Strapi v4.6 is live 👨‍🍳

[Nastia]

Hi everyone!

We’re happy to announce a new v4.6 version that brings developer & content editing experience to a new level.

Here’s what’s new in this release:

• Data export and import - manage project data at ease, without acting manually and directly into the database
• Relations, component and dynamic zone reordering - drag&drop to change the order or relations, components and dynamic zones
• Audit logs (Gold Enterprise Edition) - ensure security and compliance of confidential content by tracking all changes to the data, user activity and configurations.
• Media library improvements - view assets in a list and configure how you want them displayed (number of assets per page, list / grid view, sorting options).

… and many more improvements! Find all details in this blog post.

Don’t forget to join the Monthly Community Call today at 17:00 CET / 8 AM PDT We’ll demo new features and answer all of your questions!

We’d like to thank everyone who helps us to make Strapi better, contributes to the product and shares feedback

Stay tuned, more updates are coming!

[Sebastian_Scholl]

Did this update depreciate or break the ‘connect’ key on API updates and creates?

[GregorSondermeier]

I’m sorry to be that guy, I really am.

But I can’t help but wonder who the data export/import feature is meant for in this form?
Given that it’s only possible to use this via the CLI, it’s clearly aimed at developers.
But as developers you could have always exported and imported on SQL level already. So I don’t understand what new it brings and what the fuzz is about.

When I first heard export/import, I had assumed (my fault) that it is a feature for content editors. I don’t know, go into the content manager, select one content-type, select one or multiple entites of that content type and click a button to download an export of these entities. Go somewhere else and import these entities. Basically like this plugin, but natively.

I’m really sorry to be so negative. Am I missing something?

[Convly]

Hello @GregorSondermeier, and thanks a lot for your feedback!

This first iteration of our take on data management is indeed aimed at developers.

But as developers you could have always exported and imported on SQL level already

Well yes, and no. Doing raw SQL dump & restore offers you a 1:1 mapping of your data but ignores business rules associated with Strapi & prevents doing data transformation (+ it doesn’t transfer local media files). On top of that, not every developer wants to deal with the DB and instead wants an easy and documented way of dealing with their app data.
Finally, as discussed in this video, Data Import Export is only the first release of a much more ambitious vision, in which you’ll be able to transfer Strapi data not only between a strapi instance and a file but from anything to anything (and also build custom data providers using a simple programmatic API: json, csv, live APIs, hooks, other CMS, etc…).

I had assumed (my fault) that it is a feature for content editors. I don’t know, go into the content manager

For now, it isn’t, but this is something we definitely want to iterate on & add in the future. We were focusing on the developer experience for the moment, but we won’t let anyone behind

select one content-type, select one or multiple entites of that content type and click a button to download an export of these entities. Go somewhere else and import these entities. Basically like this plugin, but natively.

yep, also planned

I’m really sorry to be so negative

Don’t be, it only means we need to communicate more about our vision & goals, so thanks for the opportunity.

I hope I was able to help you understand our vision better, and don’t hesitate to ask more questions if you have some.

Have a nice day!

[Convly]

Hey, I believe we already discussed that on Twitter, but after discussing briefly with people on the team: no it shouldn’t impact the relation’s connect API, and if it does it’s a regression, not a feature. We still need to investigate this at the moment, but will come back with an answer whenever we can

Have a nice day!

[Marc_Roig_Campos]

Hello! I have been checking how media files are handled, and Strapi does not support the connect syntax as of today.
This is something on our radar and we plan to implement it, but for now only the set will be supported.

We will update the docs about this, thank you for raising this.

[GregorSondermeier]

Hi @Convly and thanks for your reply!

Well yes, and no. Doing raw SQL dump & restore offers you a 1:1 mapping of your data but ignores business rules associated with Strapi & prevents doing data transformation (+ it doesn’t transfer local media files).

Ok, the transfering of local media files is indeed important and was not possible on the SQL level previously. Could you elaborate about the “business rules associated with Strapi”? Do you mean Strapi internal stuff, like settings, admins and users?

Pseudo EDIT: As I’m writing this reply I’m also watching the community call recording and reading the documentation.
Ok I see, certain instance-specific data like users and tokens are not part of the exported data. That’s very good indeed!

yep, also planned

That’s also good to hear! It wasn’t clear to me from the announcement in the newsletter and the blogpost that this feature will receive multiple iterations with more and more features being added.

Don’t be, it only means we need to communicate more about our vision & goals, so thanks for the opportunity.

And just by your explanations, I now understand your motivation behind it better. So thanks a lot!

However, to give some more (hopefully constructive) feedback:
I tend to get a little overwhelmed by the potential sources of information about Strapi. There is the Forum, Discord, the community calls, the blog, the documentation, the feature request page, github. It feels a little decentralized and important information tends to get overlooked.
Now that I’ve actually found and read the export/import documentation, I understand a lot better.

[Convly]

Ok I see, certain instance-specific data like users and tokens are not part of the exported data. That’s very good indeed!

This + we’ll introduce custom rules that you can define for your data (filters, transformations) with helpers that know about Strapi data architecture so you don’t have to deal with low levels implementation and rather deal with higher-level Strapi abstractions. Also, again it’ll all makes more sense when we’ll release the next iterations regarding the programmatic data providers’ API.

I tend to get a little overwhelmed by the potential sources of information about Strapi. There is the Forum, Discord, the community calls, the blog, the documentation, the feature request page, GitHub. It feels a little decentralized and important information tends to get overlooked.

Thanks again for your detailed feedback, I’ve shared that internally with the team and we’re discussing what could be done better to prevent that kind of confusion in the future.

[Sebastian_Scholl]

Thanks @Convly and @Marc_Roig_Campos !