List of all new features in WCS 12c (all versions)
- DojoTree instead of Java applet: Hugh improvements for loading tree tabs in Admin UI, very important change for WCS administrators (Note: this feature is also available for 11g 11.1.1.8.0 Patch12+). No more battling with java plugins in browser:)
- Publishing from Contributor UI: Publishers can now publish assets from Contributor UI itself, no need to provide "AdvancedUser" role to editors until they really need to access Admin UI. No more technical/configuration slip-ups by editors.
- Content help menu: There is help menu in Contributor UI which can be used to know how-about of various basic functionalities. Another option would be to customize it and point it to Client's document or wiki page.
- GetURLExpressions.groovy can be customized: It has been hard in past to write some custom functions within this element and maintenance of this element has been headache but now in 12c, it is possible to create customized element and add your custom functions as needed.
- Content Audit Report: It has been long desired feature for any customer to have an overview of who, what and when performed which operations on assets & 12c meets this requirement aptly.
- History of an asset in History tab: Small but helpful feature
- A/B Testing: Allows editors to check their website's "more viewed or favored sections" and thus, lets them decide to set the content for the website.
- New security, engage and user properties. Check out properties guide.
- MVC framework: A slight relief for developers ? Well, all depends on design but still at least a great effort by Oracle to provide such functionality
- Lucene indexing test
- Integration with other products like Bluekai, Eloqua, Content Cloud, LDAP, Oracle Access Manager, Oracle WebCenter Content, etc. are available out-of-the-box (of course, there are some or the other nitty-gritty details which one needs to implement)
- Some small notable changes like separation within search assettype in Contributor UI, colored tabs according to device groups, improved mobility features, tags tree tab, etc.
- Log4J is replaced by ODL which is good but too much logging happens now, thus, need to configure log settings very carefully. Custom loggers are feasible in ODL which is pretty nice feature to separately log in different log files if you have deployed your own custom implementation.
- Logs are now visible from Admin UI which was very slow and many times not possible in 11g
- Logging information like ip, geo-location, etc. are possible due to inclusion of geoip library but it has been recently removed from higher version of 12c3 as these needed licenses.
- A very robust aggregate REST API; a very useful feature for clients to deliver micro-sites.
- Improved context menu for asset operations in Contributor UI
- Shared file system can be managed in database but it has it some caveats as well
- Visitor services: New API and integration points with different products
- Properties managed via now single json file: wcs_properties.json
- Passwords are mostly saved now in keystore rather than AES or SHA encryption, providing better security
- Installation, patching and upgrade process are improved drastically then previous 11g version
- Deployment of static and custom implementation is to be done as a separate war file rather than updating default war i.e. sites.war
- Monitoring logs files, caches, etc. in Oracle Weblogic console
- WCS 12c cannot be deployed (not officially supported) on other application servers except Oracle Weblogic (This is a bummer for many customers) and even db is mainly restricted to Oracle database.
- No community or gadget server anymore.
- No CIP integrations like SharePoint, EMC, etc.
- No soap-based web services (replaced by new improved REST & aggregate REST API)
- No analytics
- No static publishing or any other publishing available out-of-the-box
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