Release Notes

The primary objective of the “Isolated mode” of the FirstSpirit Server is to give the module developer more freedom in the selection of the libraries that are used. Especially the potential conflicts with libraries that were included with the FirstSpirit core in the “Legacy mode” are thereby be minimized.

In February 2019 (2019-02), the “Isolated mode” was released. Since then, this is the standard for all newly installed servers.
Since 2019-06, the “Legacy mode” has been discontinued.
With the latest release, FirstSpirit Servers that are still operated in “Legacy mode” will no longer be updated to newer releases (fs-update tar.gz).

Omission of files
As of the latest FirstSpirit release, the following files will no longer be provided and should be replaced as follows:

fs-access.jar -> fs-isolated-runtime.jar
fs-server.jar -> fs-isolated-server.jar
fs-webrt.jar -> fs-isolated-webrt.jar

Migration note/Compatibility
As of the latest release, the Installer (fs-install tar.gz) and Updater (fs-update tar.gz) no longer support the “Legacy mode”.
This means that a server must be changed over prior to an update of the backend system to version 3.0.0 to the “Isolated mode”!

Is my server affected?
An indication of that a server is operated in the “Isolated mode” is the I (for “Isolated”) in the server version number in the corresponding dialogs (e.g.5.2.220309.80296 (I)), for example on the FirstSpirit start page.
In addition, FirstSpirit Servers running in “Isolated mode” use the fs-isolated-server.jar file in the ~/server/lib-isolated directory (instead of the fs-server.jar file in the ~/server/lib directory in the “Legacy mode”).
Server and customer-specific modules that have not yet been changed over to the “Isolated mode” should be adapted accordingly.
If you need assistance with the change-over, please contact e-Spirit Technical Support.

To change over FirstSpirit Server and customer-specific modules to the “Isolated mode” see also https://docs.e-spirit.com/odfs/edocs/modd/index.en.html.

Projects that are available on the server can be opened via the FirstSpirit start page. The user can thereby also select the desired client to be used to open the project.
Available clients can be configured in the

• Server Properties
  (FirstSpirit ServerManager/Server Properties/Start page)
• Project Properties
  (FirstSpirit ServerManager/Project Properties/Applications)

If the FragmentCreator was enabled for a project in the Project Properties in the “Applications” area (“ApplicationPlugin: FragmentCreator”), this could lead to long load times of the Start page. The project selection of the FragmentCreator (during starting or project change) only displayed projects, which contained obligatory metadata template for Fragment projects.

The most recent release now only evaluates the setting of the “ApplicationPlugin: FragmentCreator” checkbox in the list of enabled applications: this means that all projects for which the “ApplicationPlugin: FragmentCreator” checkbox is not explicitly deactivated will be displayed in the project selection.
To display a project in the project selection list of the FragmentCreator, the checkbox must be activated.

The checkbox is deactivated by default for projects that are created new:

If the project does not contain the required metadata template, the following message is shown when the project is opened on the FirstSpirit start page:

The project is not yet prepared for fragments. You may change the project settings and 
   remove the FragmentCreator from the allowed applications, if necessary.

In September 2021, Java 17 was deployed. JDK 17 is deployed by most providers as Long-Term-Support (LTS) version. It follows Java 11, which currently includes the LTS state.

The latest FirstSpirit release includes the official release for the use of Java 17 with FirstSpirit. Java 11 continues to apply as reference.

At the same time, this release discontinues the support for Java 16.
It is expected that FirstSpirit will remain functional with Java 16. However, e-Spirit AG does not carry out tests with Java 16 or eliminate FirstSpirit problems that are related to Java 16.

For further documentation, see https://docs.e-spirit.com/odfs/edocs/admi/technical-requi/index.html.

The latest release includes the official release for the use of PostgreSQL 14.x with FirstSpirit. PostgreSQL 11 remains valid as reference.
It is planned to make PostgreSQL 14 the official reference version in a later release.

In addition, PostgreSQL 12.x and PostgreSQL 13.x have been included in the list of compatible databases.

However, the PostgreSQL 9.x version has no longer been maintained/supported by the manufacturer since November 2021, so that there is no support by FirstSpirit, either.

The following modules and extensions are compatible with FirstSpirit 2022.3:

The latest FirstSpirit release provides two new MBeans. They can be used to evaluate the load on web servers, for example.

• WebAppManager: this MBean can be used to read out all web applications from the installed modules and their use in the configured web applications.
• WebServerManager: this MBean can be used to determine which web applications are installed on which web server.

Hiccups of the Java VM are now also registered by the Application Server on which the FirstSpirit web applications are running and logged in the fs-server.log file. Furthermore, also in the server-incidents.log file, for example,

WARN  08.02.2022 09:09:58.299 (de.espirit.firstspirit.server.HealthStatus):
   HICCUP (de.espirit.firstspirit.server.statistic.HiccupMeter) Web application VM 
   hiccup detected: ...

The settings of the fs-server.conf in the VM hiccup detector MBean area thereby apply.

Note: For each Java VM, only one registration of the corresponding MBean HiccupMeter occurs.
This means that the Java VM Hiccups are not monitored via the web applications for the Jetty web server because this already takes place via the FirstSpirit Server. If web applications of more than one FirstSpirit Server are running on an application server, the hiccups are only reported to the FirstSpirit Server with the web application that registered the HiccupMeter first.

