BestCloudHostingASP.NET | Best and affordable Kentico Xperience 13 hosting. Kentico CMS is a web content management system (WCMS) for building web sites, on-line stores, intranets and Web 2.0 community sites. Kentico CMS utilizes ASP.NET and Microsoft SQL Server.

What is Kentico?

Kentico is the only fully integrated ASP.NET CMS, E-commerce, and Online Marketing platform that allows you to create cutting-edge websites, and fully optimize your digital customers’ experiences across multiple channels. Kentico saves you time and resources so you can accomplish more.

New features

ASP.NET Core

• Added support for developing live site applications using ASP.NET Core.

Content management

• Page URLs and routing
  • New content tree-based URL routing mode. The system can now automatically generate URLs for pages based on their position in the content tree and the configuration of their page types. See Content tree-based routing.
    • If you want to switch from custom routing based on URL patterns to content tree-based routing while preserving the former URLs, you can do so by manually executing a prepared code snippet. See Enabling content tree-based routing.
  • Added support for configuring the format of URLs on multilingual sites using the content tree-based routing mode. For multilingual URLs, you can use separate domains or language prefixes. See Configuring URLs for multilingual websites.
  • New Former URLs application, which enables automatic tracking of changes made to the URL paths of pages (e.g. by changing a URL slug). Old URLs are stored and the system handles redirection to the current URLs. See Managing page URLs.
• Added support for creating linked pages on MVC and ASP.NET Core sites. Linked pages allow content to be reused in various scenarios, for example to simplify editing in the content tree when data stored in a page is displayed within multiple parts of the website.
• New navigation feature for page types and individual pages, which allows content editors to choose which pages are displayed in navigation menus. For more information, see Building website navigation.
• Improved support for editing and handling metadata for pages. The new metadata feature for page types allows administrators to control which pages provide metadata editing, and developers can use new extension methods to render metadata tags when displaying page content.
• Added settings and support for reflecting page permissions on the live site. Page-level permissions are now automatically reflected on sites using the content tree-based routing mode. It is also possible to create authenticated sections that are enforced on the live site.
  • On sites using custom routing, developers can utilize methods from the Xperience API to check page permissions and authentication and authorization of users to access pages. See Implementing page permission checks.
• The language version comparison mode used for viewing and editing two different language versions of pages side-by-side is now supported for MVC and ASP.NET Core sites.
• MVC and ASP.NET Core sites now support validation of HTML, CSS, links, and accessibility for pages via built-in validators.
  • The CSS validator now checks CSS definitions used on pages against the CSS3 standard.
• New security web.config key for accepting all certificates when validating website code or accessibility (e.g. CSS validation) using a 3rd party validation service over a secured protocol (HTTPS): CMSValidationAcceptAllCertificates. See Reference – Web.config application keys.

Content API

• New IPageRetriever service that simplifies loading of page data within live site applications. Supports dependency injection, automatically provides caching, and ensures default parameterization of the resulting page query for common scenarios.
• Page URLs and routing
  • Improved API for getting the live site URLs of pages from the Xperience content tree (new IPageUrlRetriever service and extension methods). For more information, see Displaying page content.
  • New system constraint SiteCultureConstraint that automatically detects and sets the current culture for each request on multilingual websites that use custom routing based on URL patterns. The constraint has a property HideLanguagePrefixForDefaultCulture that enables hiding language prefixes for default content culture URLs.
  • New Kentico().PageCanonicalUrl() extension method that helps developers render Canonical link elements for pages with alternative URLs or for linked pages. The method replaces the PageMainUrl() extension method used previously for this purpose. As a result, the PageMainUrl() method is now obsolete.
• Media libraries – Improved API for retrieving and configuring URLs of media library files. For more information, see Displaying content from media libraries.
• Page attachments – Improved API for retrieving and configuring URLs page attachments. For more information, see Displaying page attachments.

Page builder

• The system now provides the Rich text widget out-of-the-box (for Kentico 12, the widget was available through a NuGet package as an extension). The Rich text widget allows content editors to add stylized text content to pages. See Using the Rich text widget. The same rich text editor can also be used by developers within custom components, as described in Configuring the rich text editor for page builder.
• Development
  • Developers can now limit which sections are allowed in page builder editable areas (in addition to limiting widgets). See Creating pages with editable areas.
  • New API for rendering widgets directly within the views of pages or other page builder components. For more information, see Rendering widgets in code and Extending widgets.
  • The API now allows developers to add visibility conditions to the properties of page and form builder components (widgets, page templates, personalization conditions, etc.). For more information, see Adding visibility conditions for builder component properties.
  • Added support for accessing the data of the current page within custom controller actions that handle POST requests (for both pages and page builder components, such as widgets, sections, and page templates). When handling such requests, the persisted page data can be accessed via the new IPageDataContextRetriever service. For more information, see Developing widgets, Developing page builder sections, Developing page templates.
  • Added support for accessing the properties of page builder components (widgets, sections, page templates) from within custom controller actions that handle POST requests. For more information, see Defining widget properties.
  • Two new selectors for page builder component properties: URL selector and Attachment selector. The JavaScript API of all selectors has been unified into a single configurable content selector API.

