Enhanced User Safety and Transparency in Publications

We have implemented safeguards to guide users through complex interactions and provided clearer information about changes in the Review Changes screen. 

Smoother Workflow for Publication Editors

The new toolbar offers real-time insights to help editors stay focused and efficient. We have improved the toolbar to provide essential context, including current publications, potential conflicts, and change history.

Enabling users to be notified externally by allowing email notifications when a new user is assigned to a publication.

Create smooth multistep forms directly in the page builder with Liferay’s new fragment—making complex processes simple and intuitive!

Liferay DXP makes it easy to create dynamic, multi-step forms. Simply add a stepper fragment to any existing form to transform it into a multi-step journey. You can then organize your form into different steps, moving inputs between them as needed. Users can easily navigate through the steps using the step menu or form buttons, which you can customize to fit your needs.

Boost Liferay’s platform with drag-and-drop, multi-selection, and cut/copy/paste features for easier field and fragment organization.

Enable JavaScript Client Extensions within SaaS environments to enhance customization and flexibility for administrative tasks, allowing tailored solutions directly within the platform.

This feature ensures that theme CSS client extensions "just work" out of the box when referencing images from the base theme. It reduces friction in the development process, increases reliability, and provides a more seamless and predictable experience when customizing their Liferay environments.
 

How it works:

Simplified Image Management:

• Developers no longer need to manually handle or configure paths for images included in the base theme.

• Relative paths (e.g., ../images) can now directly reference these images, reducing complexity and errors.

Out-of-the-Box Compatibility:

• The feature ensures that theme images are automatically included during the build process via the assemble step.

• This means that after deploying the theme CSS client extension, image references work seamlessly without additional configuration.

The upcoming Marketplace release of the Liferay Connector to OpenSearch 2.x will provide an alternative to Elasticsearch for Self-Hosted Liferay deployments.

IMPORTANT: Please note that the Liferay Enterprise Search Learning to Rank, Cross-Cluster Replication, and Monitoring applications are not compatible, and thus not supported with OpenSearch.

Synonym Sets now also supports the following languages (locales) out of the box:

• Portuguese (Brazil): pt_BR

• Portuguese (Portugal): pt_PT

• Italian: it_IT

• Arabic (Saudi Arabia): ar_SA

• Catalan (Spain): ca_ES

• Catalan (Andorra): ca_AD

• Catalan (Spain, Valencian): ca_ES_VALENCIA

• Chinese (China): zh_CN

• Chinese (Taiwan): zh_TW

• Dutch (Netherlands): nl_NL

• Dutch (Belgium): nl_BE

• Finnish (Finland): fi_FI

• French (France): fr_FR

• French (Canadian): fr_CA

• German (Germany): de_DE

• Hungarian (Hungary): hu_HU

• Japanese (Japan): ja_JP

• Swedish (Sweden): sv_SE

Administrators are advised to review the Elasticsearch connector configuration and remove any customized field mappings and settings added previously for the above locales from the Override Type Mappings and the Additional Index Settings as now they are provided by the platform out-of-the-box. (Requires a Full or Concurrent Reindex!)

Improved Disk Space Utilization for Elasticsearch and OpenSearch Deployments

To reduce disk space usage on the search engine side, we have optimized default field mappings which no longer use stored fields. Instead, the platform uses the fields parameter as the default document field retrieval method.

Important Considerations for Administrators:

• Review Advanced Settings: Administrators should carefully examine the "Additional Type Mappings" and "Override Type Mappings" settings within the search engine connector configuration.

• Compare with Defaults: After reviewing the advanced settings, compare the existing mappings to the new defaults to identify potential adjustments. While stored fields are still supported, they are not recommended.

Potential Impact on Custom OSGi Modules:

While most users should experience seamless transitions, developers of custom OSGi modules that utilize Liferay's Java Search APIs may encounter changes in search response behavior. This could occur if the modules rely on specific fields being included in the search response. In such cases, developers may need to make adjustments to their modules to ensure correct functionality.

The new Date Range and Range aggregation types unlock powerful search capabilities for your Liferay assets, including Web Content Structures and Objects.

By configuring any date or numeric index field, you can:

• Group and Filter Results: Create dynamic search filters based on specific dates or numeric ranges.
• Customize User Experience: Offer flexible search options with predefined ranges or custom input fields.
• Visualize Data Effectively: Leverage out-of-the-box display templates for a seamless user interface.

Think of Date Range as a versatile extension of the Modified Facet. You can now select any desired date field to refine search results precisely.

Note:
The functionality of the Date Facet widget was introduced under a Developer Feature Flag in LPS-153839 2024.Q1 has been integrated into the Custom Facet and is now available as GA. The Date Facet widget is no longer available.

OpenAI can now be configured as a Text Embedding Provider for Semantic Search.

OpenAI offers two powerful third-generation embedding models promising lower costs, higher multilingual performance, and stronger overall performance compared to the predecessor models.

If your organization is already utilizing OpenAI's ChatGPT or other OpenAI Platform APIs, now you can take advantage of OpenAI's Vector Embeddings capability to deliver semantically more relevant search results through Liferay's semantic search feature (BETA) without the need to sign up for another service.

The Data Set Manager sorting tab has changed its purpose. From now on, the sorting options created under this section will be added to an Order Drop Down that is added to the Management Bar. This way, users will be able to sort by different criteria, even if those criteria are not visible in the Data Set items.

External Reference Code is now supported in Roles, Specification Groups, Specification Labels and Addresses.

It is also now possible to use the ERC to update and delete these entities via their headless APIs.

Additional ERC support for linked entities has been added when creating new Options, SKUs, Accounts, Catalogs, Orders, Shipments and more.

This new feature allows streamlined return processes for both buyers and sellers.

Buyers can easily initiate return requests directly from their order history, specify the reason for the return and request a refund.

Returns Managers, within the Returns admin pages, can review the return details, communicate with customers, and issue refunds with just a few clicks.

Customize Your Checkout Experience: one integration, multiple payment methods.

Elevate your online store and give to your buyers a personalized and streamlined checkout experience. Expand payment options beyond credit cards – Offer Pay Later, Venmo, and popular regional methods like Bancontact, eps, and iDEAL to enhance customer satisfaction. Build trust with secure transactions, all managed within your existing platform.

Perfect for: Marketplaces, Ecommerce & Shopping Carts, Sharing & Gig Economy, Tech Partners & Payment Providers and Crowdfunding.

This feature enables granular product filtering based on custom fields to enhance admin/practitioner efficiency and user experience, so that they can easily find what they are looking for.

Commerce Classic is a new Site Initializer based on the Liferay Classic theme.

The order pages have been redesigned using a Display Page Template for the Order with Fragments, overall offering greater flexibility and customization options. This allows for more dynamic and personalized order experiences.

The new Order Pages now enables the users to select shipping and payment options directly from the order page. Once all required information is filled in, users can quickly checkout with a single click, streamlining the purchasing process.