News in Litium Studio 4.5
New user interface
A new, modern user interface is developed for Litium Studio. The new start menu is reached from the Litium Studio logo at the very top left. The start menu includes all modules, a help section, control panel and possibilities to log out. The user interface is created as a skin, so it is possible to develop your own. Read more
Help section
A new help section is included in Litium Studio 4.5. It is accessed from the start menu. The help section is available in an online version and as a downloadable PDF-file.
Add-ons
Add-ons are a brand new concept of implementing your own functionality in Litium Studio. In Litium Studio 4.5 it is possible to implement add-ons that are visible for a entire module. An add-on consists of a content panel (which is accessible from a node called “Add-ons” that will be visible in the left menu of the specific module) and a settings panel (which is accessible from the administration view). The add-ons are administrated from the Control Panel / System Settings / Modules. Select the module to which this add-on should be connected and select “Module Add-ons” in the toolbar. To develop your own add-ons, please read here for more information.
New starter site
A newly designed starter site with new page types is now included. This site has a fresh design, a new modern HTML and CSS implementation and e-commerce focus. Read more about the starter site
Search based navigation
Along with the new user interface, a new way to navigate in Litium Studio has been introduced. It is no longer necessary to navigate your way down into a structure; instead you can easily search using Litium Studio Ajax search at the very top right. Searching will only be performed in the current module. Start typing and hits that are similar to your search term will be displayed on the fly. Hit enter and you will see a search result page, in which you can filter, sort and possibly work with multiple items at the same time.
Left menu
The left menus are changed, both technically and visually. It also includes an Ajax-splitter, which is useful to maximize the working area.
Context menu accessed by right click in left menu
The context menu is available when right clicking an object in the left menu. The implementation of the context menu depends on the object itself. If you are right clicking on a web page, you will see other options than if you are right clicking on a product page.
Toolbar
The toolbar is improved, both technically and visually. In former versions of Litium Studio, the toolbar was divided so that the left part of the toolbar only included functions for the left menu. Today, the toolbar includes all functions, although functions which are not available are grayed out.
Search
Litium Studio 4.5 implements a wrapped version of Lucene as search engine. It is used both for the public web site as well as in back office. Lucene handles a very large amount of data. It also handles fuzzy search (a specific license is necessary for the fuzzy search on the public web site. The fuzzy search is always working in back office, independent of license) and a wide range of search functionalities. It is also possible to develop your own functions for filtering and searching data.
Web.Config
The web.config is restructured to better support extending Litium Studio. A new element, which is called <litium> are defined. In that section all functionality connected to Litium Studio are to be found. Read more about web.config
Data saved on disc instead of database
In Litium Studio 4.5 all file data are now stored on disc instead of in database. When upgrading to Litium Studio 4.5, all data will be moved during the upgrade process. The files catalog, where data is located is also restructured.
- PriceList
- Contains the files that can be sent to price agents.
- Search
- All indicies for Lucene are stored here.
- SiteMaps
- Contains Google SiteMap files.
- Storage
- An internal file structure that are used by Litium Studio when storing images and files.
File structure
The file structure is reorganized to better support extending and upgrades. In former versions the separation between Litium Studio and project files has not been distinct.
- App_Code
- All files are associated to the reference implementation.
- LitiumStudio
- This folder only includes files that are used by Litium Studio. Everything in this folder will be overwritten during an upgrade. All files that was stored under /Pages and /Modules are now stored in one folder called LitiumStudio.
- Site
- Everything in this folder is project specific and it contains all templates, add-ons etc. This content will not be updated during an upgrade.
- Each module has its own folder.
- Site/CMS
- Editor folder contains editor CSS, editor templates and editor configuration for the CMS module.
- Templates folder contains all templates, user controls and frameworks.
- The Error page and PageNotFound page are located in the CMS folder.
- Site/Ecommerce
- Campaigns folder contains the user controls of all campaigns delivered with Litium Studio.
