Release Notes

To further secure operation of the FirstSpirit Server using Linux and to simplify the central configuration, a further, optional configuration file has been introduced.

This new fs-server-custom.shconf file can be used

• to define the user with which the FirstSpirit Server is to be started.

• to define the path to the Java version.

The file is not updated automatically when the FirstSpirit backend is updated and is therefore not included in fs-update*.tar.gz. For servers that have already been installed, the file can be extracted from fs-install*.tar.gz.

In the file, the corresponding lines must then be uncommented (# at the start of the line removed) and the required values entered

RUN_AS_USER=<Username>
export FS_JAVA_HOME=<path to java>

With the latest FirstSpirit release, we are planning to cease support for Microsoft Internet Explorer as a browser for using the FirstSpirit web apps. The manufacturer is also gradually replacing Microsoft Internet Explorer with Microsoft Edge.

The point of reference for using FirstSpirit is always the latest version of the Chrome browser available on the operating system in question. Regular tests are performed on this browser and steps are taken to eliminate errors based on error messages.
Browsers that are similar to Chrome (such as Apple Safari) are also supported and tested, but functionality may be restricted (e.g., limited SVG support).

Overview of current browser compatibilities:

Recommended browsers / reference:

• Google Chrome
• Microsoft Edge

Compatible browsers:

• Mozilla Firefox
• Apple Safari (subject to restrictions)

Not compatible:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer
• Opera and others

The “FirstSpirit Technical Data Sheet” has been adapted accordingly (https://docs.e-spirit.com/odfs/edocs/admi/technical-requi/index.html).

The design and technical basis of FirstSpirit ContentCreator were revised. With FirstSpirit 2020-01, the revised ContentCreator was officially released for use. As of FirstSpirit 2020-03, the revised ContentCreator is used by default for all projects. In addition to the internal quality assurance measures, feedback on specific operational scenarios from customers and partners has since been promptly incorporated into the development.
If necessary, it was possible to easily switch between the old and new ContentCreator on a project-by-project basis. We plan to retire the “old” ContentCreator with the current release; at this point, all customers will only be able to use the revised Content Creator.
The checkbox which previously enabled users to switch between the old and new ContentCreator (FirstSpirit ServerManager / “Server properties / Web applications” or “Project properties / Web components” / “ContentCreator”, option “Use new design”) has been removed in this context. When switching from previous FirstSpirit versions to 2020-07, settings which were made for the server and/or project in those versions will no longer be taken into account. From FirstSpirit Server 2020-07, only the revised ContentCreator is used.

For editors, no functional changes are associated with the new design in principle. At just a few central locations, the user prompting and guidance has additionally been optimized.
As of FirstSpirit 2020-07 a number of design and user experience optimizations were made based on customer feedback, including

• “ACTIONS” menu:
  Here you can now visually differentiate between scripts, (contextless) workflows and plugIns, again.
• FS_CATALOG/FS_INDEX:
  New display option “Grid” (compared to “Symbols”, the thumbnails are not adjusted to the existing space)
  
  
• Media management:
  The last row of entries is no longer stretched over the entire page width.
• Adaptation of dialog buttons for a uniform cross-client UI
  
  
• Optimized layout for integrated help texts and tooltips
• In release messages, which are temporarily displayed in the upper left corner below the menu bar, the relevant names are now also displayed for media folders and the top level of media management (“Media”).

For developers and administrators, the switch to the revised ContentCreator does not involve any migration work. Only in very rare cases, there may be compatibility problems with customer-specific modules. In such cases, please contact e-Spirit Technical Support (https://help.e-spirit.com/).

