Optimizing Content Management with Umbraco v13 Tools 2
Umbraco has always been a reliable CMS for developers and content creators as well, but with the release of Umbraco v13, it became even more efficient in handling many aspects of content management. In this post, we are going to present the most recent features and the tools which make the creation, management and organizing of content very intuitive. We’ll provide an in-depth explanation of the new dashboard, advanced block building, improved media organization, and enhanced access management, all designed to elevate your content management abilities.
These benefits will be helpful, whichever your experience level is with the Umbraco CMS, be it the first time you use it or are an expert.
One of the first things you’ll notice is the updated content dashboard, which includes both a visual refresh and functional improvements introduced to help editors and administrators focus on what matters most.
Developers can now personalize the dashboard with widgets that show metrics relevant to a specific role. For example, devs would prefer to display recent system logs, while content managers would like to prioritize site traffic or content approval workflows.
Editors can filter specific content types or sections quickly, saving time, especially for websites with a large amount of content. For businesses running multiple campaigns, this functionality allows quick access to each campaign’s performance metrics, ensuring that updates can be made in real time based on data insights.
For more information on dashboard customization, please read the official Umbraco documentation.
The Block List Editor is an essential tool in the latest releases, allowing modular content creation using configurable blocks. Developers can define available block types, enabling structured and flexible content creation for specific sections of the site.
It supports inline editing mode, allowing the editors to edit blocks directly on the page in inline mode, providing a smoother workflow for content creation. In addition to that, it has “Live editing mode” option which makes editing of a block happen directly to the document model, making changes appear as you type.
In Umbraco v13 users can experience the well-known structured data experience of the Block List and Block Grid in the Rich Text Editor and add and present blocks directly within the Rich Text Editor in a convenient manner.
Refer to the official Umbraco Block List Editor documentation for more details on configuration options.
While Umbraco v13 introduces improved support for content blocks, some features like true block-level reusability across pages require additional configurations. One of the approaches is to use Block Library where changes made to a block in one place will automatically update the block wherever it is used across the site. This requires some customization and is not part of Umbraco’s default feature set.
For more information on configuring reusable blocks, refer to this community solution guide.
Images typically make a big part of the Largest Contentful Paint element for websites, being responsible for the largest transfer rates.
Umbraco uses the ImageSharp library for image processing, which provides image resizing, cropping, and caching. However, it is important to note that automatic optimization tailored to various devices and resolutions requires some additional configuration.
The editors can define “image crops” which represent separate formats of the same image that could be used to present it in different components. Along with that, Umbraco enhances media handling with the focal point feature, which allows editors to set the most important area of an image.
Managing permissions across various teams can be tricky, especially for larger organizations. Umbraco offers a more flexible approach to permissions and workflows, giving you more control over who can access and edit specific content types or areas of the site. Roles can now be customized with greater precision. For example, you might want to grant your marketing team access to blog posts but restrict them from editing product pages.
More complex workflows can be set up, where multiple levels of approval are needed before content goes live. This feature ensures that content passes through the necessary quality checks without slowing down productivity.
For more on setting up workflows and permissions, see the following guide on Umbraco User Management