New features and enhancements in SDL Contenta 5.6

This section lists features and enhancements introduced in SDL Contenta 5.6.

Important note about Oracle database setup

Important information about Perl classic adapters

Support for Unicode encoding

In addition to storing Unicode content, Contenta now supports Unicode character encoding in object names, Property Sheet data, and other items such as Workflow task names, search text, and the like. Unicode is supported in Contenta Web, Contenta Server, Contenta Crawler, and the Contenta Java and Perl APIs. Contenta Explorer, pcmadmin, and the COM API command line parameters are still limited to ISO-8859-1 support.

See the following topics in the Contenta documentation for information about the configuration required to enable the use of Unicode encoding.
  • Java anc Tomcat settings in the SDL Installing or Upgrading Contenta Web on Windows or Linux Systems manual
  • Setting character encoding for the connector in the SDL Contenta Pre-installation Notes for Contenta Web

Strawberry Perl for Windows

On Windows platforms, SDL Contenta 5.6 uses Strawberry Perl instead of ActiveState Perl, which was used in previous versions. The Contenta installation program creates the following directory for the Strawberry Perl installation.

Contenta_home/SPerl

Because many Contenta users also use XPP which still relies on it, ActiveState Perl is not removed during the installation. Therefore, the path to the Strawberry Perl directory should be specified when running Perl scripts. Alternatively, you can set the Path environment variable to the Strawberry Perl file path. You can also set the default application for .pl files to the Strawberry Perl executable, Contenta_home\Contenta\SPerl\Perl\bin\perl.exe.

In addition, PERL5LIB is no longer set in the environment. Custom Perl tools may need the following additions at the start of the Perl tool to put Contenta libraries on the Perl library path.
BEGIN { $ENV{PATH} = "$ENV{XYV_PDM_PERL_DLLPATH};$ENV{PATH};" if ($^O eq 'MSWin32'); }
use lib("$ENV{'XYV_PDM_ENCAPS_DIR'}/PerlAPI");
use lib("$ENV{'XYV_PDM_ENCAPS_DIR'}/adapters");
use lib("$ENV{'XYV_PDM_ENCAPS_DIR'}");
use lib("$ENV{'XYV_PDM_ENCAPS_DIR'}/di");'

Perl API enhancements

Contenta 5.6 now supports a Perl API that communicates directly with the portal over the TCP/IP protocol, simplifying the relationship between the API and the portal. This API provides enhanced security and performance.

COM API change

Beginning with this release, the Contenta COM API is deprecated and delivered only by the Contenta Explorer installation program.

Contenta installation and upgrade enhancements

The Contenta installation and upgrade program has been streamlined to enable a faster and simpler installation.

Workflow editing

The Contenta Workflow editing interface has been enhanced to improve drag-and-drop placement of Workflow items and increase consistency between Contenta Web and Contenta Explorer. In addition, a bi-directional relationship between Workflow items is now represented by a double-headed arrow instead of two single-headed arrows.

Contenta Web navigation

By default, after logging in, Contenta Web now navigates the user to the location in the Tree View hierarchy of the Repository view that was selected at the end of the previous session. This enhancement reduces the navigation needed to begin a new session where work on the previous session left off and is available only in the Repository view. To disable this feature for a user, clear the User Preference option Go to Last Repository Location on Login under Preferences > Advanced and click OK to save the settings. Contenta Web will subsequently open to the user's home page upon login, instead of navigating to the location in the Tree View hierarchy of the Repository view that was selected at the end of the previous session.

Crawler enhancements

The Contenta Crawler has been enhanced to allow customization of the content being indexed. In addition, performance enhancements were made so the Crawler can be configured to skip configurations already initially indexed. To do this, you must add the All_configs option for indexing. To enable this enhancement, a new AppData field, CONFIGS_ALREADY_INITIALLY_INDEXED, has been added under the All_configs key. This field accepts as its value a semicolon-delimited list of the configuration IDs of configurations to be skipped by Crawler indexing functionality.

Documentation enhancement

As of this release, Contenta documentation is available on the SDL Documentation Center at https://docs.rws.com/CC512. This enhancement gives you access to the latest, most up-to-date information about installing, upgrading, managing, using, and extending Contenta. The Documentation Center includes a downloadable .zip file ( Contenta full documentation download as HTML ) containing the full product documentation in HTML format, which you can provide to users without internet access.