New in FirstSpirit Version 4.2 Release 2

In this section the functions are introduced which are newly implemented in FirstSpirit Version 4.2 Release 2 and which are relevant for template developers.

General:

• Notes about the FirstSpirit Release Management: The Release Management of FirstSpirit has been extended to increase an additional level to enable further improvements to the software quality of FirstSpirit with simultaneous functional enhancements. See also New in FirstSpirit Version 4.2.
• Using Microsoft Internet Explorer for the integrated preview: To date, Mozilla Firefox (JXBrowser) has been used for the integrated (inline) preview. With FirstSpirit Version 4.2R2, it is now possible to use the Microsoft Internet Explorer (JExplorer) on Windows platforms. It is possible to switch between both browsers in FirstSpirit-JavaClient using the "View" menu (sub-item "Browser engine"). Unlike use of the JXBrowser, which is included in FirstSpirit from Version 4.2, if the JExplorer is selected, the locally installed Microsoft Internet Explorer of the operating system is used. The user-specific configuration is therefore also used. Versions 6, 7 and 8 of Microsoft Internet Explorer are supported for use with the integrated preview, however only in 32 bit environments and not under MacOS X and Linux.
• Search in FirstSpirit Online Documentation and Access-API: With FirstSpirit Version 4.2R2, the FirstSpirit Online Documentation also includes a full text search with which the content of the online documentation and FirstSpirit Access-API can be searched. All FirstSpirit manuals, which can be found in the online documentation under the "Documentation" menu item, are also included in the search. To do this, the online documentation must be included in the web application fs4root, which is a default for installation of a FirstSpirit Server.
  The search field in which the search terms can be entered are located in the top left-hand side on each page of the online documentation. The search result can first be output filtered by target group (administrators, users and developers). Search results which are relevant for developers can be further filtered by various topics.
• Language addition Dutch: Apart from German, English, French, Spanish, Italian and Russian, the FirstSpirit applications JavaClient, WebClient, Server and Project Configuration and Server Monitoring are now also available in Dutch. The language setting of the menu labelling, context menus and dialogs can be selected via the FirstSpirit start page.

New in the scope of input components:

• Date and/or time selection with CMS_INPUT_DATE: Whereas to date, the data selection input component (CMS_INPUT_DATE) could only be used to select a date together with a time, depending on the configuration by the template developer, from FirstSpirit Version 4.2R2 it is now possible to select a date only or a time only (siehe CMS_INPUT_DATE, parameter mode).

New in the scope of template syntax:

• Output first / last element of a navigation level differently: The system object #nav can be used to access values of navigation functions. Within the function Navigation the methods isFirst and isLast are now available. These can be used to determine whether a navigation point is the first or last one to be displayed in the current level (see system object #nav within the function Navigation).
• Access to information of generation schedules: The call #global.scheduleContext can be used to access the execution context of a generation schedule and therefore to access information such as the name of the project, the starting time of the schedule, the path to the generation directory, the number of errors during generation, etc. The interface de.espirit.firstspirit.access.schedule.ScheduleContext, which provides the necessary methods, is now available in the FirstSpirit Access-API (see FirstSpirit Access-API).

New in the scope of modules:

• FirstSpirit Portal SAP EP BP: When using the FirstSpirit Portal SAP EP BP module, XML files are generated by Generator for navigation and search. These files have been enhanced to include information about date and time of the release of menu folders, page references, sections (in the case of "mixed portal pages"), media and media folders, about the last editor of media and about the file size of media in bytes (language-dependent). In addition, individual pages in the editorial languages can be excluded from the generation, in which they have no content. They then do not appear in the XML file either for navigation or for the search. In addition, duplicate or multiple entries for language-independent media can be suppressed in the XML file for the search. As a result the file size is reduced, thereby saving resources for the generation and subsequent reading out of the files (see module documentation FirstSpirit Portal SAP EP BP).
• FirstSpirit Search: Whereas to date, it was only possible to search for whole words or precise search terms with the Search-Servlet, it is now possible to use the wildcardSearch parameter to search for the beginnings of words only (right-hand side truncation) or character strings (right and left-hand side truncation). The parameter can be used in the web.xml file as a configuration parameter and as a request parameter in an HTML form (see module documentation FirstSpirit Search).