this: 

Have fun

There's more - but you should just try it yourself. Download the newest 2sxc in the DNN forge and get going :). 

Love from Switzerland, 
Daniel


Daniel Mettler grew up in the jungles of Indonesia and is founder and CEO of 2sic internet solutions in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, an 20-head web specialist with over 800 DNN projects since 1999. He is also chief architect of 2sxc (see github), an open source module for creating attractive content and DNN Apps.

Read more posts by Daniel Mettler