Terminalfour: 8.3.1

General

We're excited to announce the release of Version 8.3 of TERMINALFOUR's Digital Marketing and Web Content Management Platform!

Version 8.3.1 is a major upgrade of the technology that powers the TERMINALFOUR platform. We have moved to using Java 11 OpenJDK with this release. By making these changes we have updated the supported systems, technologies and libraries to make sure we are using more recent, secure and performant components. 

This change also puts us in a strong position to make use of up to date supporting technology in future projects. As part of this project we have taken the opportunity to clean up some older handlers and managers that are no longer needed.

The upgrade does impact Programmable Layouts as they are now implemented using a newer library other than Rhino. We have created an upgrade task to introduce a compatibility script for Nashorn so that the vast majority of the layouts will still function. However we must note that there are still manual adjustments that may need to be made with the switch over the version 8.3.1.

We have outlined these changes in this article on what you can expect on this version and encourage you to review.

Guides

It's a big upgrade so before you take the leap check out:

• this guide to the changes you can expect to Programmable Layouts, Custom Libraries, API and Web Services
• the latest supported systems guide

Bug fixes

Alongside these advancements we have included fixes for 60+ bugs. Here is an outline of some of the main fixes to be aware of:

Media

RDSM-30436

Pre-8.3.1 deleted media from the Media Library doesn't stop publishing until it's purged. 8.3.1 brings that functionality inline with Inactive Content Items and Sections – from 8.3.1 on, inactive media will no longer publish.

If there are references to deleted media in a Content Item, that media will not appear on published sites. Only active media will publish from now on. A review of where your inactive media is used is advisable.

RDSM-30429

Usability fix – when scrolling to the end of a long list of media in a Category and clicking into a new Category it wasn't clear that you've switched Category, you are left at the bottom of the page. We've updated this so it's more obvious what's happening.

Content Syncer

RDSM-30299

It is now possible to use the External Content Syncer in a mirrored branch if the "Create individual section for each piece of content" option is checked.

RDSM-29906

Content Syncer 'Data sync refresh' and 'Data sync new & refresh' sync types now update list elements when those elements

• are initially set to values that do not exist in the list, or
• when those elements are initially not populated (blank)

Forms

RDSM-28601

When creating a form you can pick an element to be used as the name of the Content Item that any submissions using that form would create. If the field you picked allowed for a large amount of characters (i.e. greater than is allowed in the name element) then the submissions used to fail. Now it will truncate the name and submit the form.

Reports

RDSM-26870

Performance improvements on the Page Layout Usage Report, Content Type Report and Navigation Object Usage Report. If you had really large amounts of results the page used to freeze up. Now it should load without issue.

Lists

RDSM-28355

When you have more than one multi-select list element in your Content Type, and they all use the same List, then it wouldn't load correctly. Only the first would load correctly. We've corrected that so all Lists load as expected.

TinyMCE

RDSM-21761

The 'Remove all formatting' button has been changed to just 'Remove formatting'. Behind the scenes it has been changed to allow for targeted selection as well as full block format changes. It removes formatting and markup from a selection, or from all content if no selection made.

RDSM-29181

We've fixed it so that you can now add CSS classes to tables and table cells in TinyMCE.

Other

RDSM-30189 - When you duplicate content into the same Section (and that Section has lots of content in it already) then you used to get an error and the duplication wouldn't work. We've fixed that now so it will duplicate as expected.

RDSM-30685 - A vulnerability scan detected a vulnerable version of the Commons FileUpload library. That library was imported as a dependency of struts which was removed in 8.3.1, therefore this library is no longer needed and has been removed.

RDSM-30028 - You can now have multiple fulltext layouts that use the same element to link through. Previously only one fulltext file would be created and pointed to. Now each fulltext output gets it's own file.