Content authors see improvements to Experience Editor in Sitecore 8.1
By: Sitecore MVP Glen McInnis
The release of Sitecore 8.1 on October 20th, 2015 has brought about a number of improvements to the Experience Editor (formerly known in Sitecore 6 and 7 as Page Editor). If your organization is a heavy user of Experience Editor, or you’re planning to migrate to a component-based architecture, these are factors that may warrant an upgrade to Sitecore 8.1.
The release of Sitecore 8.1 on October 20th, 2015 has brought about a number of improvements to the Experience Editor (formerly known in Sitecore 6 and 7 as Page Editor). If your organization is a heavy user of Experience Editor, or you’re planning to migrate to a component-based architecture, these are factors that may warrant an upgrade to Sitecore 8.1.
Quick access to proofing features
The Home tab now includes quick access to the Markup and Validation button. These are the same functions available in Content Editor. The content practices enforced by the markup and custom validation can aid in content consistency and provide some guidance on general web practices, which may impact search engine optimization.
Versions
The Version tab in Content Editor has been ported to the Experience Editor. The ability to easily reset fields to standard values; add, remove or compare versions and switch between versions is surfaced in the tab. I personally have some mixed feelings about this tab.
Limitations
When you add a version to the page, you are adding a version to the page item and Sitecore does not consider the component datasources. This is normal Sitecore behaviour, but may be a source of confusion for new users.
Field validation
When enabled on the View tab, content authors will be given feedback on any field validation warning or error. This includes fields on the page item, as well as the datasources of any components. The list of failures will be displayed at the top of the page. With field validation a first class citizen in Experience Editor, content authors can quickly catch any errors and avoid needlessly switching between user interfaces.
Each field will also be highlighted in a red border.
Limitations
As not all fields may be visible on the page, developers still need to take care in the design of the editing experience and provide an easy means to access hidden fields (treelist, multilist, etc).
Presentation
The Presentation tab is newly added to the Experience Editor. This is exactly what you’d expect — they are the same dialogs as found in Content Editor. This update is a productivity boost for those power users or developers who need to manipulate the layout.
