This feature allows the user to require that a field's values be unique inside of that column. When this is configured, the system will not let two records have the same value for that field, behaving similarly to a key to that entry.

Evolving the extensibility of system objects through objects framework, this feature allows users to create and update System Object entries through Object Actions as they can with Custom Objects.

This feature adds read-only support for all object fields types, making sure users are not able to update those fields from both the UI or APIs, only the system can: through default values or actions, for example.

This feature adds a new field type “Date and Time”. A Datetime value stores a year, month, day, time, and time zone. With this field, users will also be able to create time ranges, manage priorities and order entries well, and to give more context and assertiveness to the data.

This feature empowers users to create content use cases on top of objects framework, allowing admins to enable localization for objects' entries text fields.

This feature allows the user to define a default value for object picklist fields. Default Value can be configured for custom fields from both Custom and System Objects.

This feature allows power users to configure the intervals to retry to send the email notifications when the first instant attempt fails.

Operating Liferay (on-prem!) with Elasticsearch 8 as a search engine leveraging its REST API compatibility mode through the bundled Elasticsearch 7 connector allowing Liferay deployments to upgrade the Elastic Stack to 8.x (opt-in), while also keeping compatibility with 7.x.

General Upgrade Instructions:

Please refer to the documentation for more details.

1. No action is required for deployments already using and insisting to stay on Elasticsearch 7.
2. Moving to Elasticsearch 8 may require a full reindex depending on the choice of the upgrade path:
   1. Upgrading the current Elasticsearch 7.x cluster to 8.x and connect DXP (Upgrade Elasticsearch | Elasticsearch Guide [8.10] | Elastic , recommended) → No reindex required
   2. Setting-up a new Elasticsearch 8.x cluster, connect DXP → Reindex required!

This is not a new connector, but enhancements to the existing bundled Elasticsearch 7 connector and other Elasticsearch-only features (like Commerce, Workflow Metrics or Search Tuning) leveraging the REST API compatibility mode of Elasticsearch 8 servers.

Support for Object displays pages in the search results, aggregating (via Custom Facet widget), filtering (Custom Filter widget) and sorting (Sort widget) using Object fields that are indexed as Nested Fields in Elasticsearch, similar to Web Content Structure (DDM) fields.

Publications can take up quite a bit of space in the database.  While some users need an extensive history, others do not.

With this new feature we can provide an optional clean up to remove older publications for those who do not need the history.

Liferay Portal 7.4 CE GA78 and Liferay DXP 7.4 Update 78 Tomcat Bundles and Docker Images come with Elasticsearch 7.17.10 for Sidecar.

We have refactored Ongoing, Scheduled and History tabs to use dataset display, and added a configuration to speed up review changes screen.

With this new feature an admin should be able to help preconfigure a publication to help facilitate their unique workflows.

Publication templates can be leveraged to provide naming patterns to any created publication. Tokens are provided to allow each publication to have unique names.

Admins can also assign roles to users immediately during publication creation.

Users can now create, edit, or delete knowledge base articles within a publication.

This new feature allows content editors to view the only publications that included modifications to a particular asset.

Users can preview the changes of a wiki page within a publication.

This feature introduces the ability to create and manage custom picklists for product specifications. Users can now define specific values for product attributes, improving data consistency and efficiency. The feature includes the option to create new picklists or add existing ones directly on the specification page.

Roles Managers can now define permissions for Object entries directly within the Roles UI. A new “Objects” main menu item has been added to the Define Permissions tab, listing all Custom Objects, allowing easier granular permission assignment.

Enhance your checkout experience by offering customers accurate UPS shipping costs based on their order details. Easily integrate this feature into your online store with our client extension available for purchase on the Marketplace.

Per Elastic’s product lifecycle, Elasticsearch 7.17.x versions are supported and maintained until Elasticsearch version 9 is released. While Elastic does not provide specific release dates for future releases, for Elasticsearch 9.0.0, the new release is anticipated in early calendar year 2025.

Therefore, Liferay strongly recommends all customers with 7.17.x deployments to begin the planning phase for an upgrade project to the latest compatible Elasticsearch 8.x version.

Compatibility with Elasticsearch 8 is available on 7.4 U81+. → Operating Liferay 7.4 GA/Update 81+ with Elasticsearch 8 - Liferay

Note: The Elasticsearch 8.x compatibility is provided through the bundled Elasticsearch 7 connector and the REST API Compatibility of Elasticsearch 8.

Liferay ships with an updated Elasticsearch connector using 7.17.21 as the client version and also as version of Sidecar Elasticsearch server for development and testing purposes.

Elasticsearch 8.15.x has been tested and added to the compatibility matrix to the corresponding Liferay versions.

