What’s New in Version 4?

Running near 400 live sites, Saurus CMS 3 has proved to be a robust content management platform for public websites, e-shops and intranet portals. In Saurus 4, near 70% of the product code has been re-written to move the product to a new level considering the feedback from our partners and end-users.

Saurus 4 brings full Mozilla/Firefox support to make you running on Linux and Mac OS desktops, new WYSIWYG text editor, enhanced ACL, improved user- and file management. For developers, there are several new tools and functions for creating more complex groupware and business applications.

General

User interface
New graphical style for the administrator tools, text editor and popup windows.

Mozilla Firefox support
In addition to the Internet Explorer, the product is now fully Firefox compatible.

Content editors

Action buttons

  • Old action buttons (New, Edit, Publish, Up, Down, Delete) are replaced by more elegant drop down menus that open from V-shaped hotspots.
  • These new hotspots let you know about the object’s publishing state: black for published, red for unpublished and yellow for items that are hidden from menus.

Text editor
  • Instead of separate lead and body inputs, there is now just one big text area for the article content. User can use toolbar to insert special symbol in the text for marking the lead when needed.
  • The style selector lists site-specific styles exactly as the will appear to the visitor. This selector can now in addition to CSS classes include also HTML tags such as H1 or PRE.
  • New full screen mode for more convenient working with long articles.
  • Various new tools include Microsoft Office code cleaner, onscreen keyboard, search & replace and full-screen view.
  • Data profiles allows to extend article’s available metadata fields: add keyword list, category selection, archiving date etc.

File manager
  • Hierarchical folders display the directory structure in the server.
  • User access rights for folders can be set based on individual user, user group or role.
  • Synchronisation feature allows to display files and folders created by other applications in file manager.
  • Data profiles allow to extend the file descriptions: e.g. add signature date and parties to contracts or category and author to photos.

Site administrators

User management and access control

  • Registered users and content editors are now managed through single interface. In fact, we are no more making difference of registered users, content managers and administrators. There are just user accounts with an option to set access permissions (read, update, create, publish, delete) to site sections and tools. The permissions can also be defined to user groups and file folders.
  • Users belong to hierarchical user groups.
  • Permissions can be set based on individual user or user group. Also, the user roles known from Saurus 3 are still available.
  • Permissions are set in the section editor popup. Additionally there is a tool for the administrators to manage and get an overview of the permissions through the whole site and the tools.
  • Data profiles allows to extend the user description fields: for example you can define direct phone number and birthday for company employers or set sales discount for client’s representative.

Site developers and system integrators

Data profiles
Database fields of all content object types such as article, file, document, person, group, image, can be extended using data profiles. Each profile is a set of custom fields that are defined using site administrator’s tools. Saurus CMS creates user interface for data input, also appropriate Saurus API calls. You can use data profiles to add keyword listing or category to an article or define separate datasets for company employees and partners for example.

Favourites
Content editors and registered users can add content objects to her/his personal list of favourites. This feature can be used to personalise site browsing experience e.g. a news list on intranet homepage can be compiled of sections the user has selected. Users may also add shortcuts to site menu to save their favourite items.

Extensions
Package websites, custom modules or 3rd party applications as Saurus CMS extensions for robust handling and installation.

Licensing
Because of the new user management and access control system, the option to use editor roles in Saurus CMS SE package is no more available – all users automatically have Superuser rights. In other areas, Saurus CMS and Saurus CMS SE packages in version 4 have the same or improved functionality compared to version 3.

See also technical notes on Saurus CMS 4