Announcing CMS 4.8! Providing stability, security patching, and support for the future of GraphQL

The latest release of Silverstripe CMS is here! For this release, we stayed focused on keeping your projects secure and stable with some small improvements to support safe decisions during the log-in process, while introducing a really exciting milestone for GraphQL—the alpha of version 4. We’ll unpack each of these new features below, or if you’re keen to get your upgrade underway now, we’ve got some next steps for you to get started.

As usual, this release follows semantic versioning, so it’s ready to be used in any current Silverstripe CMS project right now. 

Support for the new GraphQL v4 module

The Silverstripe CMS GraphQL module allows teams to use the power of GraphQL APIs in their Silverstripe CMS projects. We use it to build and maintain various features in the CMS like the Files area and the Content Block interface. Project teams can use the module to build their own GraphQL API endpoints to serve content from the CMS in scalable ways (watch GraphQL v4 + Decoupled to hear it from UncleCheese)

We’ve been investing a lot of time in this GraphQL module, essentially rewriting it from scratch to keep performance and developer experience top of mind. We’re relying on early adopters with real-world use cases to help us stabilise it.

The release of CMS 4.8 still ships with GraphQL v3, but is now also compatible with the alpha release of GraphQL v4. This pre-release is already used on a number of production systems. Here in New Zealand, the Ministry for the Environment has worked with Chrometoaster to migrate their site to CMS 4.x, with a climate action tool, news, search, and other interactive lists powered by GraphQL v4. MBIE has worked with DNA Design to help small businesses reduce their carbon emissions (see case study and meetup talk), powered by GraphQL v3. These projects are part of the foundation of using solid content APIs to drive modern websites and web applications and built with Silverstripe CMS at the core.

You can learn how to install the alpha release in our changelog. Check out the completely rewritten developer docs, reach out on #graphql in the Community Slack if you need help, and help us improve the module via issues and pull requests.

Improvements to the CMS log-in screen

The default time period of the “Keep me signed in” checkbox available in the CMS log-in screen has been reduced from 90 to 30 days. This time period is now also communicated within the screen, as well as the introduction of some helpful tips.

If Content Editors are using a device they know to be secure (and ideally have multi-factor authentication enabled!) using the option to ‘Keep me signed in’ is a helpful option to streamline the login process for those that spend a lot of time in the CMS. Reducing the time period and presenting that on the screen is aimed to support a safe and secure decision.

Patched security vulnerabilities

As always, prioritising security vulnerabilities is a priority for the maintainers of Silverstripe CMS. This release includes patches to address three vulnerabilities that were responsibly disclosed to the Silverstripe CMS Core Committer team.

Please see the release changelog for the details of these patched vulnerabilities.

Stability improvements

This release includes a number of bug fixes to improve a broad range of areas. Check the changelogs for full details of these fixes split by module. Thank you to Silverstripe CMS community members that helped contribute these fixes as part of the release!

Keen to get your upgrade underway?

Talk to your Digital Agency or Developer about upgrading

Haven’t got a Developer or Agency? No problem! Browse the Silverstripe CMS Developer Network or the Silverstripe Professional Partner Directory and filter by location to find a Silverstripe CMS Developer near you.

Developers, check out our documentation

This release announcement does not cover the full detail of what is included in the release. Be sure to review the full changelog before planning your next site upgrade.

Head to our Developer Docs to view the CMS 4.8 changelog.