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Umbraco 14 is the latest major version of Umbraco CMS that introduces a number of new features and back office changes. This new major release marks another big milestone for the Umbraco ecosystem. It contains a fully rewritten back office with a new architecture, a purpose-built Extension API, and a corresponding Management API whilst deprecating some features and functionality which we explore further in this article.
In Umbraco 14, AngularJS is no more. Instead, you’ll find a new implementation of the back office using TypeScript, Web Components, LIT, and Vite. The goal is to be as technology agnostic as possible while providing developers, agencies, and end-clients all the tools they need to succeed.
Internally, the term “Extension First Strategy” has been used, meaning that wherever possible, the back office has been implemented in a way that extensions can be implemented the same way.
This change may cause a few problems for existing package developers however Umbraco have tried to ease the burden by putting together some helpful guides and tutorials to help get people up to speed with the new architecture.
Umbraco 14 introduces a new RESTful API that enhances communication between the back office and backend. This expands the CMS’s headless capabilities and simplifies integration with external systems and custom applications.
These changes open up a number of possibilities for those working in headless or microservice solutions and gives developers the power to create or amend pretty much anything (i.e members, users. Ddc types, media) via the new APIs.
As with most major versions of software and applications there will be some functionality and features that have been removed as they have been deprecated or deemed obsolete and/or surplus to requirements. This is also true for version 14 of Umbraco which has a number of removals and tidy ups, some of the main ones being:
Perhaps the most notable casualty in the latest version is Macros. For those who have been using Umbraco CMS for some time you will probably be well versed with macros and whether you love them or hate them there time has now officially come to an end! With the introduction of more modern features such as block editors there is little need for macros in modern Umbraco websites. However, for those still on older version of the CMS this change could cause a few headaches and be a barrier preventing those websites from upgrading to the latest version.
Also making their way on to the removal list are the content grid and nested content editors. This isn't particularly surprising given both were on borrowed time since the introduction of the Block Grid and Block List editors but it's worth noting given some Umbraco websites may still be using them.
As part of the major back office changes Umbraco have decided to move away from Newtonsoft.Json and instead opted for the newer Microsoft-supported System.Text.Json version to help leverage the improved performance, security and compliance with standards it offers.
Smidge is a lightweight bundle and minification tool that replaced Client Dependency Framework used in older versions of Umbraco. However, in Umbraco 14 Smidge has been removed as part of the "out the box" offering but you can still manually set it up in your project should you wish to do so.
Umbraco 14 is only a standard-term support (STS) version, meaning that it has a shorter support life cycle compared to the long term support (LTS) versions, such as it's predecessor Umbraco 13.
This will mean that Umbraco 14 will enter its support phase in November 2024 and it's security fixes only phase in March 2025. It will then reach its end of life in May 2025 at which point no further fixes will be released for it.
As always the answer to whether or not you should upgrade to the latest version will largely depend on the state of the existing website. If your current website is already on a later version of Umbraco and you have a need for the newer functionality then upgrading could be worthwhile.
However, if you are still on and older version of Umbraco that perhaps still has a reliance on macros or content grids and none of the newer features will make a big difference for you then it may be best to hold off. It is also worth bearing in mind that Umbraco 14 is only a STS version (see above) so you will need to upgrade again in the not too distant future where as the previous LTS version (Umbraco 13) will not reach its end of life until December 2026.