[Sneak Peek] Two great small features making it to v2.5

The version 2.5 (v2.5) of eZ Platform is coming soon, and there's plenty in it, beyond the fact that it will be supported long term. Here are two great features that may not be game changers, but will certainly make the editorial workflow much easier. As we say, the devil is in the details…

Hiding content items, and not locations

Until now, editors using eZ Platform could hide content, but in reality, they were not hiding "content" items, they were hiding "locations." I know it may seem complex, but it isn't, bear with me.

In previous eZ Platform, or in good old eZ Publish, the "hide" action was applied to the location of a content item. This means that the editor is using multiple locations to place content at different places on a website, or on many websites. Previously, editors had to hide each and every location, which often became tedious. If they wanted to hide a content item multi-located in a quick way, they could send it to trash, but the result of course, was not the same, and this method was probably a bit radical.

From our new v2.5, editors will be able to hide (and reveal) content items at the content level. Doing so, all locations will automatically be hidden.

Cherry on the cake, the hide/reveal function at the content level works well with the hide/reveal at the location level. Hence, when an editor reveals a content item at the content level, the memory of the locations will persist: each location will be revived in the same state as when the content was hidden. Some location might then still be hidden, others may not be.

What is the value?

Clearly, this feature will not benefit every editor. That said, any editor using multiple locations will gain a lot of time in their daily workflow thanks to this feature! So, this is yet another feature that in the end, helps streamline the editorial workflow and improve the productivity of editorial teams!

In the next release, we plan to add a scheduling option for this feature in eZ Platform Enterprise Edition. Editors will be able to plan when the content items they are working on should be hidden or revealed.

Inline Custom Tag

This is also a feature that provides more advanced capabilities that are not necessarily required by everyone, but for some, will make a big difference.

It will benefit both developers and editors.

As of today, developers can create Custom Tags (link to something about custom tag / blog or doc) to equip their editors with advanced capabilities. In general, Custom Tags are about letting developers insert advanced bits of Content, things like a Multimedia asset, a business-specific widget, or anything else very specific to a particular customer. The problem up until now is that these custom tags were by design made to create "elements" in the rich text. In other words, they would be a full-line piece that would take all the line of the editor, or could be floating left or right, but could not be integrated in the middle of a sentence, or in a line of text.

From v2.5, developers will be able to create custom tags that don't break the line, and that insert the "custom tag" within the line of text, not breaking it.

A great example of an inline custom tag would be creating abbreviations for words and phrases. Abbreviation inline custom tags allow an editor to highlight an abbreviated word and define what it stands for.

What to expect in the future?

We are very excited about the upcoming release of eZ Platform v2.5 which will be supported for the long term (LTS). By improving content creation capabilities and providing developers with new ways to access content, businesses will benefit substantially from our new eZ Platform v2.5. In the upcoming weeks, we will be releasing a sneak peek on the GraphQL query system, the integration of Webpack Encore, and other novelties that are expected to be shipped with eZ Platform v2.5. Until then, if you are interested in learning more or have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment on this blog post or on www.discuss.ezplatform.com or www.portal.productboard.com/ezproduct. And of course, you can always reach out to us at productmanagement@ez.no.