Information on using the new FirstSpirit ContentCreator

• Resource requirements: The change in technologies used for ContentCreator (“MicroApp Framework”) increases the resource and system requirements. For this reason, you should check and, if necessary, increase resources, in particular for the application server (e.g., Apache Tomcat) and specifically the hard drive capacity and Java Heap.
  Where possible, ContentCreator should be used as a global web application. ContentCreator should only be run as its own project instance (“projectlocal”) where it is absolutely necessary to do so.
• Working with Apache Tomcat: If Apache Tomcat is used as the application server, we recommend that Apache Tomcat is restarted after each update.
• Pluggability: The Pluggability option has to be activated for unrestricted use of the new FirstSpirit Content Creator (FirstSpirit ServerManager / “Server properties / Web applications” or “Project properties / Web components” / “ContentCreator”). When using ContentCreator, the system automatically activates pluggability mode (log entry: WARN 03.02.2020 15:58:20.902 (de.espirit.firstspirit.server.module.WebServerManagerImpl): Force enabled pluggability for 'fs5webedit' in project '-1'.). This has no effect on the interface itself; the option “Pluggability” may still show as being set to “Inactive” even though the option is activated.
• Working in the browser: The new ContentCreator is not compatible with Microsoft Internet Explorer. We recommend using Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge Chromium for the new ContentCreator. See also chapter “Cessation of support for Microsoft Internet Explorer”.

Manual

The manual has already largely been adapted to the new design. In just a few places, the interfaces illustrated do not match the interface in the new design and may differ from the version of ContentCreator you are using.

The concept of “image resolutions” in FirstSpirit has always enabled the uniform use of image sizes in online presences. The resolutions required for a project are automatically calculated and generated by the system as standard.

However, depending on the image material and project settings, these automatically generated resolutions must often be checked by the editor and manually adjusted: In some project setups (e.g. when concrete widths and heights are specified for images) the resolutions are compressed, the proportions of the delivered image material do not match the proportions and sizes required for the internet presence. In other cases, the editor may want to select a different focus for some images and move a different area to the center of attention.

Smart Cropping largely eliminates the need to check the individual resolutions and manual adjustment by the editor: thanks to intelligent technology, a suitable section can be selected manually for all resolutions of one image at the same time.
For this purpose, a suitable cropping is automatically calculated for each resolution on the basis of an area that the editor can determine in the image as the main motif using a selection frame (“focus area”).
In this process the “Golden ratio” is applied: This ensures that the image composition appears organically and harmoniously proportioned instead of static and constructed.
By default, this is done from the center of the image, i.e. the cutouts are extended towards the center of the image. However, the editor can also use the “angle of view” function to determine the direction of the original image in which the cutouts should be extended (top, bottom, right, left...). With this angle of view you can control which area of the image is relevant for the resolutions and should be considered for the automatic cropping.
In the case of images with people, for example, the viewing angle can ideally be selected so that the person and his or her viewing direction as well as the target is in the focus area.

In this context, existing APIs were extended and new ones were created, for example to define focus areas without user interaction.

The new feature can be tested with FirstSpirit 2020-07 in the scope of a ramp-up phase and will be made available to some selected customers and partners for trying out. Feedback from this phase is promptly incorporated into the development. Are you also interested in testing the new functionality? Then please contact your responsible customer or partner manager.

An official release for all customers is planned for the 4th quarter of 2020.

If no metadata has been defined for an element or if the box for the “Define permissions” option in the CMS_INPUT_PERMISSION input component has not been checked, an empty list is now returned for the input component.

Before querying the content, a check should be carried out to see whether metadata has been defined for this element and whether these permissions have been applied or inherited there.

( <IDProvider>.hasMeta() && !<IDProvider>.getMetaFormData().get(null,
   <Name of the input component>).get().isInherited() )

If the above query returns “false”, the correct values are located on the node in the parent chain for which this query returns “true”.

As of FirstSpirit 2020-07, the FS_LIST input component is no longer included. The component has been removed from FirstSpirit and is no longer available for use. This means it is no longer possible to edit forms with FS_LIST and expected content will no longer be generated on the output side. This concludes the ramp-down phase.

