BroadleafCommerce - 5.0.0-GA
Released on May 16, 2016
This release represents a significant change to the admin panel including a new look and feel as well as new features. The admin panel continues to use Spring MVC and Thymeleaf.
Upgrading to this release requires a migration from both a core API standpoint as well as the database. Migration notes from 4.0.x will be made available in our documentation set. More migration may be required depending on how much you have customized your Broadleaf admin panel.
Noteworthy Changes - Community
Admin - Look and Feel
The admin look and feel has been completely revamped. The left nav now collapses giving more real estate for the primary work to be done.
Ability to add associated data when initial entity is being created
In previous versions of the admin, the initial add only supported basic entity fields and simple relationships (toOne relationships). Now users can add to gridlists (toMany collections) on initial creation of an entity.
Admin - Additional changes found in Enterprise
Workflow actions available on the Entity edit screens for quicker promotions / approvals (Enterprise Only)
A new ribbon has been added to entities that supports immediate promotion or approval. This is more efficient allowing the sandbox actions to be managed on the same page as the edits. Promotion and approval of multi-item changes would still be managed from the My Changes and Approval screens as they are now.
Visual cue of fields that have changed and are pending promotion / approval
Fields are now tagged (labeled) when they have changes pending for promotion or approval. This is a nice visual token to reflect what has been changed and needs to be promoted/approved.
Visual cue of row status when viewing an entity list
Entity lists (e.g. Product List) now have a small icon that indicates rows pending promotion (orange), pending approval (blue), or have deployed local changes (black).
Two column display for editing entities
When editing entities groups and fields will now be displayed in two columns, allowing more information to be displayed on screen.
We added support in the AdminPresentation annotations to allow implementors to decide which of the two columns they would like their fields to appear in. Read about it in our documentation.
New Customer Segments and Product Group features
Customer Segments and Product Groups allow for rule or list based groupings that are eligible for Offers, PriceLists, or targeted content. Duplicated rules throughout various Offers, PriceLists, and ContentTargeters can be avoided by using Customer Segments and/or Product Groups.
Solr Management Improvements
Fields, Searchable Fields, and Search Relevancy/Boosting rules can now be managed in the admin.
Release of Order Management System version 2.0 with improved CSR capabilities
The Order Management System adds support for separate shipments, item cancellation, capture payment on fulfillment, and refunds.
Searching capabilities for Customers and Orders has been improved to allow for a better user experience.
Custom Fields Enhancements
We made improvements to CustomFields with additional property types and the ability to include Custom Fields in SOLR indexes.
Addition of an admin UI selectize widget for easier management of multi-select lists
We added support for selectize to provide a better experience when working with select inputs.
API v2
The API framework was reworked to keep in line with current best practices.
Performance Improvements for Large Catalogs
We tuned the underlying engine to handle large data sets in a more efficient manner.