The Umbraco Roadmap

"Dedicated Environments" adds another layer of flexibility to dedicated resources. Users take the reins, deciding where Development and Staging go whether in Shared or Dedicated resources. This adaptation broadens use case coverage and ensures the Live environment can run in total isolation for enhanced reliability.

Target release: Q2, 2024

Umbraco 11 added support for a new property editor called the Block Grid editor. With this editor, authors can arrange content blocks into flexible 2-dimensional layouts. Heartcore is adding support for this new property editor, meaning that you will have a powerful alternative to the grid editor for your more complex page editing scenarios.

Note that initially, the Heartcore version of the Block Grid will lack some features present in Umbraco CMS and Umbraco Cloud - most notably we will not offer support for custom backoffice views and stylesheets. We will look at how this can be supported subsequently.

Target: Already available now for new sites. Q3 2024 for sites created before February 12th 2024.

There will be a Core Dependency upgrade to Heartcore and once it is rolled out, you can expect that the backoffice will feel faster and more responsive for your content authors. Additionally, Umbraco Deploy operations such as transferring content between environments should feel much more snappy.

You can also expect to see a whole slew of small quality-of-life improvements and fixes to the backoffice. For a comprehensive overview, please check out the release comparison tool.

Target: Already available now for new sites. Q3 2024 for sites created before February 12th 2024.

As a requirement for implementing Lazy Loaded Content and improving the caching, the routing and URL segment of each node has to be determined at publish time. This means switching from runtime calculation and will require a database migration to add a routing table.

Target release: Umbraco 15, Q4 2024

We want to make variations available on the Block level, so that we e.g. have better support for multiple languages in blocks - whether it's in the Block List Editor or in the Block Grid Editor.

Target release: Umbraco 15, Q4 2024

Add as many environments to your project as needed. Both horizontally and vertically.

Target release: Q2, 2024

We want to enhance performance for sites with large amounts of content by introducing more efficient caching and memory management. This will be introduced through a lazy-loaded content cache. Most installations thrive with the current "cache all the things" approach so this will be an opt-in feature that can be used in specific scenarios.

Target release: Umbraco 15, Q4 2024

With persisted queries you will be able to save your GraphQL queries up front, meaning only pre-defined queries can executed against your content.

Additionally, you'll see better performance from persisted queries, since the GraphQL won't need to wait for the whole query body to be transferred before it can start running.

Target release: Q3, 2024

To better support our US-based customers, we are introducing a new tax calculation feature in Umbraco Commerce that accommodates the unique aspects of the US tax system, which differs significantly from the European market. This feature will include an API to integrate tax calculation with third-party tax services.

Target Release Q3, 2024

We're investigating a new feature for Umbraco Workflow that provides additional tools and functionality for editors managing their content workflow. This would include scheduling multiple versions and an improved visual overview of what content will be published, and when.

Target release: Umbraco 14, Q3 2024

New feature for Umbraco Forms allowing for preview of form display and functionality via the backoffice.

As part of this feature, we will be adding a new version of the REST API, which will be based on the Open API standard (https://www.openapis.org/). The first iterations of the current REST API are based on the HAL standard. By moving to OpenAPI you’ll see several improvements such as a reduced amount of metadata in the JSON response and improved performance. Open API is a widely known standard with lots of tooling, which we believe will benefit Heartcore and our users.

Adding progression display to default theme and inclusion of an optional final confirmation page for review or edit of the pending form submission

We currently provide very restricted email functionality in Heartcore in order to limit potential abuse scenarios. We know that email is a crucial part of a modern platform, and intend to re-enable this by allowing you to configure your own SMTP server from which to send messages. Not only will this enhance workflow processes with notifications, but will also allow you to easily send emails on form submissions.

Umbraco Workflow ships with a wide range of features that allow you to design custom content approval processes to fit your organization. We will add Workflow support to all Heartcore projects so that your content managers and copywriters can review, approve, and publish with confidence.

Transitioning the Umbraco Commerce APIs to be fully asynchronous to enhance performance

Target Release Q4, 2024

We aim to demonstrate how integrations between Umbraco Commerce and complementary products are built.

Specifically, we plan to link Umbraco Commerce with external systems, sush as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Finance & Operations for ERP systems, Perfion and Akenoe for PIM systems, Salesforce for CRM systems, and Klaviyo for email marketing.

We have not decided whether these integrations will be documented in the Umbraco Docs or made available as packages on the Umbraco Marketplace.

Target Release Q4, 2024

Seamlessly connect your own Active Directory to the Umbraco Cloud Portal, enabling secure user authentication and centralized access control management for enhanced efficiency and convenience.

Experience the power of load balancing in Umbraco Cloud, distributing website traffic across multiple servers to optimize performance, scalability, and user experience, effortlessly handling high volumes, and scaling with ease.

For the Management API, we want to better support system-to-system integrations by offering login for services through client site credentials.

Allows you to schedule automatic upgrades of Umbraco CMS, Forms and Deploy. You will be given a timeframe in with you can schedule the upgrade to ensure better planning and handling of automatic upgrades.

Allow for partners with Umbraco integrations to provide potential customers with the ability to run a trial on Cloud pre-installed with their package and supporting content. This is part of our Composable DXP (Digital Experience Platform) strategy.

One of the strong features of the Umbraco Backoffice is the ability to extend it with custom Property Editors to fit the needs of the Content Editors. This feature will enable for Umbraco Heartcore as well by creating Property Editors through the backoffice using html/js/css and WebComponents.

Introducing reusable blocks so that the same block content can be used on multiple pages. With multiple Block Editors now available (Block List and Block Grid Editor), we want to make it possible to share block content across pages and between the two block-based editors.

A Request for Comments (RFC) has been opened for Reusable Content with Global Blocks. You can read the full RFC and provide feedback on the new feature. 

In an effort to make it even easier and faster to get started in Umbraco Cloud, we will add the option to pick a starter-kit(s) that will be pre-installed with your new cloud project.

Even though Heartcore has a global CDN that makes performance for end users lightning fast, we know that some customers have compliance considerations that mean their data cannot be hosted in West Europe. We intend to add support for creating new Heartcore projects in other regions, starting with the U.S.

We are looking into the implementation of partial refunds and returns in Umbraco Commerce allowing store owners to efficiently manage refunds or returns for specific parts of an order, enhancing customer service capabilities.

We're exploring the integration of a drop-in cart feature to ensure a swift checkout process that leveles speed to market.

Advancing bulk operations, categorization, catalogs, and complex variants to enhance product and order management capabilities

We are looking into the next steps of supporting store owners in shipping orders, including label printing.