Content Manager functionality introduced in SDL Web 8.5

A number of new features were introduced in this release.

Tool for migrating data between storage types
A new PowerShell cmdlet lets you migrate data from any one of the Content Manager data storage types to any other. The storage types are:
  • Content Manager database storage
  • File system storage
  • Amazon S3 bucket storage
  • Azure Blob storage

Before running the tool, a small configuration change must be made and applied, which takes your system offline only briefly. After that, the tool migrates your binaries in the background.

Support for workflow-as-collaboration as opposed to workflow-as-embargo

Up till now, SDL Web only supported an embargo-based implementation of workflow, keeping content hidden from most users while it is going through workflow. The product now allows you to implement a collaboration-based workflow implementation, in which all users can see in-progress content, and check its status, at all times, as of SDL Web 8.5 .

Configuration option to grant users read access to in-progress workflow items and their status

By configuring a new attribute in the Content Manager configuration file, you can enable users with read access to content items to also read those items while they are in workflow, and to see Activities inside a Publication they have access to.

This configuration option is part of enabling a collaboration-based approach to workflow, rather than an embargo-based approach.

Privileges
A number of system-wide operations, which previously required a system administrator-level security clearance, have now been made more granular and can be individually granted to one or more Groups in the form of Privileges. Specifically, this has the following consequences:
  • System administrator users, who used to have a special setting just for them, will be added to a new default User Group called System Administrators (which grants them all possible rights) and will be granted the System Administration Privilege (which grants them all possible system privileges).
  • The management of Users and Groups has moved out of the Permission Management right and into the new Group Management Privilege.
Making custom APIs available for C# fragments

Before SDL Web 8.5, implementers had to manually add namespaces and assemblies to the C# script fragments they used in a templating or workflow implementation. Now, Content Manager provides a new root-level configuration section in Tridion.ContentManager.config, the Content Manager configuration file, which is called cSharpCodeReferences, in which you can specify your assemblies and namespaces, and specify if the APIs should be exposed to workflow C# script fragments, templating C# script fragments or both. When you install additional features such as Translation Manager using the Content Manager installer, the installer adds new sections to this configuration section to make the APIs available to you. You can also edit the section yourself to add access to your own assemblies.

Content Manager tracing tool

The new tracing tool (the Start-TcmTracing script) for tracing your .NET code all the way down from the originating user interface (browser) operation to the resulting Content Manager database call, and back. Use this tool to trace not only function calls with their parameters and embedded code, but also, for example, Content Manager Event System code.