Find the right content every time with saved views and advanced search
The latest Contensis release introduces new ways to find content and allows you to streamline your content production workflow by saving commonly used views.
TL;DR [too long; didn't read] 🤯
- You can now save your regular searches and column layouts in the entry listing using Saved views.
- There is a new Advanced search screen, which allows you to build complex queries using ZenQL, not achievable in the entry listing.
- We've also added the option to set a field to be collapsed when opening the entry editor, along with the ability to expand and collapse all fields in the entry editor.
New features
Saved commonly used views
We all work with content differently. That's the great thing about a Headless CMS – you're not limited by the type of content you can create.
But managing that content without getting lost in thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of content items can become a headache.
That's where saved views come in. Whenever you create a search in entries, add and remove columns, or change the layout of your search results, you can now save your preferences as a view to reuse later. Keep the view to yourself, or make it public for others to add to their favourites. Views can also be defined centrally for a project, giving everyone a standard set of views.
Advanced search
There are times that you want to understand your content in different ways, depending on your workflow. Maybe you want to know what content you've worked on this month, where a field of an entry contains a specific value, or which content will be unpublished in the next month.
The advanced search screen uses our querying language ZenQL to provide a flexible way to search for content in Contensis that isn't possible to achieve through the basic search.
Updates and improvements
Improved column management
We've improved the manage columns screen by reducing the number of fields displayed by default. The fields you're likely to need are now grouped under a label of 'detected'. You can view any fields not automatically displayed by switching the filter to a specific content type or looking at standard systems fields. Any changes to your column layouts can be saved with your views too.
currentUser() function added to ZenQL
We've added the ability to search for content based on the currently authenticated user. This provides an easy way to create searches that give context to the logged-in user. For example, show me content I've worked on this month.
Collapse fields in entries
If you find you need some fields in an entry to be collapsed by default, you can now set this in the content type builder. We've combined this with the ability to expand and collapse all fields in the editor from the toolbar context menu.
Set a default entry
If you find you're always choosing the same linked entries for a particular type of content, you can now set default entries to save some editing time. For example, if the same author often writes your marketing blog, you can set that person as the default author entry and only change it on the odd occasion somebody else authors a blog.
Image API
We've updated the underlying library for our Image API to be far more performant, which means we've also been able to increase the file size limit of images processed by the API from 10Mb to 25Mb.
Other improvements
- Introducing saved views also required us to build a Favourites API to support the views you wanted to see. Expect to see the use of favourites in up and coming releases.
- We've also reworked the entry activity in the information panels and version history screens. This is especially important for entries that have thousands of versions.
For a full list of changes, check out our what’s new page.
Upgrade now
If you are a cloud customer, you can raise a support request today to schedule an upgrade to Contensis 15.3.
If you are currently using an on-premise version of Contensis, and want to find out more about moving to our cloud platform, get in touch to arrange a call from your account manager.