Form builder

• New Multiple choice form component that offers checkbox options, and allows users to select multiple options at the same time. See Reference – System form components.
• Development – Added dependency injection support for classes that implement form components. Components can now automatically resolve dependencies from the application’s service container.

Platform

• Site domains
  • Domain aliases can now specify alternative Presentation URLs for the live site (MVC). See Setting domain names for sites.
  • You can now specify a Preview presentation URL for each Administration domain name alias. The Preview presentation URL is then used when previewing live site content within the scope of the administration interface. This can be useful, for example, when preparing environment for content staging.
  • The system now validates the Presentation URL of sites for uniqueness. Different running sites (or their domain aliases) can no longer have matching Presentation URL values.
• Membership
  • All Membership & Security and Passwords settings set via the Settings application now also affect the configuration of the Xperience membership OWIN integration API used by the live site application. Password policies, password reset token validity intervals, cross-site user account sharing, and other features can now be controlled directly from the Settings application without the need to synchronize such changes with the configuration of the live-site application.
  • New API for managing user avatars. See User avatars for more information.
  • The Kentico.Membership.User object used by the system’s ASP.NET Identity integration now also maps the ‘UserInfo.FullName‘ property. See Adding custom fields to users.
• Licensing – Reworked how Xperience controls the maximum number of web farms allowed by site license keys. The number of allowed web farm servers is now counted separately for the live site and administration applications. For example, a license key for a live site hosted on domain.com that allows up to 3 web farm servers allows you to scale the corresponding application to up to three instances. To scale the connected administration instance (e.g., hosted on admin.domain.com), you need a license key for admin.domain.com with its web farm allowance. In previous versions, the scaling model enabled arbitrary distribution of web farm servers allowed by a single license across both applications. See How licensing works for more information and examples illustrating various hosting configurations.
• Added SameSite mode configuration options for cookies. Due to stricter enforcement of the SameSite configuration of cookies adopted by major browsers, it is now possible to configure the SameSite mode of cookies set via the system’s API (for both system and custom cookies). By default, Xperience uses the Lax mode for all system cookies, which is sufficient if the live site and administration are hosted on a single domain. However, if the applications comprising your site are hosted across multiple domains, you need to explicitly force the None mode to ensure the preview mode functionality and all dependent features, such as the page builder, work correctly. See:
  • Configuring cookie SameSite mode to learn how to configure the SameSite mode for system cookies depending on your hosting environment.
  • Working with cookies to learn how to configure the SameSite mode for custom cookies set via the Xperience API.
•  Macros
  • Updated the available macro methods to allow resolving by both the administration and live site application (with the exception of methods that only have a specific function within the administration interface). Certain methods that are no longer relevant were removed and others were made obsolete. To learn about the current macro methods, refer to Reference – Macro methods.
  • The macro report available in System -> Macros -> Report was extended to report occurrences of removed or obsolete macro methods used in the administration application. See Searching for macros.
• Scheduled tasks – The system now allows scheduling and running of site-specific tasks on the side of the live site (MVC) application. For example, you can use this option for tasks that work with the application memory or the local file system. See Processing scheduled tasks on the live site.
• Search
  • Improved the functionality of Pages crawler indexes to allow better usability on sites presented by a separate live site application (MVC or ASP.NET Core). See Defining local page indexes.
  • Added support for Pages crawler indexes in combination with Azure Cognitive Search.
• Event log – It is now possible to specify custom event logging destinations via event log writers. See Customizing event logging for more information.
• REST
  • When generating URLs with hash parameter authentication for REST requests, the system now allows administrators to set an expiration date for individual URLs.
  • Hash parameters generated for authenticating REST requests can now be invalidated.
• Caching
  • New CacheAsync method added to the CacheHelper API that allows loading and caching of Xperience data in asynchronous code. See Caching in custom code.
  • New IProgressiveCache service that provides a full alternative to the static CacheHelper API. Supports dependency injection and makes it easier to cache data within the code of unit tests.
• Performance – The general performance of ObjectQuery calls was slightly improved (such calls are used to load object data within the system and in custom code).
• SharePoint integration – New API that allows developers to retrieve the URLs of SharePoint files and display the files on the live site.
• Added automatic registration of secured (HTTPS) endpoints for the WCF services used by the marketing automation designer and advanced workflow designer (when the administration application is running over HTTPS). Manual configuration is only required in scenarios with advanced environment configurations. See Configuring Windows Communication Foundation for more information.
• Data API
  • The API now contains interfaces (services) for most InfoProvider classes, which are used for basic loading and management of Xperience objects. For example, IUserInfoProvider for UserInfoProvider. The new services can be added using dependency injection or accessed through the Provider property of the corresponding Info class. The original static InfoProvider methods that have replacements are now obsolete. See Database table API.
  • Xperience objects can now be loaded asynchronously using the GetAsync method of the new IInfoProvider interfaces.
  • The DocumentQuery and ObjectQuery classes provide a new GetEnumerableTypedResultAsync method, which allows asynchronous execution of queries that load Xperience pages or objects.
  • The query parameterization methods available for the DocumentQuery and ObjectQuery API are now virtual. This allows developers to call the methods when creating mocked data in automated unit tests (for example when using Substitute.For with query objects).

