Sitecore released Sitecore Experience Platform 10.4 at the end of April 2024 and the setup files are available to download from the following link: Sitecore 10.4 Downloads.
The buzz in the market was that it may be curtains for Sitecore XP looking at the push for the cloud migration to Sitecore SAAS or the Sitecore XM Cloud. However, the release of Sitecore XP 10.4 indicates that our favourite CMS Sitecore Experience Platform (XP) is still far from being dead.
Multiple applications that are currently on Sitecore XP 10.2 were looking forward to this particular release of Sitecore XP as the Mainstream Support for Sitecore XP 10.2 ends in Dec 2024. A quick upgrade to Sitecore XP 10.4 would be on the cards for these implementations in the second half of 2024. The Sitecore Support Information for all the Sitecore Versions can be found at the following link: Sitecore Product Support Lifecycle
This blog post gives an overview of the important and significant improvements/features available in this version. The detailed information can be found from the following Sitecore link: Sitecore 10.4 Release Notes
1. Support for ltsc2022 Windows containers:
This is relevant if you are using a containerized setup. With Sitecore 10.4, they have extended the support for ltsc2022 Windows containers. For customers with ltsc2019 and planning to upgrade to Sitecore 10.4, the container images for ltsc2019 haven’t yet been released (as of the end of April 2024) by Sitecore but will be released in the upcoming weeks. If you are wondering what LTSC means then it is an acronym for Long-Term Servicing Channel used by Microsoft for licensing Windows Server. You may read about LTSC here: Windows Server Servicing Channels.
2. Create custom languages that are not registered in .NET (en-eu):
In the previous Sitecore versions, if you had to add languages that were not registered in .NET, you had to customize the application to get it working. In Sitecore 10.4, you may create any language version by combining the ISO code with the region/country code without the need for any customization.
The languages like en-eu (English Europe), en-mx (English Mexico), en-cl (English Chile), etc. can now be added without any customization in Sitecore XP 10.4.
3. Compatibility with SQL Server 2022:
With Sitecore XP 10.4, you may use SQL Server 2022 for the databases. The latest version of SQL Server supported by the previous version of Sitecore XP 10.3 was Microsoft SQL Server 2019.
4. Implementation of Solr soft commits:
The commit operation in Solr is quite critical as any data that is sent to Solr won’t be searchable until it has been committed. The commit strategy is at the core which determines when the document additions, deletions or changes are available for searching. The Soft Commit strategy gives us faster visibility of content and hence we can expect better performance in terms of Solr indexing.
5. XM to XM Cloud Content Migration tool:
The Sitecore XM to XM Cloud Content Migration tool is a readymade application from Sitecore that can be used to move Content, Media Items and User Data from an on-premises XM instance to an XM Cloud environment. You may use this tool for migrating from Sitecore XP to Sitecore XM Cloud too but it would migrate only the content portion of XM.
Although this is marketed as a feature of Sitecore XP 10.4, this has been available for a while for Sitecore Versions from 10.1 and later.
6. xDB to CDP Migration Tool:
This is a readymade tool released and maintained by Sitecore which can be used for transferring contact facets to Sitecore’s CDP and Personalize products, and also via Sitecore Connect to external systems.
Although this is again marketed as a feature of Sitecore XP 10.4, this has been available for a while for Sitecore Versions from 9 and later.
7. OOTB support for .ico files in the Media Library:
You may now upload .ico files usually used for favicons in the Media Library without any customization. In the earlier versions, this was not supported OOTB and we had to add patch config entries.
If you have already done this customization in your current implementation and planning for an upgrade to Sitecore XP 10.4, make a note to remove this customization to avoid redundant config code. Search for the following line in your solution and remove the entire customized section for .ico files.
<mediaType name="icon" extensions="ico">
---
</mediaType>
In the Vanilla Sitecore instance of Sitecore 10.4, you can find this entry for .ico file in the file: /App_config/Sitecore.config.
7. [BUG] BlobProviderException thrown when media is detached from an item and the item is published:
Although saving the media item without the media shows a warning, this issue might be reported by the content authors when they publish with related items and the Media Item without the media is related to their current item. This was a bad Content Editor experience and Content Editors may feel something is critically wrong with the system and report it. This issue has been taken care of in the current update.
Important Update: The Sitecore Downloads page has been migrated:
Starting from Sitecore 10.4 version, the Sitecore Downloads would be migrated from https://dev.sitecore.net/Downloads.aspx to https://developers.sitecore.com/downloads. The old page would be deprecated and wouldn’t receive any updates. Please note when you do a web search for Sitecore downloads, you may still be taken to the old downloads page due to the SEO not being updated but I would recommend downloading the files from the new portal only as the latest data and files would be updated on this portal alone.
This completes the blog post highlighting the significant changes in Sitecore XP 10.4. I hope they don’t retire the Sitecore Experience Platform (XP) anytime soon and provide continuous support in the future too.
About me:
Vivek Anandan Venugopalan
Hi! I’m a Sitecore Certified Advanced Developer from India with 8+ years of Experience working with Sitecore. I am an avid Railfan and love Cycling and Traveling. I also have a couple of travel blogs which can be checked by clicking on the first couple of links below.