Elevate Your Digital Presence with Sitecore 10.4

In the ever-changing world of digital experience platforms, it's crucial to stay ahead of the game. With the release of Sitecore 10.4, a lot of enhancements and new features are designed to empower users in delivering exceptional digital experiences. Let's delve into the key highlights of this latest release:

Updated JavaScript Libraries, logging and Improved Security

• Enhanced Performance: Updated JavaScript libraries across various Sitecore Experience Platform components ensure improved performance and responsiveness, enhancing the overall user experience.

• Robust Security Measures: By incorporating the latest security patches and enhancements, Sitecore 10.4 reinforces its defenses against vulnerabilities, minimizing potential risks and ensuring a secure digital environment for users.

• Default ASP.NET Configuration: The value of the ASP.NET validateRequest setting for the pages configuration node is now enabled by default, further enhancing security measures.

• Audit Logging: Added audit logging for Sitecore logins via Identity Server, providing enhanced visibility and security monitoring. Additionally, audit logging has been added for specific actions within the Content Editor, further enhancing security measures.

• Security Enhancements: Various security enhancements have been implemented to enhance the overall security of the platform and reduce potential vulnerabilities.

Enhanced Accessibility for Content Authors & and User Role Enhancements

• Seamless Navigation: Content authors with poor vision can now navigate the Content Editor with ease, thanks to improved accessibility features. They can effortlessly interact with the ribbon, expand items in the content tree, and manage various types of fields, fostering inclusivity and usability.

• Assistive Technology Compatibility: Sitecore 10.4 enables seamless integration with assistive third-party technologies, allowing users to access vital information about UI elements, further enhancing the accessibility and usability of the platform.

• Granular User Permissions: The introduction of the Sitecore Client Content Reader user role provides granular control over read access to Content Tree items in the Content Editor and Media Library, enhancing security and governance.

Language Customisation and Campaign Automation

• Expanded Language Support: Sitecore 10.4 empowers users to create custom or regional languages directly within the Content Editor, catering to diverse linguistic preferences and expanding global reach. This includes the ability to use nonstandard country/region codes, such en-EU.

• Personalized Content Delivery: The ability to trigger campaigns or goals based on predefined rules enables personalised content delivery, enhancing engagement and relevance for target audiences.

Interoperability and Migration Tools

• Seamless Integration: Sitecore 10.4 enhances interoperability with new SaaS products and the community ecosystem, enabling customers to leverage existing investments while embracing innovation at their own pace.

• Migration Facilitation: Related tooling, such as the XM to XM Cloud Migration Tool and xDB to CDP Migration Tool, simplifies migrations and interoperability with external systems, ensuring a smooth transition for users.

Improved Media Item Duplication Logic

• Enhanced Reliability: Sitecore 10.4 addresses issues related to media item duplication logic, ensuring a more reliable experience when handling duplicate media items. The updated logic resolves issues associated with media item duplicates sharing the same blob, providing greater efficiency and reliability.

Enhanced Platform Functionality

• Improved Debugging: Various enhancements, such as more detailed logging in the parseDataSource pipeline and added INFO messages for mismatched instance names, contribute to improved debugging capabilities and system monitoring.

• Webhooks Enhancements: Custom parameters for authentication using Webhooks OAuth2.0 are now supported, providing enhanced security and flexibility in authentication mechanisms.

• Folder Templates: It is now possible to use folder templates in the Insert from Template dialog, simplifying content creation and organisation within the platform.

• Marketing Control Panel Enhancements: The Marketing Control Panel now supports associating a goal to multiple items simultaneously, streamlining campaign management processes.

• Additionally, container-related enhancements have been introduced, such as the creation of a new Kubernetes script for populating data and updates to Kubernetes specifications.

• Optimised Search Functionality: With the implementation of Solr soft commits, index changes become immediately visible to search, ensuring timely and accurate search results for users.

Personalisation and Analytics

• Schema Extension Module: The new Codeless Schema Extension module allows business users to extend the xConnect schema without requiring code development, facilitating seamless customisation and adaptation.

• Efficient Marketing Campaign Management: Bulk assigning marketing definitions in xDB to content streamlines marketing operations, improving efficiency and enabling targeted content distribution.

• External Analytics Integration: Added a new open-source module providing the ability to extract data from xDB and transform the schema to feed external analytics tools, enabling deeper insights and analysis.

Email Experience Manager

• Enhanced Functionality: Various improvements have been made to the Email Experience Manager, including improved error handling and support for special characters in email campaign descriptions.

Installation and Performance Enhancements

• Installation Updates: Installation-related enhancements include updates to .NET 6 hosting-bundle, auto-update links, and changes in default package installation behaviour for improved customisation and compatibility.

• Performance Optimisation: Several performance improvements have been implemented across various aspects of the platform like workbox, cache, purging edge item cache, etc. enhancing responsiveness and efficiency.

In conclusion, Sitecore 10.4 represents a significant leap forward in delivering powerful, personalised digital experiences. With a focus on accessibility, security, and usability enhancements, coupled with interoperability and migration tools, Sitecore empowers organisations to elevate their digital presence and drive meaningful engagement with their audiences. Embrace the future of digital experience with Sitecore 10.4.