- DeliveryProvider folder contains the user controls that are used by delivery providers.
- PaymentProviders folder contains the user controls that are used by payment providers delivered with Litium Studio.
- Reports folder contains the user controls that are used by reports delivered with Litium Studio.
- Site/Newsletter
- Editor folder contains editor CSS, editor templates and editor configuration for the Newsletter module.
- Templates folder contains all templates.
- Site/ProductCatalog
- Editor folder contains editor CSS, editor templates and editor configuration for the Product Catalog module.
- Templates folder contains all display templates.
- Site/Skin
- Contains all custom made skins
User interface
The user interface of Litium Studio Web Publishing is improved according to the general design guide lines of Litium Studio. In the left menu, it is now possible to access a context menu by right clicking on a page. The context menu will provide you with functionalities which also might be shown in the toolbar, but by right clicking you won’t need to reload the page. It is a smart solution for quick operations.
Product catalog page
Litium Studio has separated product management and web content management even more. In former versions of Litium Studio, it was possible for the web editor to determine which display template that should be used for a product. Today, that is the responsibility of the product manager which will associate a display template with a field template. The product will then be displayed with the associated display template.
“New menu”
A new type, called Product catalog page, are displayed when creating a new page. The fold out menu will display all product page types (A page type which type is defined as Product Catalog).
Type of page type
In Litium Studio 4.5 a page type can either be of type “Product Catalog” or “Content”. The difference is that a “Product Catalog” page type can’t have a display template associated with itself. The display template is instead determined from the requested product. Product Catalog page types can still have properties and settings as a regular Content Page Type. Read more about page types
Utilities node
A new node, called “Utilities” is found in the left menu. It contains a node that is describing the icons used for defining different page statuses.
Spelling dictionaries are moved
Management of spelling dictionaries is now found under “Control Panel” / “System Settings” / “Spelling Dictionaries”.
URL
The URL engine of Litium Studio is rewritten to better support the modern SEO. The page extension (.aspx) and /web are now removed and a hierarchal URL is now used. A page will now have a URL name, which together with the URL of parent page and domain name will create the full URL.
URL example
Read more
Internal links
Internal links are no longer stored in text as clear URL. In former versions the exact URL was saved in Text Long fields, so if you changed the URL of the targeted page, the link would be broken. Today it is saved as an internal structure so it will always use the latest URL.
Configuration of HTML-editor
In Litium Studio 4.5 it is now possible to configure the HTML-editor used when editing web pages. The configuration file is located at Site\CMS\Editor\editorConfigure.js
User interface
The user interface of Litium Studio ECommerce is improved according to the general design guide lines of Litium Studio. In the left menu, five working areas are displayed (Order management, Deliveries, Payments, Campaigns and Reports). For each working area several quick links exists based on common operations for that working area.
Filter area
The filter area is introduced in Litium Studio 4.5, so users easier can handle large amount of data. Each working area has its own filter area which specific filter options.
For example
New layout of view order page
The layout and design of “View order” page is improved to better support the order administrator. For example more information has been displayed and the key information has been designed in a more distinct way.
Synchronize status
In the working area of Payments a new toolbar button, “Synchronize status”, has been added. In the case that payment status has been updated at the payment provider online service instead of in Litium Studio, it is possible to update Litium Studio with the correct payment status.
New layout of campaigns
When editing or creating a campaign the functionality for choosing articles, product groups and assortments is update to better support management of large amount of data. Every campaign type has also a longer description which will introduce the user into how to work with that campaign type.
User interface
The user interface of Litium Studio Product Catalog is improved according to the general design guide lines of Litium Studio. In the left menu, it exists four parts (Articles, Stock and Price, Assortments and Utilities). The Article registry now includes all articles and variants. In former versions, articles and variants was divided into separate parts.
In the left menu, it is now possible to access a context menu by right clicking on specific objects. The context menu will provide you with functionalities which also might be shown in the toolbar, but by right clicking you won’t need to reload the page. It is also possible to drag ‘n drop objects.