Until now, the ~/web directory served as a generation directory of the “InternalJetty” and is no longer needed since the removal of the “InternalJetty” (implemented with FirstSpirit 2022.1).

Automatic removal of files and directories that are no longer required
With the update to FirstSpirit-Release 2022.3 or higher, all FirstSpirit web applications are removed once from the ~/web directory. Unless the directory contains other data, it will also be deleted. (INFO message in the logging: ...Deleting legacy web directory:...)
If the directory contains files that are not FirstSpirit web applications, the directory structure and files will remain unchanged. (WARN message in the logging: ...Legacy web directory not deleted, the directory is not empty:...)
Web servers that use the ~/web directory can thereby continue to be used without problems.

Fallback generation directory
If no web server is configured or no web directory is specified for web servers of type “Tomcat” (= the field “Web directory” is empty, e.g., because FirstSpirit does not have access to the file system of the Tomcat), a generation as fallback to the directory occurred automatically until now

~/web/fs5staging

With the latest release (FirstSpirit 2022.3), the directory of the web application fs5staging of the “Jetty Web Server” is now used in the fallback case:

~/data/modules/FirstSpirit Jetty Server.JettyService/webapps/fs5staging/webapp

The “Jetty Web Server” is an integrated Jetty web server in FirstSpirit that is provided in form of the system module fs-jetty.fsm.
The associated (JettyService) function runs by default. If this function does not run, the generation directory is also used in the fallback case, but the “Jetty Web Server” is then not accessible and access to the generation directory is not possible.

If you are using customer-specific extensions (scripts, modules, etc.) that respond to changes in the ~/web/fs5staging directory, they must be adjusted for the new path accordingly.

For an easier determination of whether the ~/web directory is still used in projects, the following is recorded in the log in the fallback case since FirstSpirit 2022.1 (INFO log level):

Fallback to web directory:[...]

A descriptive text can now also be stored for media in the FirstSpirit ContentCreator. For example, this text can be output on the website as alternative text (alt tag).
The corresponding field is shown next to the medium after a file is selected:

• For language-dependent media, a description can be entered for every language in which a file was selected.
• For language-independent media, a language-independent description can be entered.

The navigation bar in the FirstSpirit ContentCreator can now be configured via the

Navigation: Enabled

function of the “Tailored UI” (e.g. deactivated).

The “Edit navigation” menu entry in the “Actions” menu, which opened the navigation bar, is no longer needed and has been removed in this context.

For more information on the “Tailored UI”, see also https://docs.e-spirit.com/odfs/template-develo/contentcreator/customization/standard-functi/index.html

New sections can now also be created in the navigation bar of the FirstSpirit ContentCreator for content areas (in the “Page” area, via RIGHT-CLICK or context menu).
It will then be inserted in the first position of the content area.

The creation of sections can now be controlled separately for the navigation bar and the EasyEdit bar via the “Tailored UI” as follows:

• Navigation: Create Section
  This switch is new in the latest FirstSpirit Release.
  It controls the “New section” function in the navigation bar.
  By default, the function is available to all users in all projects.
• Preview: Create Section
  This switch controls the “New section” function in the EasyEdit bar:

For more information on the “Tailored UI”, see also https://docs.e-spirit.com/odfs/template-develo/contentcreator/customization/standard-functi/index.html

Scripts allow functions that are not present in FirstSpirit to be implemented quickly.

In the FirstSpirit ContentCreator, script functionalities were previously accessible via the “Actions” menu as well as the EasyEdit toolbar and navigation bar; however, in that case only for elements of content management (script type “ContentCreator”).

In the latest release, “ContentCreator” type scripts are now also available for elements of Site, Media and Data Store.
Exception: elements from remote projects

The script actions can be controlled individually via the Tailored UI:

• EntityManagement: Execute script
• MediaManagement: Execute script
• Navigation: Execute script
• Preview: Execute script

For further information, see https://docs.e-spirit.com/odfs/templates-basic/composition-tem/scripts/index.html

Note: FirstSpirit scripts present a lightweight option for the integration of new functions in FirstSpirit. However, for reasons of stability, it is recommended to implement functions that are needed or used long-term as a FirstSpirit module with executable or plug-in.

The “Search” report now only displays elements in the search results list for which the editor has the “Visible” permission. Otherwise, the element is not displayed as a search result. In the past, elements for which the editor did not have Visible permissions were also displayed labeled ** No access **.

Note: If Visible permissions are missing in the parent chain of the respective element, it continues to be displayed in the search results list with the ** No access ** label. Multiple invisible elements are thereby summarized in one.

FirstSpirit 2022.3 supports the following module versions for “FirstSpirit Content Experience Tools”.

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

The state of the source section with respect to the output (“Include this section in the output”) is now taken over when a section reference is created. It can be changed again later independently for the source section and the section reference. The state of the output is no longer synchronized between source section and section reference after creating a section reference.

Queries can now be referenced directly in the contentSelect function using the queryUid parameter.

Example:

<CMS_FUNCTION name="contentSelect" resultname="myContentSelectFunction">
   	<CMS_PARAM name="queryUid" value="mySchema.myQuery"/>
</CMS_FUNCTION> 

For more information, see https://docs.e-spirit.com/odfs/template-develo/template-syntax/functions/header/contentselect/index.html.