Release notes for Magnolia CMS 6.4.0-beta1

LTS release • Delivered on August 29, 2025 • Changelog: 16579

Magnolia CMS 6.4-beta - Hardening Phase

Magnolia CMS 6.4-beta is currently in the hardening phase and is intended for testing and evaluation by experienced Magnolia partners and customers only. While we’ve provided initial Release Notes and Upgrading Guide documentation, please note that all documentation, including these guides, may be updated as we finalize features and incorporate feedback during the beta period.

Ready to share your insights?

Your feedback during this beta phase is invaluable in helping us deliver the best possible experience. Please share your thoughts and suggestions with us at 6.4-beta feedback.

Magnolia CMS 6.4 GA is coming soon with complete documentation and full production support.

We’re happy to announce Magnolia 6.4.0., which reflects our commitment to reliable, modern technology, delivering better performance, security, and user interface features, as detailed below.

This release prioritizes:

  • Improved Compliance and Accessibility: New UI enhancements and accessible forms ensure compliance with modern standards, including WCAG 2.1 AA and preparation for WCAG 2.2.

  • Enhanced Usability and Performance: Optimized for large-scale deployments with extensive asset libraries and complex workflows.

  • Future-Proofing: Simplified release support and a move toward Magnolia 7, with a focus on modern technology and security.

Platform upgrade

Magnolia 6.4.0 ensures compatibility with Jakarta EE 10, requiring Tomcat 10 (version 10.0.27 or higher) for deployment. This upgrade supports modern enterprise standards, provides performance optimizations, and enables cloud-friendly deployments. Deployments running Magnolia locally must update to Tomcat 10, and existing custom code may require adaptation, facilitated by tools like Open Rewrite (MGNLPER-355).

AI Accelerator enhancements

The AI Accelerator for Magnolia 6.4 builds on existing functionalities, including assisted content creation, AI image editing, AI-powered SEO, and content classification tools. New features include:

  • Image Recognition Module: Supports any AI model for context-aware image tagging.

  • AI-Generated Asset Metadata: Automatically populates metadata for assets.

  • Compatible with Magnolia 6.2 and 6.3, the accelerator remains an extension covered by standard SLAs.

Accessibility optimizations

Accessible Forms introduction

Accessible Forms replace Vaadin with a React-based UI, leveraging a custom design system for enhanced accessibility and developer extensibility. Key improvements include:

  • Better focus visibility, keyboard navigation, and interactive elements, meeting WCAG 2.1 AA standards and designed with WCAG 2.2 in mind.

  • Available in content apps (not yet in the page editor). Existing form definitions do not require migration, with a graceful fallback to the old framework for unsupported complex custom fields (MGNLUI-8963).

Find Bar and Global Search enhancements

The Find Bar and Global Search are overhauled for faster performance and better usability:

  • Speed and Accessibility: Immediate results, support for external asset providers, and product information catalogs (MGNLPER-268).

  • Search API Improvements: Proper error codes, better date handling, resilience to failures, supplier names, and app-aligned result grouping (MGNLPER-327, MGNLPER-338, MGNLPER-347, MGNLPER-329, MGNLPER-348).

  • Enhanced Features: Persistent search results when navigating, improved filtering, sorting, and snippets showing search term locations for clarity (MGNLPER-335, MGNLPER-337).

  • Keyboard Shortcuts: Enable global search for improved navigation (MGNLPER-330).

  • Global Search is integrated into CE/DX Core, with the search-api module moved to Periscope (MGNLPER-355, MGNLPER-356).

UI workflow enhancements

Deletion Action updates

Deletion actions are enhanced with updated dialogs for mark-for-deletion, permanent delete, and dependency warnings, improving accessibility and usability:

  • A "view links" action in the action bar allows users to see related content and its publication state before deletion.

  • New REST endpoints and user notifications streamline workflows.

  • Available for simple and 4-I workflows, compatible with Magnolia 6.4’s new UI (PAGES-1688, PAGES-1714).

