Magnolia
Magnolia 4.1
Magnolia CMS 4.1 further simplifies the creation of enterprise-ready websites with the addition of various new best practice templates for custom solutions to its already extensive set of out-of-the-box functionality. The enhanced Standard Templating Kit now includes sophisticated display logic to render event calendars, forums, glossaries, FAQs, fancy teasers with multiple banner images, category clouds, aggregated RSS feeds and more. Magnolia 4.1 also ships with new functionality such as support for User Generated Content (UGC), an Imaging Engine and a pluggable Digital Asset Management (DAM).
Watch the 4.1 Video Introduction
Watch CTO Boris Kraft give an introduction to Magnolia 4.1.
New Functionality
- Support for User Generated Content: User-generated content (UGC) can now be clustered and thus made available at all public sites at the same time. We have released the Forum module, the Commenting module and the Public User registration module. Watch screencast ►
- Imaging Engine (scale, crop & filter images): Our newly introduced Imaging Engine significantly simplifies the publishing workflow, as Magnolia can now use a single source image to automatically generate a multitude of different images. This is especially useful for article teasers, which often use a different image format than the teased article. Watch screencast ►
- Pluggable Digital Asset Management (DAM): Image, audio and video files can now be included on any web page created with Magnolia directly from its Digital Asset Management (DAM) environment. Watch screencast ►
- Article categorization: New categorization features enable editors to categorize articles and to display them in grouped lists for hierarchical navigation or access through a category cloud. Furthermore, categories can be related to each other.
- Address book: The new address book functionality allows users to centrally manage contact details within the data module of Magnolia CMS.
- Themes: Version 4.1 introduces the concept of themes to Magnolia and allows users to maintain themes independently from sites. This means that one site can have several themes to allow for a different look and feel per website section.
- RSS generation & aggregation: RSS feeds can now easily be provided for web pages created within Magnolia CMS. Additionally, Magnolia 4.1 can aggregate external RSS feeds and render them for inclusion in any web page. Watch screencast ►
- Campaign Monitor integration: Increasingly, corporate newsletters are being distributed through third-party services to avoid the corporate domain getting blacklisted as a spammer by accident. Magnolia 4.1 now includes a subscribe/unsubscribe user interface that interacts with Campaign Monitor.
New Templates
The significantly enhanced Standard Templating Kit is now available for Magnolia 4.1. It includes new ready-made page templates that render complete web pages as well as new paragraph templates that display parts of a page:
New page templates
- News Overview Template
- Events Overview Template
- Category Overview Template
- Glossary Overview/Letter/Term Template
- FAQ Template
New paragraph templates
- Fancy teasers, grouped stages & sliding carousels
- Commenting
- Forum
- RSS aggregation
- Category cloud
- Contact details from address book
Benefits of Standard Templating Kit
- High quality: Each component is tested and designed to be accessible, search-engine-optimized and mobile-device ready and works across all common browsers.
- Cost efficient: No need to reinvent the wheel. Benefit from a state-of-the-art publishing framework that is maintained by Magnolia, while you can focus on information architecture, design and integration and add unique value to your site.
- Secure investment: Control the whole layouting life-cycle through role-based access, versioning, workflows, backups, etc.
New Page Templates in Magnolia 4.1
Glossary
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- Glossary template
The Glossary is a new STK Page Template that aggregates glossary terms. Once an editor opens a new "Glossary" page, it will automatically create sub-pages – one for each letter in the Alphabet. These "Glossary Letter" pages aggregate all Glossary Terms for the letter they represent. A glossary term is a variant of the "Article Template" and provides you with the same set of editorial capabilities, including the use of video, flash or images. Glossary entries are an excellent means to create useful landing pages for specific search terms you wish to target.
