Hey guys,

as you might know Sitecore version 6 alias Crestone is coming up at the end of June. As you might have heard there will be a public beta of Crestone in the next couple of weeks. And after some chats with Lars he allowed me to write about some new features and major changes in Sitecore. I’m using Sitecore Crestone build 2 at the moment.

So let’s start with the changes in the web.config.

• I guess the most important is the change from .net 2.0 to .net 3.5. Based on this ajax is automatically included in the project. As well as the .net membership provider - and of course it’s used by sitecore.
• There are only 3 databases (Core, Master and Web) which intend that Crestone is “leighter” than Sitecore version 5.
• I found some new events:
  • publish:itemProcessing
  • publish:itemProcessed

  Which can help you to indentify and handle problems in the publishing process more comfortable.

• In the initialize pipeline I found a new processor: <processor type=“Sitecore.Pipelines.Loader.InitializeAgilityPack, Sitecore.Kernel“/>
• There is also a new pipeline called “preprocessrequest”:

<preprocessRequest help=“Processors should derive from Sitecore.Pipelines.PreprocessRequest.PreprocessRequestProcessor“>
<processor type=“Sitecore.Pipelines.PreprocessRequest.NormalizeRawUrl, Sitecore.Kernel“/>
<processor type=“Sitecore.Pipelines.PreprocessRequest.IIS404Handler, Sitecore.Kernel“/>
<processor type=“Sitecore.Pipelines.PreprocessRequest.FilterUrlExtensions, Sitecore.Kernel“>
<param desc=“Allowed extensions (comma separated)“>aspx, ashx, axd, asmx</param>
<param desc=“Blocked extensions (comma separated)“>*</param>
<param desc=“Blocked extensions that stream files (comma separated)“>*</param>
<param desc=“Blocked extensions that do not stream files (comma separated)“></param></processor>
<processor type=“Sitecore.Pipelines.PreprocessRequest.StripLanguage, Sitecore.Kernel“/>
</preprocessRequest>

• In the httpRequestBegine pipeline they changed the order from: site-, database-, begin diagnostics, device-, security-, language-resolver to: site-, user-, database-, begin diagnostics, device-, device-, language-resolver (They removed the security resolver and added the user resolver). They also added the DynamicLinkResolver.
• I found the publish item and publish pipeline as well:

  <publishItem help=“Processors should derive from Sitecore.Publishing.Pipelines.PublishItem.PublishItemProcessor“>
  <processor type=“Sitecore.Publishing.Pipelines.PublishItem.RaiseProcessingEvent, Sitecore.Kernel“/>
  <processor type=“Sitecore.Publishing.Pipelines.PublishItem.CheckVirtualItem, Sitecore.Kernel“/>
  <processor type=“Sitecore.Publishing.Pipelines.PublishItem.CheckSecurity, Sitecore.Kernel“/>
  <processor type=“Sitecore.Publishing.Pipelines.PublishItem.DetermineAction, Sitecore.Kernel“/>
  <processor type=“Sitecore.Publishing.Pipelines.PublishItem.PerformAction, Sitecore.Kernel“/>
  <processor type=“Sitecore.Publishing.Pipelines.PublishItem.RemoveUnknownChildren, Sitecore.Kernel“/>
  <processor type=“Sitecore.Publishing.Pipelines.PublishItem.MoveItems, Sitecore.Kernel“/>
  <processor type=“Sitecore.Publishing.Pipelines.PublishItem.RaiseProcessedEvent, Sitecore.Kernel“ runIfAborted=“true“/>
  <processor type=“Sitecore.Publishing.Pipelines.PublishItem.UpdateStatistics, Sitecore.Kernel“ runIfAborted=“true“>
  <traceToLog>false</traceToLog>
  </processor>
  </publishItem><publish help=“Processors should derive from Sitecore.Publishing.Pipelines.Publish.PublishProcessor“>
  <processor type=“Sitecore.Publishing.Pipelines.Publish.AddLanguagesToQueue, Sitecore.Kernel“/>
  <processor type=“Sitecore.Publishing.Pipelines.Publish.AddItemsToQueue, Sitecore.Kernel“/>
  <processor type=“Sitecore.Publishing.Pipelines.Publish.ProcessQueue, Sitecore.Kernel“/>
  </publish>

• I’m not going that deep into the structure of the web.config, but I guess these are the most important parts of the pipeline part. In fact they added a bunch of new pipelines, but because this would be to overwhelming I don’t copy & paste every new pipeline here. Some new pipelines sound pretty interesting, because it allowes you to customize Sitecore a lot more than before, and easier of course.
• Another major change is the security concept based on the .net membership provider, but I will point this feature out some other time.
• They improved a bunch of new configuration blocks like mediaPath which handles the mediaPathProvider and let you intercept this with your own providers for example.
• I saw two new xslt extension controls: The WebEditRibbon and the StringUtil.

Well, I’m going to spend my time on the settings another day, but all this changes mean that sitecore is more flexible than ever before. I hope that’s enough for the first time. I will write some more, but for today I’m done.

Good night