Discover Umbraco 14: A major milestone in the CMS landscape

Another significant milestone for the Umbraco ecosystem has been reached with the release of Umbraco 14. Although the core functionality of the CMS remains unchanged, the new backoffice implementation’s extension-first approach introduces greater flexibility, new integration opportunities, and enhanced headless capabilities. Alongside these improvements, Umbraco 14 brings enhanced tooling, testing, performance, scalability, and a future-proof backoffice built from the ground up. Let’s explore how these architectural changes and the new tech stack can benefit you.

Some of the key concepts in Umbraco 14

Stable Backend: While the backend remains largely unchanged, running the latest version of .NET ensures stability and performance. The main focus of this release is the backoffice and the API layer.

Enhanced API communication: The new Management API enhances communication between the backoffice and the backend, providing a clean separation of concerns. This simplifies integration with external systems and custom applications, documented via Swagger.

Extension-first approach: The Extension API marks a commitment to an extension-first approach, ensuring that all UI in Umbraco is built using this API and the Umbraco UI Library. The Context API complements this by streamlining the management of contextual information.

Modern Technology Stack: Umbraco 14 adopts modern development standards like TypeScript and Web Components, enhancing productivity and ensuring compatibility with future web technologies.

Headless Capabilities: The Management API completes the headless capabilities by adding a true CRUD API. This allows content management capabilities in external services and applications, just as in the backoffice.

User-Friendly UI: Despite being a complete rebuild, the UI maintains a familiar experience for users, with updated designs and workflows providing a fresh and modern feel.

Support Lifecycle: Umbraco 14 is an STS version, suitable for projects in ongoing development. It offers a shorter support lifecycle than the recently released Umbraco 13 LTS.

Conclusion

Umbraco 14 marks a significant advancement in the CMS landscape, combining modern technology with an extension-first approach to deliver a more flexible, customizable, and future-proof platform. Whether you’re a developer or part of a marketing team, Umbraco 14 offers the tools and features needed to enhance your digital experience management. As a Umbraco Gold Partner, Bluegrass Digital has both expertise and experience having started working with Umbraco since 2008. Get in touch with one of our consultants to discuss how we can help you.