The new Craft CMS 4 Beta is out!
Slide out panel
It is now also possible to edit an entry from a list without opening it. You then double-click on the green bullet of an entry in the content list of a certain section and a panel pops up on the right-hand side where you can make adjustments directly. After saving, this panel closes again. Very handy. The panels also support drafts and auto-save.
User-friendly
Faster tralala
The CMS will again start working faster than previous versions, even with complex matrix fields. This is due to the improved architecture under the bonnet. From now on, only PHP 8 will be used, which is also a good step in terms of security and performance.
Better search and filtering
In the views within Content, it is now possible to filter. It is also possible to set up shortcuts to certain search results or filters in addition to sections.
User management
Addresses
Users can now edit their own addresses, which can be referenced by plug-ins such as Craft Commerce.
Full name
For users, from Craft CMS 4 onwards, one each field Full Name is used, instead of separate First Name and Last Name fields. First and last names are automatically detached at the front end of a website or web application.
Inactive users
It is now possible to manage users who represent a person or entity but do not actually have login credentials.
Extended support for formatting country settings
Users can now set their markup country setting to any known country setting; not just those for which the control panel is translated.
Files
Transform file system improved
It is possible to make the folders where source files such as images are placed not directly accessible via the browser. Baked images can be stored in a separate place, keeping everything tidier.
Focus point easier to set
It is now possible to more easily edit the focus point of images directly from the preview window.
Alt tags
Images now get an alt tag by default. Previously, this had to be set up separately.
For us programmers
For us as programmers:
- Craft now requires PHP 8, allowing developers to safely take advantage of several new language features.
- Laravel Collections has been implemented. Things like eager loading have thus been improved.
- Craft now includes a built-in field type "Money" and a new |money Twig filter.
- Architecture for image transforms modified, making it easier to use external image transforms and overriding the default image transform via GD/ImageMagick.
- The same condition framework used by element index filters and field conditions can be extended for a variety of new use cases.
- Craft now sends emails with Symfony Mailer instead of Swift Mailer.PSR-3 logging with Monolog is now also supported.
Switching?
We advise our customers not to switch to the new version immediately, but to be patient until everyone has a better idea. There will still be teething problems and all kinds of plugins including custom plugins will also need to be converted to be suitable for the new version.
Conditional fields
A very interesting new feature in Craft CMS 4 is conditional fields. So it means we can set up the CMS for the end user to show certain fields only if they are needed from a certain choice in another field. For example, if you don't want an image in a blog post, the upload field won't be shown.
Only when you flip a light button will the field be shown. This has the advantage that the interface will be much cleaner and more user-friendly. You won't have to struggle through all the fields whose exact purpose is not clear.
Within conditional fields it is also easier to define which related items are shown and which are not.
Sketch categories
Categories can now be sketches, just like regular entries.
Drafts notification
Unsaved entries or drafts get additional notification.
Want to know more about the new version of Craft CMS?
Then contact us and ask about the possibilities.