Introducing display templates in Product Catalog
Litium Studio has separated product management and web content management even more. In former versions of Litium Studio, it was possible for the web editor to determine which display template that should be used for a product. Today, that is the responsibility of the product manager which will associate a display template with a field template. The product will then be displayed with the associated display template.
A display template is basically a regular page template. The functionality to create a display template are found at “Control Panel”, “Product Catalog”, and “Display Templates”. When a template is created, it needs to be associated with the correct field template. There is a need for at least one display template for product groups and one for products.
Improved field templates
A few improvements have been made when working with field templates. It is only possible to associate a display template with a field template of the same type (Article or Product Group).
Also, it exists an option for each field called “Variant group field”. A field which is defined as a “Variant group field” will be common for all variants in that variant group. For example the description text for a T-shirt should probably be defined as a “Variant group field” but size would not, because it would be different for each variant. Please note that the display name field can’t be a “Variant group field” because it needs to be different for each variant.
Connect a new language to multiple assortments and articles
When introducing a new language, it won’t be connected with existing articles and assortments. By using the new functionality in Litium Studio, you can now connect a new language to all assortments or all articles in one click. The functionality is found under “Control Panel”, “Product Catalog” and “Connect Languages”.
Import/Export
The import and export has been updated with the new concepts that have been introduced in Litium Studio 4.5. When importing articles, it is now necessary to define what XML-element that is containing the URL and article group value.
Read more
Article groups
To better fit the internal structure of an ERP-system, Litium Studio has now introduced the concept of “Article Groups”. Article groups should be used to create a hierarchal article structure in the article registry. In former versions, the article registry was flat and it was hard to work with, if you had a large amount of data. This will also make integrations to ERP-system easier. From the article registry, you can easily create assortments in any way and structure you want. It is also possible to define if users could work with article groups. That setting is found under “Control Panel”, Product Catalog” and “Settings”.
Improved functions for working with articles
In Litium Studio 4.5 a lot effort has been spent on improving the work with large amount of data. Therefore a lot of new functionalities and work flows have been introduced when working with articles.
Article grid
The article grid is improved to manage a large amount of articles. The new filter area will make the navigation easier by using predefined filter options such as filter by type (Article, Variant Groups, Variants, and Packages), if article is published in an assortment, and article status.
Article view
Viewing an article is also improved with more information (Price, Product in Product Groups etc), grouped fields (Fields that belongs to the same group will be displayed together) and possibilities to access its article group.
Article edit
When editing an article, all fields in all languages will now be displayed in a list.
Article translate
To get a better overview when translating articles, the translation functionality has been moved into its own view. The translate button are found in the toolbar.
HTML-editor
The long text fields do now uses a HTML-editor, the same editor that Web Publishing and Newsletter uses.
Improved work flow for variants and variant groups
A lot of improvements have been made when you are working with variants and variant groups.
Common fields are moved from article object into variant group object
In former versions, the variant group values were stored on the base article object. That is changed so that is stored on the variant group object instead. That allows you to disconnect the former base article from a variant group.
Variants are moved into article registry
To this version all variants and variant groups are now listed in the article registry.
Improved flow of creating and editing
The create guide does now consists of three steps. The second step lists all variant group fields in all languages. During the third step you will create or connect to an existing variant to this variant group. So there is no longer a need to first create all variants and then connect it to the variant group.
Assortments
In Litium Studio 4.5 a new term, called “Assortment”, is introduced. In former versions it existed an object called “Product Catalog” which had its own field template type. The field template type is now removed, and it is not possible to add any fields to an assortment. An assortment will only have a language collection and language dependent names. During an upgrade, the former “Product Catalogs” will be moved as a “Product Group”.
