With Entando 6.3 being a major release, there are plenty of new features to talk about. 

Our main goals with the latest version of the platform were to streamline developer experience, improve Kubernetes deployments, and provide tools that will enable you to standardize components and processes across your applications while also decreasing the amount of time it takes to get any one application off the ground. 

With those ideas in mind, we’ve added new capabilities that we think will help you and your teams go further faster. 

Here are 3 key new features in Entando 6.3 that will help your enterprise with code reuse, app development standardization, templating and quality assurance.

1. Automated Bundle Creation

In concert with the ent CLI too (which is described in our previous blog on streamlined developer experience), the Entando 6.3 release includes new capabilities to create bundles from running Entando applications. The bundle tool is built to aid in developer workflows to support fast reuse and customization across Entando applications. 

For example, Entando 6.3 provides build capability using tools and components (micro frontends, microservices, content, etc.) made with reuse in mind. 

You can also identify reusable aspects of an application, extract those elements to bundles, and publish them to the Entando Component Repository for consumption by other teams. The ECR is a shared, internal repository to encourage code reuse across your enterprise, that can be used to support multiple Entando applications across an enterprise allowing standardization and code reuse. 

By leveraging code reuse, developers can build an app using Entando, recognize the need for a particular capability from an existing app, use the bundle exporter to extract that capability from the existing Entando app, import it to the new app, and customize it as required for the new use case. This will speed up development time considerably and keep your developers focused on the use case, rather than needing to rebuild capabilities that have already been created for previous projects. 

The bundle extractor is included in the ent CLI tool and provides an interactive interface to allow developers to select which components go into a single bundle. Learn more about bundle extraction and the ent CLI here.

2. New Components Deployable via the Entando Component Repository

The Entando 6.3 release includes a significant expansion in the types of components that can be included in an Entando bundle and deployed via the Entando Component Repository. 

Here’s the updated list of components.

• Plugins (microservices)
• Micro Frontends (widgets)
• Fragments
• Page templates
• Content Types
• Content Templates
• Content
• Labels (i18n)
• Categories
• Groups
• Languages
• Static resources (JS files, images, documents, etc.)

With the components outlined above, developers and enterprises using the ECR have the ability to package and distribute solutions representing customizable feature sets for business verticals. 

Be on the lookout for new examples, webinars, and workshops around using Entando to build solutions in 2021.

3. ECR Update Strategies

The Entando Component Repository also now supports an updated installation strategy that allows developers to force the installation of a component in a given Entando application. 

The force overwrite strategy is particularly useful in a number of use cases. For example, in continuous deployment to development, stage, or production environments or migration of instances to new app versions or new platform versions. 

Force overwrite is also useful for component lifecycle management for quality assurance and acceptance testing. For example, you may develop a component, export it as a bundle, import it to a test instance for QA, and then import it into the production instance once it has been tested and approved.

--

Learn more about everything new in Entando 6.3, see the documentation, and get started on the platform here.

Builder better apps faster with Entando.

When release cycles take months instead of weeks, your business is left unable to deliver modern online experiences. Development and deployment bottlenecks slow your ability to make application updates, keeping you from iterating and innovating. And outdated or clunky UX keeps you from winning customers over and retaining them.

So that’s why we created a platform to help you get your ideas to market faster.

Entando is the leading micro frontend platform for building enterprise web apps on Kubernetes. We want to change the way enterprises think about building their apps, sites, and portals in order to innovate more quickly.

With Entando, you can:

• Leverage customized blueprints using the Entando Component Generator (built on JHipster) to quickly create micro frontends and assemble them into an app.
• Reuse UI/UX components across multiple projects via the Entando Component Repository, saving money and increasing development speed. 
• Scale apps quickly and effectively with Entando’s custom Kubernetes operator, automating the deployment of high availability, self-healing applications. 
• Centrally manage user roles with Entando Identity Management (built on Keycloak).

Entando is open source with available enterprise support and services. Begin developing on the platform today, and get a quote to see how our team can help your enterprise build better apps, sites, and portals--faster.