With all the new features in the latest 5.2 release of Sitefinity, it's easy to almost miss Sitefinity Lightning. And after finally taking the time to play with it today, you surely do not want to miss it!
This little gem is a brand new content authoring application built by Sitefinity, for Sitefinity. It requires installation of a module in your Sitefinity website (version 5.2 or higher required, so be sure you upgrade!) which the application uses to communicate and publish. Installation was a breeze however, and I was up and running in less than a minute.
Though only a CTP, it has already surpassed simply showing promise, and makes for a fantastic authoring experience for blogs (News is also supported).
I was also pleasantly surprised to see that it supports multiple blogs (which this site uses) as well as selecting from and uploading to image libraries. There is even convenient access to setting attributes like Tags, Categories and even the Blog Url!
That alone makes it already a complete replacement for Windows Live Writer (categories anyone?), and that's no small task, considering that every post on this site (prior to this one of course) was written using it!
![Sitefinity Blog Post Can we watch ourselves?](images/sitefinity-blog-post-.png)
For a CTP this application is impressive, and I look forward to seeing it evolve. There are a few minor quirks (such as it insisting on adding tags with a specific font that I can't seem to disable), but I'm certain the team is already hard at work at the next update.
I encourage everyone who blogs through their Sitefinity website to download and install Lightning and give it a shot, and more importantly I strongly encourage you to share your feedback in the Sitefinity Lightning Forum, because like everything else, the team relies on your input to help direct and evolve the product.
Enjoyed this post and/or found it useful?
SelAromDotNet
Josh loves all things Microsoft and Windows, and develops solutions for Web, Desktop and Mobile using the .NET Framework, Azure, UWP and everything else in the Microsoft Stack.
His other passion is music, and in his spare time Josh spins and produces electronic music under the name DJ SelArom.