Working with public product sort order
In former versions of Litium Studio, the product sort order was the same in back office as well as on the website. Today, that is separated. To work with the public sort order (Showed on the web site), click on a product group, select “Edit sort order” in the toolbar and a product grid will appear. From that grid, you can drag ‘n drop and sort the product. When you are satisfied, click “Save” and the sort order are updated.
Please note that the project might have implemented another sort order on the public website, instead of the default sort order.
User interface
The user interface of Litium Studio Relations is improved according to the general design guide lines of Litium Studio. The left menu only includes objects which are hierarchal, such as organizations, all other object, such as persons or groups, are displayed in the right area.
In the left menu, it is now possible to access a context menu by right clicking on an organization. The context menu will provide you with functionalities which also might be shown in the toolbar, but by right clicking you won’t need to reload the page. It is a smart solution for quick operations.
Filter area
In former version of Litium Studio the list of persons was displayed in the left menu. Today it is moved to the right area to better support the work with larger amount of data. In Litium Studio 4.5 a filter area are included on every person grid. The filter area allows you to filter the grid based on predefined filter options, such as first letter, if person has login or if the person is ecommerce customer.
The person guide uses Ajax tabs for quicker operations
The guide when creating or editing a person is updated with Ajax tabs to reduce the loading time.
User interface
The user interface of Litium Studio Media Archive is improved according to the general design guide lines of Litium Studio. In the left menu, it is now possible to access a context menu by right clicking on an object, such as a folder or a category. The context menu will provide you with functionalities which also might be shown in the toolbar, but by right clicking you won’t need to reload the page. It is a smart solution for quick operations. It also exist possibilities to drag ‘n drop folders or files between folders or categories.
Filter area and file grid
The file grid functionality is improved to better support the management of a large amount of images and files. From this file grid it is possible to move or delete several images/files at the same time. The filter area provides you with possibilities to determine how many files/images that should be shown per page and in what preview size. It is possible to show the file grid as a regular list without preview images, to easier manage larger amount of data.
Scale options
When creating predefined versions it is possible to define the scaling options of these versions.
- Pixles
- It is possible to determine the max height and/or max width of an image. It is also possible to determine if the scaling operation should keep aspects ration of the file.
- Percentage
- Determine by how many percentages the image should be scaled.
Updated reference implementation
The reference implementation that is shipped together with Litium Studio 4.5 is updated and follows the HTML and CSS standard of Litium Studio. The template Base1.aspx and EndSubscription.aspx, found in folder Site\Newsletter\Templates, are updated.
Configuration of HTML-editor
In Litium Studio 4.5 it is now possible to configure the HTML-editor used when editing newsletters. The configuration file is located at Site\Newsletter\Editor\editorConfigure.js
The control panel is restructured and implements the same layout as Litium Studio in general. Today the control panel is divided into eight parts (My settings, System settings, Web Publishing, Ecommerce, Product Catalog, Relations, Media Archive and Newsletter).
Add additional pages to control panel
In former versions of Litium Studio it was possible to add your own pages into the control panel. This functionality has been updated in Litium Studio 4.5. It is now possible to add pages into the “Systems settings” area as well as into “My settings”. A new feature is that you can define what type of permission you need to access this page. Another feature is that web.config is restructured so it will be easier for you to work with control panel pages. Please read more about how to add additional pages to control panel
Several guides uses Ajax tabs for quicker operations
The guide when creating or editing a user or group is updated with Ajax tabs to reduce the loading time.
Spelling dictionaries
Spelling dictionaries are moved from “Web Publishing Settings” into “System Settings” because the editor is now used in several places in Litium Studio.
Search indices
The new search engine uses search indices to perform search operations. In rare cases it is necessary to update or rebuild them (For example if you move the website). That is administrated through the page “Search indices” found under “System Settings”.
Each module has two options, “Update” or “Rebuild”. If you choose to rebuild, the old search index is deleted and a new is created. This will affect the overall performance but it will create a fresh index. If you update an index, it will only update the index with items that has not been update. It will not delete the old index.y
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