Note: Compatibility with newer Elasticsearch minor versions is tested in two ways:

1. Latest-Latest: Testing the latest Liferay version with the latest available minor version of Elasticsearch → e.g. Master/2024.Q3 + Elasticsearch 8.15

2. Minimum-Latest: Testing the minimum Liferay version where Elasticsearch 8 compatibility was first made available with the latest minor version of Elasticsearch → DXP 7.4 U81/DXP 7.3 U31 + Elasticsearch 8.15

This way Liferay can allow a broader deployment base to operate their stack with an up-to-date search engine version.

As Elasticsearch is usually releases a new Minor version roughly every two months, this is a recurring process and a planed activity in each quarter.

The /search and /suggestions APIs comes with the following enhancements:

• New, optional scope parameter supporting Site (Group) IDs and External Reference Codes (ERCs) in /search. The scope parameter of /suggestions has also been updated to have the same semantics.

• /search now is in RELEASE status.

• The APIs now are available under the /o/search/v1.0/ endpoint with backward compatibility for current /o/portal-search-rest/v1.0 calls through server-side forward.

Refer to the documentation for more details.

Clause Contributors configuration is now stored within the blueprint’s JSON with a smaller footprint, reducing the size of a blueprint by more than 90% when using the default setting (all contributors enabled → Enable All) or the new Disable All option.

The behavior of the different options is as follows:

• with Enable All, all current and future query clause contributors introduced to the platform will be enabled automatically. Disable All behaves the opposite way,

• with Customize, the configuration is locked to the specified contributor list.

Allow users to map Repeatable fields of a Web Content Structure already defined in Fragments and Collection Displays.

Users can select and reorder categories for a blog’s friendly URL, so they can preview the order of the categories in the friendly URL.

The configuration settings for "Autogenerate Structure Key" and "Autogenerate Template Key" have been moved from their previous location in System Settings > System Scope > Administration to a more instance-specific location under System Settings > Web Content > Virtual Instance Scope > Web Content, appearing as the first options after "Custom Token values." These options allow instance admins to control whether structure and template keys are automatically generated at the instance level.
 

External reference codes are now generated for Blogs Images and Document Shortcuts.

ERC can now also be used to update and delete these entities via their headless APIs.

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.

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. 

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

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.

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

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

The Database Upgrade Report is now enabled by default and offers expanded information compared to previous releases.

After running a database upgrade, check the reports/ directory for reports about what occurred in the system during the upgrade. The new upgrade_report_diagnostics file includes further details to diagnose any possible issues.

Feature Status change:

Tracking events related to non-default asset types and visualizing this data on a dashboard

A pack of improvements to the usability of the logs page. Clients now can troubleshoot more effectively, be it by better handling multiple filters or by selecting/copying logs without the use of the log inspector.

Feature Status Change

The Commerce Search Results widget is going into maintenance.

Feature Status Change

The Product Publisher widget is going into maintenance.

Feature Status Change

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 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.

We added the permissions assigned to Custom and Modifiable Object Entries to the Objects Entries APIs' nested fields. This will be useful when we export/import Object Entries with permissions through Batch.

Feature Status Change

A new out-of-the-box (OOTB) email notification template based on Objects. This template will be automatically sent to the order creator when an order status changes to 'pending'.

The notification includes:

• Order number

• Order date

• Account name

• Shipping address

• Order item summary

• Order total

We will move away from Commerce notifications and deprecate them and we will use Objects for the new ones.

Feature Status Change

Roles Managers can now define permissions for Object entries directly within the Roles UI. A new “Objects” main menu item has been added to the Define Permissions tab, listing all Custom Objects, allowing easier granular permission assignment.

Feature Status Change

This feature introduces the ability to create and manage custom picklists for product specifications. Users can now define specific values for product attributes, improving data consistency and efficiency. The feature includes the option to create new picklists or add existing ones directly on the specification page.

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.

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!)

Liferay Cloud currently supports Java JDK 8 and 11, but the industry is moving towards newer Java versions like JDK 17 and JDK 21. To ensure that Liferay Cloud remains modern, allows our customers to leverage the newest security patches, and boosts overall performance.

When the access token is near the expiration date, the portal sends notifications to the System Administrator about it.

Feature Status Change

Object Layouts are going into maintenance.

Feature Status Change

Object Views are going into maintenance.

Feature Status Change

The Contacts Center Widget is being deprecated and will be removed in the future.

Feature Status Change

The Commerce Addresses feature is being deprecated and will be removed in the future. To ensure data continuity, we recommend transitioning to Postal Addresses.

Feature Status Change

The Commerce Search feature is going into maintenance.