In the realm of Web CMS and DXPs, Umbraco has drawn a lot of attention. What are the platform’s most recent updates?

The Basic

Please integrate. In 2022, Umbraco opened a new marketplace location to display connectors and extensions that expand Umbraco’s functionality.

the better, the more releases. Umbraco has adopted a consistent release cadence, which has stabilized the platform and resulted in numerous enhancements.

Here we go, headless. When Umbraco 12 is published, the primary CMS will enable headless, providing an alternative to the managed Umbraco Heartcore solution.

Because it is so simple to use, Umbraco is a highly adaptable open-source Content Management System (CMS) that is well-liked by both corporate customers and developers. It’s a fantastic platform to use if you want to develop and build your website while also offering excellent consumer experiences reasonably rapidly and affordably.

With a fairly recent strategic acquisition to enhance its digital capabilities, Umbraco has recently attracted a lot of attention and evolved to compete with some of the other top CMSs and Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs).

We’ll examine some of Umbraco’s most recent updates in this piece.

Describe Umbraco.

Umbraco is a CMS at its core rather than a full-fledged DXP. However, it has a large number of connectors and extensions due to its open-source nature, vibrant developer community, and partner program run by Umbraco HQ. It can therefore be broadened to include a more extensive range of digital marketing and content management skills. To increase the functionality of the platform, Umbraco HQ has also developed additional Umbraco solutions.

The Cloudflare Content Delivery Network (CDN) is included with Umbraco Heartcore, a managed, headless publishing CMS. Due to the rising amount of connectors and extensions, Umbraco Heartcore can be used as a component of a composable DXP, allowing it to compete with other CMSs and DXPs that are now emphasizing their headless credentials.

Umbraco is currently undergoing a number of upgrades and seems to be gaining traction. Some of these came about as a result of a 2021 investment by Monterro, a Swedish technology investor with extensive knowledge of the market who previously invested in Episerver (now Optimizely).

Let’s examine some recent Umbraco developments.

1. Increasing Umbraco’s Value Through the Market

As CMSs move toward supporting headless publishing and composable architecture, the library of extensions and connectors available is becoming a more crucial consideration for picking the best CMS. In order to better highlight all the “packages and integrations” available that increase the functionality and value of Umbraco, Umbraco created a new marketplace facility in 2022. Tools such as “Campaign & Marketing” and “Headless” tools are among the divisions made for these.

The marketplace has undergone several more upgrades since coming live to encourage Umbraco partners or community developers to list their products. Additionally, Umbraco HQ is actively promoting a few of the listed connectors.

2. The Most Recent Regular Release is Umbraco 11.2

In the past, Umbraco’s roadmap was less predictable and there were many different versions in use, which as a whole held it back and might have limited acceptance, especially from larger companies.

Umbraco 9 is based on.NET 5 (.NET Core), which made it easier to upgrade from earlier versions. As a result, the platform has stabilized and is now focused on a regular release schedule. As a result, the roadmap is very active and has lots of upgrades planned.

Umbraco 11 was the most recent major update, and 11.1 and 11.2 have already been made available since it was introduced in late 2022. Together, these have resulted in both large and modest advancements, including the newly stated marketplace and full support for.NET 7.

A new Block Grid Editor that aids in content organization and layout creation is possibly the most important tool for content and marketing teams. Umbraco Forms has also seen some advancements. The site architecture has been enhanced for developers in order to lessen dependencies between various Umbraco features and capabilities.

3. Umbraco Predicts a Headless Future

Most CMS providers are investing heavily in headless, and Umbraco HQ has kept up the investment in its managed Heartcore headless CMS offering. Several improvements, including a new REST API based on the OpenAPI standard, optimization for GraphQL queries, and more have either been made available or are on the roadmap.

The fact that other Umbraco APIs are being updated to accommodate headless publication is likely the clearest indication that Umbraco believes in a headless future. In fact, when Umbraco 12 is launched in the summer, the primary Umbraco CMS ought to support headless. As a result, users who don’t want to use the managed (and expensive) Umbraco Heartcore offering will have more headless options, and Umbraco will continue to be a competitive alternative to other CMSs and DXPs.

4. Umbraco Workflow Enhances Content Management Techniques

The Umbraco Workflow add-on, which Umbraco HQ has also released for Umbraco 11, is actually an improved version of the Plumber tool. Any existing Umbraco site can use Umbraco Workflow, a content management workflow, review, and approval tool that enables the development of customized content workflows for content prior to publication.

If you oversee a large number of publishers who require various reviews, approvals, and related metrics, Umbraco Workflow will be quite helpful. Due to its extreme flexibility, you can also create continuing approval groups, one-off approval workflows that are tailored to a certain piece of content, and multi-stage workflows. You may also set up dashboards to monitor the status of material and any desired notifications.

5. Upgrade to Umbraco Documentation

Particularly for an open-source platform like Umbraco that is going through a time of development, clear technical documentation is essential. Umbraco revealed that its technical documentation has been updated and improved in December 2022. It currently makes use of a SaaS platform called GitBook, which not only organizes all the information but also integrates with GitHub.

The data has also undergone a thorough reorganization by product, encompassing the primary Umbraco CMS, Umbraco Cloud, Umbraco Heartcore, Umbraco Forms, Umbraco Deploy, and the recently introduced Umbraco Workflow. To assist developers and administrators in finding what they need, a new search feature has been included.

In conclusion, allowing larger organizations to use Umbraco

The enhancements to Umbraco as a whole make the platform an attractive choice for bigger businesses. Umbraco is able to compete on the front of headless and composable architecture thanks to the changes for APIs and the better marketplace. The enterprise CMS meets more of the requirements that IT development teams have for it thanks to the platform’s reliability, release schedule, and updated documentation.