The Seven Things
We Love About
Umbraco 7
As an Umbraco Registered Partner, we have been fans of the CMS for many years. Thanks to our familiarity with the interface, our development team rapidly identified some of the features that make the friendly CMS stand out. Here are the top seven advantages of working in Umbraco 7, in no particular order.
1. Responsive Design
Umbraco 7.2 features a new grid system that allows content editors to have more control over the content and layout that appears on their responsive websites.
2. Responsive Preview
Responsive preview is a feature that allows content editors to stop guessing what their content will look like and actually see a preview of their page on different devices. Umbraco HQ has worked hard with the help of the community to bring these new features to help streamline responsive development and make editing responsive sites easier for content editors with minimal extra development.
3. Streamlined Code Base for Easy Development
Umbraco moved from WebForms to MVC back in 2013 which allows developers the ability to create web applications quicker with less code. Our developers like to work fast, so this is a definite plus for them.
4. Lose the Mouse
For editors on the go, Umbraco just got even more convenient. Umbraco 7’s new interface allows for fast, easy editing with touch devices. While on the computer you can perform many actions by right-clicking to edit, Umbraco 7 also lets users tap to achieve the same effects. Editors can now make changes via their tablets or computers. This allows our team to make fast and easy adjustments, even after hours or on the go, leaving our clients happier than ever with response times.
5. Managing Images
Umbraco 7.1 introduced the Image Cropper functionality. This feature is very helpful in managing multiple variations of images within Umbraco. Content editors can easily upload their image and our developers can set up different crop sizes that allows the editors to easily crop and change the focal point of their large images so that they become perfect for the web. This feature also compresses images and helps to improve page load times.
6. Document Type Compositions
Umbraco 7.2 brings our developers the document type composition functionality. In the past, document types have always inherited properties based on their parent document types. Though this method is tried and true, when it comes to expanding on sites at a later date this method can require some work and some duplication of efforts when setting up properties. The document type composition functionality brings the ability to easily expand on site functionality at a later date by setting up new doctypes and allowing them to inherit functionality based on checked document types. This eliminates the need for the inheritance, although still useful and can still be used, it provides a shortcut in a sense and eliminates the duplication of efforts when setting up new doctypes.
7. Improvements are Constantly Being Made
One of the things we have always celebrated about Umbraco is the collaborative spirit behind the CMS. Our own Blake Clerke-Smith recently contributed to the online knowledge base put together by Umbraco with a guide for new users. As Umbraco 7 becomes more widely used, the company is implementing new bug fixes and compiling a list of wish list features for possible inclusion on the next version of Umbraco.
As the new versions of Umbraco continue to roll out, our team is definitely looking forward to seeing what new features will be available. If this latest version is any indication, great things are in store with the next update!