Q3 2022 release wrap-up: Tackling complex content operations

It’s no small feat to successfully run complex content operations. Creating great content, keeping it on brand, publishing it successfully in multiple languages and locales (and on multiple devices!), and then keeping it up to date takes a coordinated effort. 

A headless CMS, like Kontent.ai, makes the process more manageable. Over Q3 of 2022, we’ve released a set of features that are all about making life a little easier for all the people involved in keeping a complex content machine running. There’s something for everyone here, so let’s take a look at what’s been added over the last three months.

Turning creators into content wizards

In the world of headless CMS, the authoring experience can sometimes be a bit of an afterthought. That’s not the case at Kontent.ai. We’re absolutely focused on giving content creators the best writing experience around, and making sure creators are never left longing for their old WYSIWYG editors. We’re pushing beyond just a “good” writing experience, and instead creating an interface that helps make content creators even more productive.

This quarter, authors got a bundle of time-saving, productivity-boosting features. Let’s take a look at all the stuff that’s recently come their way.

• New keyboard shortcuts in Kontent.ai. It’s now easier for writers to work with formatting directly in Kontent.ai. New keyboard shortcuts let authors write subscripts (e.g. H₂O) or superscripts (e.g. 2⁴) by pressing (CTRL + Shift + ,) or (CTRL + Shift + .) respectively ­– especially important for writers working with formulas or scientific notation.
• An easier way to work with markdown. Our next update is about markdown, which Kontent.ai accepts and automatically converts to help with the formatting and structuring of text. Now, it’s possible for creators to undo markdown conversions by hitting backspace. This makes it easy to undo accidental markdown conversions, or to skip the conversion altogether.

• More context for nested components. A single content item in Kontent.ai have a lot of components nested within it, which can make it tougher for authors to understand the bigger picture of the content they’re creating. A new update lets authors see a preview of a component’s text content via a small info panel, giving context to what a writer’s working on without cluttering up their authoring environment. 

• Default values in use are clearly marked. Surfacing more information to authors makes it faster to get work done in Kontent.ai. Elements which have a default value now get a label saying whether the default value is used. 
• Content guidelines for content items are now expanded by default. This makes it easier for authors to see what’s accepted in a certain content item. And if a writer is already familiar with the guidelines for a specific content item? They can just collapse the guidelines once, and Kontent.ai will remember their choice for all future instances of that content item.

• Default values can now be used in more places across Kontent.ai, letting writers create content more quickly. Assets now accept default values, which can be used for including information like the source of an image or copyright information. And linked items in content items can also have a default value. As an example, imagine the landing page content item has a CTA-linked item. Instead of the author having to choose the CTA button manually when creating a page, a chosen button can be set as a default value for all landing pages. This means less time spent on fiddling with page creation, and more time spent on the actual content ­– the stuff that really matters!

• Clickable URLs in comments. For writers that collaborate in Kontent.ai, it’s now easier to share information with teammates using comments. Comments in URLs are now clickable, making it a bit faster for creators to view pages shared by their colleagues. 

Giving complex and global teams a more flexible toolkit

While creating content is at the core of all content operations, content management is critical for getting content published, distributed, and maintained. For teams with complex content requirements or content published in multiple languages and regions, there’s a lot of work to be done.

This quarter, we focused on releasing features that streamline their work, while also leaving room for teams to have all the flexibility they need to meet their individual setups and structures. 

For global teams, our first bundle of features is for you. When working with content that’s translated or localized into several languages, some content needs to remain not localized (like a brand name, a slogan, codes, IDs, numbers, or linked items). Kontent.ai lets teams manage this with non-localizable elements, which remain the same in all language variants.

Now, content teams can mark even more items as non-localizable, allowing them to be used across languages and locales and enabling more content reuse. The following elements are now supported:

• URL slugs
• Taxonomies
• Custom elements

And for teams creating content in a non-default language, it’s now possible to publish that content simultaneously with non-localizable elements, which keeps content up to date across all language variants.

There’s more to localization than translating content. Global teams also need to be aware of the different time zones their audiences and team members are working with. Now content managers never have to worry about miscalculating again, since time zones can be selected directly in the Date and Time elements in Kontent.ai!

Our second bundle of updates is all about visibility into content operations, something that can be difficult for larger, global teams. To help give some insight into what’s happening with different variants of a content item, users can now see the current workflow stage of a content item in all its language variations in the language selector. 

Names can also give a lot of visibility into content operations. But ask any developer: naming things well can be extremely hard. Naming becomes easier (and clearer) when you can make your name a little longer. To support that, the names of Collections can now be up to 200 characters, giving content managers the chance to make the names more descriptive.

With better names, it becomes easier for teams to find what they’re looking for. Along those lines, another new feature also simplifies the discovery process: users can now find all content items using a component of a specific type from the Content Modeling menu. Need to find all the blogs that use an “image” component? It’s just one click away.

Boosting developer productivity with API enhancements

Developers keep the content machine in motion. This quarter, we focused on delivering API enhancements that help them do more programmatically. 

For developers using webhooks, you can now simplify debugging by getting information about webhook health from the Kontent.ai Management API. Webhook health information is included in multiple responses, outlined in our documentation. 

It’s also now easier to check your project for validation and consistency problems with improved project validation endpoints. This is especially useful for checking for validation issues after importing content.

For more information about Kontent.ai APIs, be sure to check out the API overview, which includes all the most up-to-date information on Kontent.ai APIs.

Full steam ahead!

It’s been a busy quarter here at Kontent.ai, and not just in terms of new releases. In July of 2022, Kontent.ai raised $40 million in growth capital and became a fully-fledged standalone company! The investment gives us the opportunity to continue building the best modular content platform on the market. 

• To keep up with the latest Kontent.ai releases, follow our changelog. You can even subscribe to the latest changes via RSS, or get updates about breaking changes via email. 
• For a more forward-looking perspective on our product vision, take a look at our public roadmap. 

If you’d like to share some feedback about a feature with us, you can always reach us via Intercom (just send a message to the chat in the lower-right corner of this page) ­– we’d love to hear from you.