Release Notes

November 2018 – released Sitecore Experience Accelerator 1.8

Sitecore Experience Accelerator (SXA) enables parallel work streams (content, creative design, UX, coding) to not only reduce the time required to produce a website, but also improve the quality by allowing all contributors to validate each other's contributions. SXA provides reusable user experience layouts and components that are fully integrated into the Sitecore editing experience.

 

Highlights

Sitecore Experience accelerator 1.8 includes:

  • Rendering variants can now include and render components in their structure.
  • When you edit a link, you can now define cross-site linking rules for your site which can expose the content of other sites.
  • A n​ew Wireframe theme has been added.
  • W​e have added support for Bootstrap 4.
  • In the Experience Editor, there is a new view mode button that allows users to see the site in Wireframe and Grayscale modes.

 

New feature/improvements

Description Customer ticket ID (or other) TFS no.
​​Site administrators can now organize the toolbox components and groups on a per site basis. 242220
​​Content Editor context scripts have been added to convert page-related data sources from relative paths to Guids and the other way around. 505079, 512042 242129
​Accessibility has been improved by adding a Skip link meta component that allows you to configure pages that can be navigated by people with disabilities.​​ 242188
​​Accessibility - In complex components like composites, links in non-visible content does not get the focus when you tab through content. 242182
Accessibility - ​When you tab through, overlays trap the focus to ensure that the focus does not return to the page underneath. ​​ 242142
​Accessibility - Site visitors can navigate complex components with the tab and arrow keys.​ 242025
Rendering variants can now include and render components in their structure.​ 250727
We have added Pre-delete integration points that you can extend with your own scripts when you delete a site or a tenant. 247317
When you edit a link, you can now define cross-site linking rules for your site which can expose the content of other sites.​ 247206
A n​ew Wireframe theme has been added. 247201
​The Search Box now has it's own language settings that allow you to be configure it without having to put the Search Results component on the page. 242418
You can now disable the DictionaryCacheValue cache in the cache settings. 505974 242392
​An invalid query that is defined within a rendering variant query element no longer cause sthe component to throw an exception.​ 242388
When your license does not entitle you to use SXA, a proper warning is shown in the Content Editor​. 242385
​When you change a tag in your site, the items that are tagged with it are automatically re-indexed. 242381
W​e have introduced a template analysis report that allows you to asses that multisite best practices are being followed in your tenant. 242381
Cortex Content Tagging support has been added that allows you to store the discovered tags in a site's taxonomy.​ 242378
W​e have added support for Bootstrap 4. 242374
LocalizableLinkBuilder helper methods have been added to support multisite domain handling​. 501772 242364
The editing UI is now displayed in the user's interface language, rather than content language. 242363
The Content Editor context menu now contains a Module Scaffolding item that allows you to install that module in sites where it is not yet installed.​ 242353
SXA now supports Solr 7.2.1. 242350
​Developers can define folders with custom views on a per-site basis to replace the out-of-the-box views. 242310
You can now define image substitution in a theme and this allows you to replace all images from that theme with a single mock image. 242308
In the Experience Editor, there is a new view mode button that allows users to see the edited site in Wireframe and Grayscale modes. 242304
​The administrator can now control whether the Asset Optimizer can be disabled with a URL parameter. 242286
​When you create a new tenant, a progress bar is displayed. 242284
​The Creative Exchange restricted themes are now defined the theme itself rather than in a config file. 242278

 

Breaking Changes

Description Customer ticket ID (or other) TFS no.
Sitecore Experience Accelerator no longer supports Sitecore 8.2.​​ 242356
​The Page Design field on a page is now a Shared field - not versioned. 242318

 

Deprecated/Removed

Description Customer ticket ID (or other) TFS no.
Support for the Social Login wrapper has been removed because none of the supported Sitecore versions include it any longer.​ 242220

 

Resolved issues

The following issues have been fixed:

