Content Manager functionality introduced in SDL Tridion 2013 SP1

A list of new features and functionality introduced in Content Manager in this release.

Import and Export Service

The functionality of importing content from, or exporting content to, another Content Manager instance was previously provided by the server side of SDL Content Porter. This functionality is now an integral part of the Content Manager server, exposed through a Web service, with the API documented in the Core Service API documentation resource.

This means that you can also perform an import and export from your custom code. SDL Content Porter 2013 SP1, which is compatible with SDL Tridion 2013 SP1, consists of a Content Porter client only, which calls the new Import and Export Service.

Context Expression Extension

If SDL Tridion is integrated with SDL CMA, Target Groups defined by Context Expressions can be created and published to the Presentation Server.

Workflow: Setting Initial Approval Status on a new item added to a running Workflow Process

By default, adding a new item to a Workflow Process that has already started causes that item to have a status of "Unapproved". Using the TOM.NET Event System, you can use the AddToWorkflowEventArgs class, which has a property called InitialApprovalStatus in which you can override that default "Unapproved" status. Your Event Handler code can set this property.

Workflow: First Activity changes

The first Activity in a Workflow Process Definition no longer needs to be assigned to Everyone and can now also be an Automatic Activity.

Templating: RenderComponentField() deprecated

To provide greater flexibility in your templating code, the RenderComponentField() method has been deprecated in favor of the FieldValueStartMarker(), GetFieldValue() and FieldValueEndMarker() methods. Your existing template code continues to work.

Multimedia Component creation through APIs

When using the Core Service API or the TOM.NET API, you now no longer need to specify a Multimedia Type when creating a Multimedia Component if that Multimedia Type is known. The APIs use the extension of the file you are uploading to determine its Multimedia Type as configured in Content Manager.

Core Service: direct download of external binary content

Previously, the Core Service interfaces IStreamDownload2011 and IStreamDownload2012 were only able to download the binary content of items that had been saved first (using the DownloadBinaryContent() method, which takes an ID as a parameter). Now, the interface has a new method called DownloadExternalBinaryContent(), which takes an external URI (typically a URL) as its parameter and downloads the content directly from the external resource.

Core Service and TOM.NET API: direct Schema lookup using namespace URI

Taken together, the namespace URI and root element of a Schema constitute a handy unique identifier of the Schema. This combination is not localizable and remains the same in different environments (e.g. if the Schema is migrated to another Content Manager using SDL Content Porter).

Because of this, the following new methods were introduced:

  • The TOM.NET API has a new GetSchemasByNamespaceUri() method, which takes a namespace URI and root element name as parameters.
  • The Core Service API has a new GetSchemasByNamespaceUri() method, which takes a Repository ID, namespace URI and root element name as parameters.

In both cases, the root element name defaults to null. If no root element name is provided, all Schemas with the supplied URI are returned.

Search engine

The Lucene search engine, formerly hosted in Jetty, is now hosted in Tomcat because of Tomcat's better stability and reliability under heavy load.

The search application itself, Lucene/Solr has also been upgraded to version 4.3.

Workflow Activity Expiration script

You can now specify script code to execute when the due date of an Automatic or Manual Activity has expired.

Content-Schema synchronization

Both the TOM.NET and Core Service APIs now offer functionality to synchronize content against its Schema in the event that either has changed. Note that using this functionality could potentially result in data loss.

Publication Target decommissioning

In certain circumstances, you may want to delete a Publication Target without explicitly unpublishing all Content Manager content published to it. Typically, this would be the case if you are discarding the part of your Content Delivery infrastructure that corresponds to this Publication Target.

To deal with this situation, this release introduces Publication Target decommissioning: a step to enable you to delete a Publication Target without unpublishing all of its content.

Purging and naming of publish transactions

First, in the past, deleting an item could cause publish transaction information associated with that item to also be deleted. Now, the publish transaction is preserved even when the item is deleted.

Secondly, in the past, renaming an item would cause the name of the associated publish transaction to change along with it. Now, the name of the publish transaction remains the same.

The reason for this change is that when a Workflow Process that included publishing was applied to a Bundle and finished, it would cause the Bundle to dissolve (that is, to be deleted). This in turn would cause the associated publish transaction to be deleted also. As a result, no evidence remained that the Bundle had been published.

Last checked-in item must have minimum approval status to be previewed or published

In the past, if an item to be previewed or published was in workflow and had not yet obtained minimum approval status, the last checked-in version of the item would be shown in preview or published, regardless of that version's approval status. As of SDL Tridion 2013 SP1, the last checked-in version must have minimum approval status, and Content Manager throws an exception if this is not the case.

If you have a pressing reason to do so, you can instruct Content Manager to continue disregarding the approval status of the last checked-in version, like it did before, by doing the following:
  1. On the Content Manager server, go to %TRIDION_HOME%\config\.
  2. Open the Content Manager configuration file Tridion.ContentManager.config for editing.
  3. In the file, find the element called rendering.
  4. Add a new attribute legacyApprovalStatusCheck to the element, and set this attribute to true.
  5. Save and close Tridion.ContentManager.config.
Additional database support

For both Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server, a new setting in the MMC Snap-in lets you specify advanced database settings in a connection string.

Specifically for Oracle, a utility script called ShowTcmSessions lets you see which SDL Tridion registered sessions are running, and another utility script called ShrinkLobs.sql reclaims space used by LOB columns for deleted rows.