Overview: Process of ramp-down phase for input component FS_LIST

To ensure that the FS_LIST component was phased out with minimum risk, it was removed in multiple stages:

• (Complete) As of FirstSpirit 5.2R3, the input component for creating and managing lists FS_LIST was discontinued.
• (Complete) As of FirstSpirit 2019-11, a deprecation warning was logged as a first step in all projects, when data was generated from an FS_LIST input component, or when data from an FS_LIST component was previewed.
• (Complete) As of FirstSpirit 2020-01, the FS_LIST input component stopped receiving support. It was no longer possible to use the component from this point.
• To minimize the risk of production problems, particularly in cases involving customers with longer update cycles, there was a six-month transition period during which it was possible to reactivate FS_LIST temporarily.
• (Complete) As of FirstSpirit 2020-07, the input component has been removed from FirstSpirit and can no longer be used in any projects.

The FS_CATALOG, FS_INDEX, and CMS_INPUT_SECTIONLIST input components are available as substitutes. They also provide content bundling functions, which means that they largely cover the same functions as FS_LIST.

• FS_LIST, type DATABASE can be substituted with an input component of type FS_INDEX.
• FS_LIST, type INLINE can be substituted with an input component of type FS_CATALOG.
• FS_LIST with MEDIAMODE tag can be substituted with an input component of type FS_INDEX, using the DatasetDataAccessPlugin (SOURCE tag) supplied as standard.
• FS_LIST, type PAGE can be substituted with the input component CMS_INPUT_SECTIONLIST.
• FS_LIST, type SERVICE can be substituted with an input component of type FS_INDEX, using a corresponding database access plug-in.

Detailed guidelines for performing conversion in ongoing projects are provided in the FirstSpirit documentation.

If you have any questions or feedback on migrating FS_LIST, please contact e-Spirit Technical Support.

FirstSpirit 2020-07 supports the following module versions for “FirstSpirit Content Experience Tools”:

* These modules require FirstSpirit 2020-03 or higher from this version.

As part of the revision and consolidation of the technical basis for FirstSpirit ContentCreator and FragmentCreator, FragmentCreator's graphical interface has been revised and adapted in line with the design principles of ContentCreator.

The design update does not include any functional changes for editors or developers. All functions in the interfaces are generally available in their familiar positions. The design update will not give rise to any additional development or operational work.

The changes in the latest release concern the status bar along the bottom edge of the screen.

Now:

Previously:

Adjustment of the manual regarding the design is carried out gradually. The presentation in the manual may therefore no longer correspond to the current software.

In FragmentCreator, favored variants can now be provided with actions from customer-specific MicroApps. The variant tabs are being expanded to include 3 dots that can be used to access editing options for MicroApps. For example:

When an action is selected, it affects the selected variant.

By default, the standard workflows for release (“Request release” / request_release) and deletion (“Request deletion” / delete_fragment_wf) are started there.
See also https://docs.e-spirit.com/odfs/edocs/cxt/workflows/index.html.
Only actions for which the user has the appropriate permissions are shown.

To provide this UI interface with actions from customer-specific MicroApps, the MicroApp must support the new VariantActionContext. This contains

• the projectId
  ID of the project in question
• a documentId
  ID of the variant in question
• a command
  the required action, e.g., 'EditVariant'
• the application (optional)
  Currently, the value 'fragmentcreator' can be used here to specify that MicroApps are to be displayed at this point.

Example:

{ command: 'EditVariant', documentId: '4757cadc-d71e-4a58-9f3e-5cfbe86a9caa', 
   projectId: 1, application: 'fragmentcreator'}

Note: The API is currently intended for internal use only and is being tested internally and by partners. In the future, it will also be made available to external customers.

The classes from the “Apache PDFBox” open-source library have been removed from fs[-isolated-]webrt.jar.

