What's new for developers in HCL Digital Experience 8.5

Version 8.5 includes new features, such as theme optimization analyzer and simple modules.

If you are migrating from 7.0, review the What's new content for 8.0. A link is provided at that end of the page.

What's new for front-end developers

Configuring outbound HTTP connections: HCL Digital Experience now provides an easier way to configure outbound HTTP connections. In HCL Digital Experience 8.0 and earlier versions, outbound HTTP connections were accessible through the Ajax Proxy service. The Ajax Proxy service was configured by a configuration document named proxy-config.xml. You find this document in the /WEB-INF directory of the web module that uses the Ajax Proxy service. Starting with HCL Portal Version 8.5 and the new outbound connection service, the configuration of outbound HTTP connections is now part of the standard datastore-based portal configuration.
Theme optimization analyzer: The theme optimization analyzer creates a validation report that analyzes your theme and theme components for known issues and reports the number of errors, warnings, and informational messages. It also includes a detailed explanation about how to fix the errors that occur.
Simple modules: Simple modules for the resource aggregator framework are provided in the WebDAV folder. You can define modules quickly with a limited set of features with these simple modules.
Collaborating with Worklight®: You can expand the capabilities available to your application when you create a hybrid application that adds native device functions to your portal with Worklight®. When your hybrid application runs with your Portal pages rendered in a native application, it loads the appropriate native resources for the device. These resources are loaded automatically through modules that are provided in the product.

What's new for portlet and application developers

Attribute Based Security for Web Content Manager content: Attribute based security for Web Content Manager content is a new access filter in the product filter chain. You can extend the access control permission checks for Web Content Manager content beyond the user or group-based decisions. You can define your own criteria. The criteria might involve categories, keywords, textComponents, htmlComponents, or shortTextComponents for an item. For more information, read Enabling Attribute Based Security.
Dojo is no longer required for tagging and rating: The tag and rating widgets of earlier portal versions required Dojo to be interactive. The new inline tag and rating widgets do not require Dojo to be interactive.
Use the Configuration Wizard to deploy PAA files: You can now install and deploy Portal Application Archive (PAA) files with the Configuration Wizard. Start the wizard and then go to Add On New Capability > Install Add-ons.
Social Rendering List templates: Page editors can use social rendering to feature social data that is hosted on a remote HCL Connections server in the context of portal pages.
HCL UX Screen Flow Manager: The new HCL UX Screen Flow Manager enables you to quickly build wizard-like applications that guide users through sequences of screens. In many cases such flows can be modeled declaratively, without any programming efforts by interconnecting multiple portlets. Thus, HCL UX Screen Flow Manager fosters reuse of portlets across multiple flows and eases the maintainability of your applications.

What's new for web content developers

Custom HTML editor integration: Custom HTML fields are used to integrate third-party editors into the web content authoring interface. You can use custom HTML editors in all HTML fields of the web content authoring interface, or in single HTML elements that are defined in an authoring template.
Default in-place editing mode: The default in-place editing mode can now be configured. Supported fields can be pre-configured to either use in-place editing mode, embedded editing mode, or dialog editing mode. The default in-place editing mode can be overridden in EditableElement tags using the mode parameter, or in the content template for content items.