Umbraco is one of the eminent Content Management Systems (CMS), which is serving its users effectively for a longer span. It has created its own niche and to continue its year-old legacy of flexibility, outstanding functionalities, and user-friendly features, the new version is released, which is Umbraco 12.
It is a major release of Umbraco which is released on 29 June 2023. The new version has come up with umpteen new features such as Content Delivery API for headless capabilities, support for Entity Framework Core, etc. Moreover, Umbraco 12 introduced new add-ons such as, Umbraco Forms, Deploy, and Workflow.
And there is much more. Keep reading to know new features and improvements of Umbraco 12.
What should you know about the new Umbraco 12?
To compete with its counterparts, Umbraco released its latest version with impeccable features to deliver exemplary, top-notch results.
1. Content Delivery API
This is one of the most powerful features Umbraco 12 has. Content Delivery API enables developers to access and manipulate content through an API, which mitigates custom code needs. It simply implies that developers can update and manage content easily without wasting much time and resources.
Previously, Umbraco had a traditional CMS approach to manage content with an in-built templating engine and language. So, if a business had headless functionality requirements, they had to work on coding part rigorously or use extensions. However, now Umbraco has changed with Content Delivery API.
Content Delivery API ensures consistency in content across the platforms and devices and content management has become simpler since you can manage all of it from a single location. Thus, if you wish to apply an omnichannel strategy and provide a unified content experience across multiple channels, this feature will help you. The idea behind Content Delivery API feature is to provide a seamless system wherein building out a caching layer, integrating it into microservice architecture, or serving clients directly, all can be done efficiently.
With the help of Content Delivery API, everybody can access automated headless instantly, be it on Umbraco Cloud or a self-hosted environment.
This common approach of content delivery and headless functionality makes Umbraco 12 more flexible.
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2. Entity Framework Core library support
The latest Umbraco 12 has introduced support for Entity Framework Core (EF Core) library as well. This library assists in vanishing the requirement of writing repetitive and boilerplate database access codes. EF Core offers a convention-based wide approach, which is a high-level abstraction over the database, allowing developers to work with objects and entities. Thus, they don’t need to interact with database queries.
Thereby, EF Core improve developers’ productivity by decreasing their work of writing and maintaining code. This feature also helps developers to create and maintain database tables and data efficiently with access to the Umbraco context and services required.
3. ImageSharp’s new version
Umbraco uses the cross-platform image processing library ImageSharp and now Umbraco 12 will work with its new major version (ImageSharp 3). Since ImageSharp 3 supports the latest .NET 6 LTS framework, Umbraco 12 will show better performance than its predecessors. The modern ImageSharp 3 library has become faster and more structured with robust security improvements. It offers new image encoding and decoding options.
To control image loading, it introduces sturdy DecoderOptions. Alpha compositing and colour adjustments can be done impeccably with the new ImageSharp version.
One thing to know here is that ImageSharp 3 ships along with a new license. So, for users who are working on only the in-built processing of Umbraco, nothing will change for them. If you wish to use ImageSharp functionality and APIs directly in your code, then you need to see its license change.
Moreover, ImageSharp 3 can be replaced with ImageSharp 2 implementation and then any existing project can utilize the library directly and upgrade their system to Umbraco 12 while adhering to license requirements. However, then you will not be able to avail the features and performance introduced in the latest version.
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4. New Addons – Umbraco forms, deploy, and Workflow 12
Umbraco Forms, Umbraco Deploy, and Umbraco Workflow are also upgraded with Umbraco 12. They are new major versions, but changes have been made to ensure complete support to run on Umbraco 12.
There are some noticeable functional updates with these products. With Umbraco Forms, makers have updated the headless API to align from a documentation, library, and feature perspective using the new Content Delivery API.
In Umbraco Deploy, they’ve made some significant performance enhancements that leverage optimizations made in cache refresh operations with Umbraco 12. And there is a profound 35 to 50% performance improvement in deployment operations such as restoring/transferring content and updating the Umbraco schema.
Both Umbraco Forms and Deploy are encompassed with all Umbraco Cloud projects so that whoever using Umbraco 12, will get benefitted from these new add-ons.
And the Umbraco Workflow significantly enhances the content management process; it is a workflow tool for review and approval that brings a new level of control to content creation and publishing.
5. Updated dependencies
If you get a faster major release cadence (every 6 months), you can keep your Umbraco platform up to date with the underlying framework and all the dependencies used in Umbraco CMS. Updated dependencies ultimately ensures that Umbraco 12 is more secure and performant version.
ImageSharp is one of these dependencies and its updated version is suggested to use in Umbraco 12 (we’ve seen in the above point), other updated dependencies are:
- Umbraco UI Library is updated to 1.3.0
- Backoffice JS dependency updates
- V12: Update ImageSharp V3 and Add Legacy V2 Project
- Added OpenIddict dependencies for future usage
- V11: Backoffice JS Updates
- Updates nuget packages to the latest versions
Read release notes to know more about updates.
Install Umbraco 12 and improve your website performance!
If you are installing or upgrading Umbraco on-premises, check the Upgrading Umbraco documentation. And if installing the latest version elsewhere then manual installation instructions will help you.
Manual installation instruction:
Command line (CLI) makes Umbraco installation straightforward.
- Open your Command Line.
- Install the Umbraco templates with dotnet new install Umbraco.Templates
- Run dotnet new umbraco –name MyProject to create a new project.
- Enter the project folder. It will be the folder containing the .csproj file.
- Run and build your project using dotnet run.
- The console will output a message similar to: [10:57:39 INF] Now listening on: https://localhost:44388 .
- Open your browser and navigate to that URL.
- Follow more instructions on the installer.
Read document to know about more installations.
Wrapping up
Umbraco 12 has properly maintained documentation to upgrade and improve the overall performance of the system, which becomes a more structured and user-friendly resource for developers. The documentation ensures that Umbraco users can make the most out of the latest features.
Umbraco 12 is a revolutionary upgrade for content management systems. Its new features and enhancements make this CMS more flexible, efficient, and user-friendly. So, upgrade now to Umbraco 12 and witness the future-proof features and functionalities of this platform.
Moreover, Umbraco 12 is available on Umbraco Cloud for new created projects. Thus, now you can start a new project easily on the cloud as well using Umbraco 12 features.
Skynet Technologies, a registered Umbraco partner, offers versatile Umbraco web development services tailored to businesses of all sizes. Our comprehensive range of services includes Umbraco web design, Customized enterprise-level Umbraco solutions, Umbraco solutions for e-commerce, and more.
To receive a free quote, please complete the provided form or reach out to us via email at [email protected] We look forward to assisting you!