If these classes were used during module development (which was only possible for modules that contain web applications in legacy mode), they are now missing and must be added explicitly to the web application. This means the “Apache PDFBox” library must be provided in the module as a “web-resource” by being added to the module[-isolated].xml file, e.g.:

<web-resources>
   <resource name="org.apache.pdfbox:pdfbox" version="2.0.17">
       lib/pdfbox-2.0.17.jar
   </resource>
</web-resources>

The following properties are now available in the rules for corresponding elements:

• ID: determining the ID of a FirstSpirit element
• UID: determining the reference name/UID of a FirstSpirit element
  Sections do not technically have a UID, which is why the display name is returned in this case.
• GID: determining the global ID (GID) of a FirstSpirit element
• TEMPLATE: determining the template of the current FirstSpirit element
  The reference name of the template is returned (UID).

Code snippet:

<PROPERTY name="ID" source="#global"/>

<PROPERTY name="UID" source="#global"/>

<PROPERTY name="GID" source="#global"/>

<PROPERTY name="TEMPLATE" source="#global"/>

On a page, for example, the information for the page is returned (even if the rule is executed in a section within an FS_CATALOG input component, for instance).
Metadata returns information about the element on which the metadata has been defined.

The database integration of the FirstSpirit Server is configured via the ServerManager (Server properties / Databases). All connected database layers on the server, i.e. all connections to a database from the server, are listed here. The optional JDBC parameter jdbc.MAXSTRINGLENGTH can be used in the database layer to define the maximum number of characters of a VARCHAR column when creating a new database table. If a higher value is specified for a string attribute than the one defined via parameter jdbc.MAXSTRINGLENGTH, this string attribute is stored as a different data type (e.g. as BLOB, CLOB or TEXT) in the database. If no value is set here, a default value is set depending on the database used.

New behavior:

With the current FirstSpirit release the parameter jdbc.MAXSTRINGLENGTH is supported for the following databases:

• PostgreSQL
• Oracle 19c

The following applies to PostgreSQL:

• Default value: If no value is defined using jdbc.MAXSTRINGLENGTH, the default value 255 is used.
• Maximum value: It is not recommended to define values higher than 65534.

The following applies to Oracle 19c:

• Default value: If no value is defined using jdbc.MAXSTRINGLENGTH, the default value 2000 is used.
• Recommendation: Depending on the character set (parameter jdbc.oracle.CHARACTERSET), it is useful to adjust the character length. For Oracle 19c, for example, the character set AL32UTF8 with character length 8191 is recommended. The recommended value for the respective character set can be found in the FirstSpirit Documentation (see “Values to be used for Oracle 19c (depending on the character set)”).
• Maximum value: If values are specified for the parameter that are higher than the recommended value of the specified character set (parameter jdbc.oracle.CHARACTERSET), a corresponding message is logged in the server log. The maximum value for the respective character set can be found in the FirstSpirit Documentation (see “Values to be used for Oracle 19c (depending on the character set)”).
  • For values that are higher than the maximum value of the specified character set, an ERROR is logged, and the value is reduced to the maximum value.
  • For values higher than the recommended value and smaller than the maximum value of the specified character set, a corresponding WARN message is logged, in which the recommended value is displayed.

For all other recommended and compatible database systems, the parameter jdbc.MAXSTRINGLENGTH is ignored. Instead, the hard-coded default values of the respective database are used.

I use the parameter jdbc.MAXSTRINGLENGTH in my existing layer configuration. Do I have to modify the configuration?

Background: The parameter has been ignored so far. After an update to FirstSpirit 2020-07 the parameter is then used for existing PostgreSQL or Oracle 19c database configurations. Depending on the value that is set for the parameter in the configuration, the data types of the string attributes can change during the first sync to the database, and data can therefore possibly be lost.

More information:

• Server properties - Databases
• Mandatory parameters for the database connection
• Optional parameters (including jdbc.MAXSTRINGLENGTH)

As of the current release, the following internally used software has been updated:

• Spring Boot (used for MicroApp Framework)
  Update from version 2.2.5 to version 2.3.1
• Spring Cloud Hoxton (used for MicroApp Framework)
  Update from version Hoxton.SR3 to version Hoxton.SR5