On-line marketing

• Marketing automation
  • New and improved visual design and overall interface for the automation process designer. The steps for managing the flow of processes (conditions, etc.) were simplified and streamlined.
  • New Time-based triggers, which can be used to start automation processes. Such triggers schedule the process to run for a specified set of contacts, either once at a specified time or recurring based on a set interval.
  • Automation processes can now be saved as templates and then later used as a starting point for creating new processes. The system provides several predefined templates to help quickly create processes that cover common scenarios (Send birthday message, Re-engagement campaign, Abandoned cart reminder). See Managing automation process templates.
  • Improved editing interface for process triggers – triggers are now displayed and managed directly within the process designer interface as part of the Start step.
  • Improved analytics for automation processes, including reports showing the demographics of contacts handled by the process, and a visual representation of the journey that individual contacts have taken through the steps of the process.
  • Marketers can now document and annotate automation processes by adding notes to the process graph. See Working with the automation process designer for more information.
  • Action steps can now retrieve data and display the resulting information to users in the automation process designer interface. For example, the system’s default Send marketing email action step loads and displays available statistics for the related email (number of sent emails, open and link click rate). For more information about implementing data retrieval for custom steps, see Developing custom marketing automation actions.
  • The automation process designer newly displays a warning icon and message for steps with required parameters that are not configured.
  • Users can now duplicate steps within an automation process, including their current configuration.
• The Web analytics feature is now supported for MVC and ASP.NET Core sites. Allows marketers to measure and analyze key metrics of websites directly in the Xperience administration interface.
  • New and improved API for developers who wish to log custom events as web analytics. See Adding custom web analytics.
• Email marketing
  • Emails can now be cloned (copied) between different email feeds. See Composing marketing emails.
  • Emails that have A/B testing enabled can now be selected and sent by marketing automation processes (using Send marketing email action steps).
• The Custom table form submit activity is now supported for MVC and ASP.NET Core sites (logged automatically when calling the appropriate custom table API).
• New macro rules:
  • Rule that evaluates whether a contact has their birthday on the current, preceding or following day.
  • Rule that evaluates whether a contact has been inactive for a specified number of days (i.e. was created at least X days ago and has not performed any activities in the last X days).
• Personas – The staging, export/import, and continuous integration features now support persona data. If you want to synchronize, import or export data of personas that use custom activities in their rule definitions, you need to make sure each custom activity has its Activity item object type configured in Contact management -> Configuration -> Activity types -> Edit -> Scoring rule configuration section. Additionally, you need to manually resave all scoring rules that use such custom activities.

General

• Published the Kentico Xperience item on the Azure Marketplace, which can be used to quickly deploy and evaluate a sample website as an Azure Web App. See Deploying a sample Xperience application from the Azure Marketplace.

Product Benefits Include

Web Content Management

With much more out-of-the-box functionality than any other vendor, Kentico’s WCM solution lets you deliver a consistent customer experience across multiple channels and devices. Proven to integrate with almost any back-end system, Kentico gives you ultimate flexibility, freeing time and resources so you can accomplish more.

E-commerce

Kentico’s E-commerce solution allows you to keep the design of the site navigation and structure of online stores in line with your vision. Simple integration with external systems, easy ways to pay, and support for multiple languages and currencies means developing a consistent global online retail presence is effortless.

Online Marketing

Using Kentico’s Online Marketing solution gives you a fully integrated 360-degree view of your customers, allowing you to personalize every customer experience. With Web Analytics, Lead Scoring, and Marketing Automation you can nurture leads, and analyze and optimize your campaigns to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time.

Intranet and Collaboration

The Kentico Intranet and Collaboration solution makes empowering workgroups and project teams a hassle-free process for everybody. With easy-to-use Project Management, seamless SharePoint Integration, advanced workgroup collaboration, and customizable department-specific pages, Kentico is the simpler, faster way to smarter working.

Platform

The Kentico all-in-one CMS platform offers rich out-of-the-box functionality, an extensive set of features, and incredible levels of customizability for rapid website development. With Open API, Kentico’s ASP.NET CMS is proven to integrate with almost any back-end system, giving you ultimate flexibility across all channels.