I upgraded this Orchard Website to Orchard CMS 1.5 which was just released over the weekend. I am just starting to write Orchard Tutorials on the various new features like Custom Orchard Forms, Admin Content Search in Orchard CMS, and the new pluggable navigation in Orchard. Lots of really nice features in Orchard 1.5.
Orchard 1.5 Features
Some of the features I really like in Orchard 1.5 include:
- Admin Content Search - The ability to search for content items from the Orchard admin dashboard is very convenient. We've had the ability to search Orchard Websites for quite some time from the front-end using Orchard Indexing, Lucene, and Search modules, but now we get the search feature in the Orchard dashboard.
- Hierarchical Menus, Breadcrumbs, and Pluggable Navigation in Orchard 1.5 - I think all Orchard Web Developers will appreciate that we have a solid menu and navigation system in Orchard without the use of 3rd party modules. You even have drag-and-drop menu item positioning. Navigation in Orchard 1.5 is pluggable which gives you the ability to dynamically generate menu items at runtime in Orchard CMS.
- Custom Orchard Forms, Anti-Spam Features, and Overriding Placement of Form Fields in Orchard 1.5 - Huge update to creating custom forms in Orchard 1.5. Now you have the ability to create custom forms and add all kinds of ant-spam features like ReCaptcha, Spam Filtering via Akismet and TypePad, and Submission Limiters. You also have control over placement of custom form fields in the dashboard. Yeah, I hear you cheering! Me, too :) I'll blog more about custom forms in Orchard CMS later, but I did a quick post on setting anonymous permissions on custom Orchard Forms for public forms, like Contact Forms and How to Add reCaptcha to Custom Forms in Orchard CMS.
- Layout Placement in Orchard CMS - In my Orchard Online Store and E-Commerce Website Sample I used the new Layout Placement Feature in Orchard to position the TitlePart of Content Items in a different location. Layout Placement is invaluable when you want Orchard to place a shape in a zone different that Orchard puts it.
These are just some of the new features in Orchard 1.5.
Conclusion
If you are running an Orchard Website before Orchard 1.4, you owe it to yourself to upgrade your Orchard Website. Lots of new features in Orchard 1.4 and Orchard 1.5 that will make upgrading somewhat of a challenge. Best to upgrade now while the upgrade steps are still in the minds of Orchard Web Developers. Lots of really nice features, too, as well as performance enhancements!
If you don't want to upgrade your Orchard Website yourself, I am available for hire. Contact me.
David Hayden is an Orchard Web Developer for hire. David specializes in developing Orchard Websites, Orchard Themes, and Orchard Modules. He regularly blogs and speaks about Orchard CMS. Check out his Orchard Tutorials.