Description Customer ticket ID (or other) TFS no.
​​The Slider and Range facet filters do not support float facets. 242281
​The New Tenant status dialog does not contain a progress bar.​​ 242284
After you install SXA, the Upload File window is sized incorrectly and it contains the global header​.​ 515077, 514094 253522
​​The signature of the Dropdown filter must be in lowercase. 513853 253512
​​The browser title prefix and suffix are enclosed in HTML tags​. 509293 242294
​The No components in header message is shown for composite renderings on non-English pages. 509373, 509855, 509931 242295
If the Location Finder component is empty, the Map controller is not centered on the central point of the map .​​ 509173 242298
In the Experience Editor, when you create a Partial Design, an unnecessary sc_version parameter is added to the query string.​​ 509262 242300
​During the publication process, the Virtual Media protection processor is too aggressive and causes errors. 512346, 509926, 510329, 510718 242301
The SXA Browser Title meta component renders HTML encoded text​.​​ 509293 242313
The Item Queries functionality doesn't work due to a null reference exception in FieldTypesEx.BucketInternalLink.​​ 508859, 510273 242314
When a non-existant site is provided in a URL parameter, the Error Pages show an unhandled exception.​ 242320
​​When you drag a component to a placeholder, the placeholder shows the key instead of the display name. 242289
​​The Cleanup Data Folder script removes nested folders. 242292
After you upgrade from SXA 1.3 to SXA 1.7, the content of your site is different from that of a fresh site.​ 509379 242327
The component-search-other.scss file contains some incorrect import dependencies.​​ 509075 242328
Sites are resolved incorrectly when one of the sites is removed from the Management/Sites setting.​​ 508148 242330
​SXA breaks HTML cache clearing for non-sxa sites. 508381 242332
​​If you add the Column Splitter component​, you can no longer select the Image component. 508721, 510656 242336
In the Experience Editor, if you click the Home button in the ribbon, you are sent to an incorrect version of the Home page. 508857 242341
​​You cannot set the Header variant for Page Content inside a composite component. 242360
​​The Sitemap generator ignores the LanguageEmbedding setting in the link provider​. 504498, 505903, 509162, 509879, 511525, 516748, 517252 242369
If the link provider has alwaysIncludeServerUrl="true", the AssetLinksGenerator can return links with the wrong host​ name.​ 507444 242373
​​The Search Slider component doesn't work and shows console errors. 242376
​​If there are Site Setup items that do not include a SiteAction and only include a Post Step, scaffolding can fail. 242389
The GetAttributeTokenValue method does not work with a DropList field.​ 511730 242396
Anchor does not work in a Link field.​​ 503121 242398
​In the Experience Editor, you cannot switch personalization for the Tabs rendering. 501074 242406
The ListFacets that work with the Number/Integer data type, do not display their values correctly in the Experience Editor​.​​ 499073 243860
​​If you create a new feature, it is not listed in the Add site feature popup when the UI is in Japanese. 504431 243893
​If you have registered attribute routes and then create a new site, the site can be created with the wrong template and some items can be missing. 513176, 517386, 517577 247071
The Filter dropdown does not support accents in facet name.​​ 513493, 513743, 511126 247113
​​The Links Shown in Overlay setting does not working in the SearchResults rendering​. 513205 247119
​The SXA SiteResolver UpdatePath() method causes web services with a long URL to throw an exception​. 511980 247136
When the Host Name contains several values, links cannot be resolved.​​ 511872 247138
The SXA CloudIndexFieldStorageValueFormatter​ class breaks the List Manager report.​​ 512206, 514385, 516013 247139
Cloned items from a delegated area are only published in English.​​ 509480, 510785 242235
After you restore or deserialize site items, the Creative Exchange buttons are not visible in the Content Editor.​​ 504246 242240
​The workflow state of a datasource does not change when a page is moved through the workflow. 500922, 511081 247286
Autocomplete does not work with the location finder​.​​ 508029, 509617 247292
​​In the Experience Editor, when you edit Partial Designs, assets are always optimized. 247976
The facets of Shared Sites are not applied to search results.​ 514516 251186
​​The Enable Preview site setting prevents SXA from displaying custom error pages. 513927, 515961 251582
If you create an item with spaces in its name, you cannot add renderings because of an error in the item:added event.​​ 512395 251817
​The ResolveSiteFromRequestImpl() method contains an incorrect parameter that prevents multi-site solutions from resolving virtual folders correctly. 514856 252270
In SXA cache setting items, the Rendering field is not shared. 514853 252799
​In some cases a bootstrap column is not added when you decorate a rendering. 515209 253359
In Internet Explorer, the Select Associated Content dialog does not have Create and Copy To functionality. 514553, 518565 253366
The SXA Redirect Map does not match a valid Regex with a URL​.​ 514442 253372
The Event Calendar behaves inconsistently. 510556 242232
​In SXA 1.7.1​, ​View renderings do not work. 510567, 514387 242222
In Internet Explorer 11, SXA does not load video files if you have defined a Poster Image field. 511365 242181
Users who do not have publishing rights can see the Publish Item button in the context menu. 510794 242180
Personalization does not work in embedded composites.​​ 242175
In delegated areas, you cannot make a new version of an item if a clone already exists. 512284 242159
​When you create a local datasource, the security check throws an error. 510033, 511556, 516412 242114
In the Experience Editor, when you open __Standard Values of a template, an error is thrown. 512330 242066
​The Checklist Filter component does not work if the casing of the facet does not match the casing of the indexed value​. 509403, 511681, 513853, 518574 242045
In the Experience Editor​, saving a carousel with more that 9 slides causes an exception. 508734, 509230, 509522, 510861, 516914 242022
In a Responsive Image template, the Field Name field is not shared. 512092 241955