Statamic 3.1 Launch Party
We just tagged Statamic 3.1, which means it is now time to celebrate the first big feature update for Statamic 3! 🎉
3.1 is packed with new features and enhancements, big and small. Let’s run through some of the best stuff.
New Features in Statamic 3.1
GraphQL
GraphQL is the single, largest, most game-changing feature in 3.1. GraphQL is a super-modern query language that provides a powerful and standardized syntax for requesting data from your application — in this case, Statamic. It allows you to define exactly what data you want, and makes it very simple to aggregate data from multiple sources (in our case — collections, taxonomies, users, and so on).
It is primary the engine behind the Jamstack approach to building website frontends.
GraphQL is another tool in the headless toolbox, sitting right beside the Content API. You can now easily build your frontend as a single page application (SPA), or with Gatsby.js, Next.js, Nuxt.js, and other, similar bleeding-edge JavaScript frameworks.
Jason built a few prototypes using a few of these approaches so you can see how everything fits together.
You can also use the “out of the box” Gatsby Source GraphQL Plugin to use Statamic as your headless backend for Gatsby.js sites.
We also integrated GraphiQL into the Control Panel to give you a user-friendly way to interact with the data and build your queries.
White Labeling
White Labeling allows you to customize the logo, visible name, and basic theme of the CMS throughout the control panel. The primary purpose of white labeling is to customize a control panel instance for a client, not to resell Statamic as a separate product. Keep that in mind, because it’s an important part of our terms.
Update Scripts
Update scripts allow Statamic and addon developers to make changes to data, settings, templates, and other necessary things after updates are performed. It may seem like a small thing, but it opens up huge possibilities in the future and should allow us to avoid breaking/manual changes down the road.
Entry Author Permissions
3.1 introduces new author permissions that can prevent users from editing or deleting other author’s entries. These permissions are additive, which means that the existing 3.0.x behavior has been pushed into new permissions that must be “checked”. The aforementioned Update Scripts will perform this update for you automatically.
You’ll need to have an author field defined on your blueprint to take advantage of “unchecking” these new permissions.
The Content API has Leveled Up
The Content API now has caching controls and new Nav and Collection Structure Tree endpoints. As requested. 👏
Amazon S3 Performance Improvements
We significantly improved our Amazon S3 filesystem integration. Benchmarks and tests on real customer sites have shown speed improvements around 8-15x faster. You’ll love it.
Loads of Small Improvements
We’ve also shipped a whole bunch of smaller, scattered improvements throughout 3.1. From Control Panel UI tweaks and new options and settings for various to a big old bag of bug fixes, you’ll fine little things everywhere that might make you happy.
The Wrap Up 🏁
First, check out the release notes to see every little thing we squeezed into this big release.
Next, take a quick look at the Upgrade Guide for 3.1. These changes should all be automated thanks to the new Update Scripts, but if due to an unforeseen circumstance they don’t fire, we’ve written a guide on how to do the upgrade yourself if absolutely necessary.
We hope these new features open up some brand new possibilities for you and your projects. We would also love to hear your thoughts — so as always, please send us some email!