Documentation

How to migrate the contents to another tool?

Table of content

Principles of GXportal 6.0

GXportal 6.0 is not simply an update of version 5.2 because in this version the page generation engine has been created from scratch. This was done based on the following principles:

Speed

GXportal 6.0 will substantially improve web page response times. Also, it improves efficiency in the use of server resources (processor, memory, database, etc). With the new engine, pages load on average 75% faster than with version 5.2.

Responsive

The generated pages can be adapted to any device, from cell phones to TV sets. This has been achieved by generating pure CSS3 and minimizing the use of JavaScript, which also helps to make it faster.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

It is important that your site is as better ranked as possible by search engines. Even though many factors play a role here, the page code must be as semantic as possible so that search engines can easily identify the different sections of the page and where content is published, as well as identify the title, the date of publication, the associated image, etc. The new engine achieves this by generating HTML5, automatically using the appropriate tags for each context. Where automation is not possible, the appropriate semantics can be indicated through simple properties.

Accessibility

The objective is that the websites generated with GXportal can be equally used by all users, by providing tools that take into account the various motor and sensory challenges that people face. 
The new engine greatly improves accessibility compared to the previous version for the same reason as the previous item: semantics. However, it cannot do everything on its own; the design team, when designing and building should take into account things such as color contrasts or including the associated text even if it is hidden in image type buttons.

What's new in GXportal 6.0?

In addition to complying with the above principles, GXportal 6.0 provides: 
  • Speed to load pages
  • Responsive: The possibility to build responsive websites
  • SEO: Good semantics in page code to achieve a high position in search engines
  • Accessibility: Websites generated with GXportal can be equally used by all users, by providing tools that take into account the various motor and sensory challenges that people face.
In addition, the following new features are also included:

Domains

In GXportal 6.0, it is possible to add all the domains that you want to manage from a site with no restrictions.
Suppose a company launches a campaign for a certain period of time. It may want to access it from www.misitio.com/campana or make it independent from the company, such as www.campana.com. To achieve the second example, a new domain would have to be defined.

URL Format

The entire folder hierarchy can be represented in the URL. This is useful to indicate more clearly to the user where he/she is positioned in the site and when viewing Google search results, for example, to show the page URL in addition to the title. This helps the user to know if that result is relevant to him or not.
This also removes a restriction that existed in previous versions, as there could not be two folders on the site with the same name. Now, this is possible as long as they are in different branches of the hierarchy.
If a folder is not to be displayed in the URL, it will be indicated.

Graded

It is possible to apply a graded fill, which changes gradually from one color to another across the shape.
The graded fills you can create are those typically used as backgrounds for buttons or regions. They have graded effects with colors that blend into one another linearly, radially or in a pattern.

Transparency

It is possible to set colors with transparency.
RGBA and HSLA colors can be defined. In both cases, A is the alpha channel to define color transparency.

Fonts

In GXportal 6.0, to define a Web font it is enough to load its WOFF format.

The second change is about font styles.
Now there can be different font versions for each style; that is, I can have the WOFF file for the "regular" version and another file for the “bold" version of this font.
The same happens when using Google Fonts, which allow you to choose fonts and styles. This version also offers enhancements to make font styles easier to use.

More reasons to migrate to the new version

Validation

Since this version of the page generation engine has been built from scratch, and intensive work has been done for the pages generated by GXportal to pass the W3C validation tests, the pages generated comply with the most recent standards.

It generates and validates HTML5, which is a much richer language for describing the pages and makes them more semantic.
Its semantic features help to make pages better indexed by search engines and also increase accessibility because screen reader programs can read them better.
Also, W3C's WCAG accessibility guidelines are followed.
It generates and validates CSS3, which allows us to make pages fit any screen size.
In addition, it uses non-obstructive JavaScript, which allows pages to work correctly even when the use of JavaScript is not enabled in the browser. This also enhances the loading speed and accessibility of the pages.

All this is very important mainly in projects for companies or public organizations, which usually require that their sites comply with standards. The reason is that it gives them certain guarantees that their sites will work properly in any browser or device, that they will be correctly indexed by search engines and will be equally accessible to all users taking into account the different motor and sensory challenges faced by people. 

Scalability and response speed

This version is between 50% and 75% faster than version 5.2, supporting a larger number of concurrent users using the same hardware.

This is because the pages generated by the new engine are up to 80% lighter, thus reducing the generation and transfer time.
The server-side cache, once the page has been generated, makes it totally or partially static to avoid the need to generate it again.
Also, the browser cache keeps a local copy of the page and it is reloaded from the server only if a change is made.

And the best thing is that the server cache is automatically managed by GXportal, there's no need to take care of it.
The browser cache can be automatically managed or it can be manually configured to improve performance.

Compatibility

Name changes from previous versions:

Channel is now called Folder.
Template page is now called Master page.
Main page is now called Default page.
Catalogued link is now called Permalink.
GXportlet is now called Block.

Permission assignment

In GXportal 6.0, the criteria for assigning permissions have changed.
This version allows defining permissions for sectors. For this reason, it no longer makes sense to define permissions for web components.
It is possible to define permissions for: folders, pages, sectors and content types.
Initially, all users have access permissions.
In each element, it is possible to grant access to: all users, only anonymous users, only authenticated users, users with certain roles. Only in the latter case it will be possible to define what roles will have access (this is done from the option Configuration -> Permissions).

Web Components

In GXportal 6.0, web components don't have a status and permissions are not defined for them.
Web components can have more than one region and an unlimited number of blocks.