The Glossary is a new STK Page Template that aggregates glossary terms. Once an editor opens a new "Glossary" page, it will automatically create sub-pages – one for each letter in the Alphabet. These "Glossary Letter" pages aggregate all Glossary Terms for the letter they represent. A glossary term is a variant of the "Article Template" and provides you with the same set of editorial capabilities, including the use of video, flash or images. Glossary entries are an excellent means to create useful landing pages for specific search terms you wish to target.
Events Overview Template
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- Events overview template
The Event Overview template automatically aggregates all upcoming events it finds on your website. Aggregation (and display) of events can be restricted to a subtree of your site. This allows you to have several different sections on your site displaying different events.
The Event Overview template automatically aggregates all upcoming events it finds on your website. Aggregation (and display) of events can be restricted to a subtree of your site. This allows you to have several different sections on your site displaying different events.
At the same time, as soon as a page of type "Event Overview" exists, an event will display a link that links back to the overview.
News Overview template
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- News overview template
The News Overview template automatically aggregates the latest news published on your website. It will smartly ignore any news item whose publishing date has not been reached, should it accidentally find its way to the published website in the first place.
The News Overview template automatically aggregates the latest news published on your website. It will smartly ignore any news item whose publishing date has not been reached, should it accidentally find its way to the published website in the first place.
Aggregation (and display) of news can be restricted to a subtree of your site. This allows you to have several different sections on your site displaying different news.
At the same time, as soon as a page of type "News Overview" exists, a news page will display a link that links back to the overview.
Category Overview template
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- Category overview template
Categories can be assigned to articles. Categories are considered editorial and maintained in the data module. A "Category Overview" template aggregates all pages that have been assigned the requested category.
Categories can be assigned to articles. Categories are considered editorial and maintained in the data module. A "Category Overview" template aggregates all pages that have been assigned the requested category.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) template
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- FAQ template
The FAQ template allows you to maintain a list of frequently asked questions. Each question can be edited independently, and answers to a question will be shown right below the question when a user clicks on a question.
The FAQ template allows you to maintain a list of frequently asked questions. Each question can be edited independently, and answers to a question will be shown right below the question when a user clicks on a question.
New Paragraphs in Magnolia 4.1
Tabbed Teaser
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- Tabbed teasers display tabs that allow you to switch between different teasers.
Finger Tabbed Teaser
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- A finger tabbed teaser displays vertical tabs that switch between the different teasers
Paging Teaser
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- A paging teaser displays a numbered navigation that allows you to jump directly to a specific teaser.
Slider Carousel Teaser
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- A slider carousel displays a slider at the bottom of the paragraph that allows you to slide between the teasers
Switcher Carousel Teaser
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- A switcher carousel displays switches left and right of the content that allow you to switch between the teasers
Grouped Carousel Teaser (Base)
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- A switcher carousel can also be used as a base element. It displays switches left and right of the content that allow you to switch between the teasers.
Watch Screencast Introducing Fancy Teasers
This screencast demos how the fancy teasers work
Category Cloud
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- The category cloud displays a cloud of categories, each of which is a link that takes you to the category overview page - a page that lists all artuicles for the given category.
RSS Aggregation
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- The RSS paragraph renders an internal or external RSS feed.
Commenting
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- The comments paragraph displays previous comments and allows visitors to add new comments to your page. Comments can be moderated.
Address Book
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- The address book paragraph allows you to select and display an address from the address book - a centrally managed contacts database.
Forum
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- The forum paragraphs allow you to list forums, threads, forum posts etc.
More information about Magnolia 4.1
Try out Magnolia now
- Download open source Community Edition
- Download Enterprise Edition and register for a free 60-day trial
- Check out the Live Demo
Product pages
Press
- Press release: Open Source Java CMS Magnolia 4.1 Released - Enterprise templating made simple with new best practice templates for custom solutions
- Media Kit (screenshots, head shots, etc.)
Featured Weblogs
- Magnolia 4.0: Supersonic Templating (Boris Kraft, CTO)
Magnolia Documentation
Magnolia Development Wiki
Previous versions