ECF G5 Features Overview

The fifth generation of our ECF product is an entirely different animal in comparison to 4.1.  Here is just a taste of what features will be included in G5.

General:

• Reworked to take advantage of .NET 3.0/3.5
• AJAX-based back-end to speed up user interactions
• With full source code, all core subsystems are replaceable
• All new Content Management System with Application Framework/Portal Structuring
• All new Asset Management System

Catalog Subsystem:

• Support for multiple sites, multiple catalogs, multiple currencies, and multiple languages
• Support for product variations, packages, bundles and dynamic packages
• Ability to create associations: the ability to create relationships between products hierarchies
• Metadata engine for dynamic rendering of product attributes
• Warehouse and inventory tracking support
• Seasonal catalog support (including the ability to activate or deactivate products/catalogs on particular dates)

Content Management System:

• All links, menus, virtual pages, URL rewriting and more now controlled by CMS, with maximum flexibility,
• Create an independent menu structure that can link to various pages that provides enough flexibility to create virtually an unlimited number of menus
• Moderation and approval process before content is published live
• New Design View allows drag and drop controls and dynamic editing of public site on the fly
• Windows for Workflow approval process built-in

Customer Management System:

• Handle and restrict user access to the frontend and back-end via roles within an organization. 
• Granular user control even at the page level
• Support for multiple organizations
• Content security control
• Customer groups for tiered pricing

Asset Management System:

• Unified method to store types of data, including images, videos, software downloads, PDFs, or everything in between
• AMS built from the Business Application Foundation, a technology used in our Instant Business Network application.  This allows flexible configuration of custom fields to an unlimited combination of associations to various types of binary data, including PDFs, downloads, videos, etc.
• Provider-based storage: Decide how and where files are stored based on file meta type, location of folder assets, size of file, and other attribute
• Provider-based downloads: Decide how downloads are handled
• Provider-based security: Intercept requests for downloads and enforce some security checks

More to follow in the coming weeks...