UI and navigation improvements

UI enhancements improve usability and accessibility:

Enhanced performance and reliability for large scale setups

DAM Asset Management

DAM 6 improves asset management for large-scale deployments:

External binaries for large-scale deployments

External Binaries support large-scale deployments with extensive asset libraries:

  • Store binaries on external systems like Amazon S3 or Azure Blob Storage while maintaining full authoring experience and performance.

  • Decouples asset binaries from metadata, with metadata stored in Magnolia’s database.

  • At launch, supports Amazon S3 integration, with more integrations planned based on feedback.

  • Replaces the hybrid asset incubator (MGNLDAM-1802).

Image Focal extension

The Image Focal Extension, previously a popular incubator, is now a fully maintained product extension:

  • Allows authors to select points of interest in images for dynamic rendering across formats.

  • Ensures no regression in functionality, ease of adoption, and compatibility with external binaries (e.g., Amazon S3).

  • Available for Magnolia 6.4 and portable to 6.3 with specific module installations (MGNLDAM-1802).

Swift Publication for faster content delivery

Swift Publication introduces a faster, more reliable way to publish large volumes of content:

  • External Versioning and asynchronous publication allow users to continue working in the UI during publishing.

  • Performance improvements reduce publishing time by 70% for large (420 pages) and massive (5,000 pages) publications.

  • Features efficient ciphering or skipping it in secure environments (MGNLPER-355).

Page Editor apps and modernization

Page Editor Apps extend the visual editing experience beyond the pages app to channels like mobile apps or digital signage:

  • Installable extension configured with light development, no custom Java required.

  • Does not yet support live copy or personalization.

  • A step toward the planned global components feature for full integration across apps (MGNLUI-8963).

Magnolia Package Manager

The Magnolia Package Manager, a new content app built with the new UI, enables smart export and import of content at scale:

  • Supports pre-staging content on UAT/local environments, embargoed content staging, and content synchronization for testing.

  • Offers a workaround for large publications by allowing direct installation on public instances, bypassing standard publication flow (MGNLUI-9192).

Content App enhancements

Content apps are updated with improved search and filter functionalities:

Security improvements

ADMINCTR-589, BUILD-1025, MAGNOLIA-9550, MAGNOLIA-9552, MAGNOLIA-9563, MAGNOLIA-9634, MAGNOLIA-9688, MGNLDEMO-458, MGNLUI-9073, MGNLUI-9211, MGNLUI-9214, MGNLUI-9223, PAGES-1698

We keep the details of security fixes private in line with our security policy. Stay informed on the latest security updates by subscribing to our Security Announcements list. Contact our Support team if you need more information.

New or updated modules

Updated modules

Bundled modules included with this release.

  • About app 6.4.0

  • Admincentral 6.4.0

  • Admincentral-legacy 6.4.0

  • Advanced Cache 4.0.0

  • Analytics 3.0.0

  • AWS Foundation 3.0.0

  • Backup 3.0.0

  • Barebones Tomcat Bundle 2.0.0

  • Blossom 5.0.0

  • Cache 7.0.0

  • Campaign Publisher 4.0.0

  • Categorization 4.0.0

  • Community Edition 6.4.0

  • Contacts app 3.0.0

  • Content Dependencies 4.0.0

  • Content Editor 4.0.0

  • Content Importer 3.0.0

  • Content Tags 4.0.0

  • Content Translation Support 4.0.0

  • Content Types 3.0.0

  • DAM 6.0.0

  • Definitions App 4.0.0

  • Demo Projects 6.4.0

  • Diff 4.0.0

  • DX Core 6.4.0

  • E-commerce 3.0.0

  • External DAMs 3.0.0

  • Form 4.0.0

  • GraphQL 3.0.0

  • Groovy 5.0.0

  • Image Focal 2.0.0

  • Image Recognition 4.0.0

  • Imaging 5.0.0

  • JCR Tools 3.0.0

  • Language Bundles 2.0.0

  • License 3.0.0

  • Log Tools 3.0.0

  • Magnolia 6.4.0

  • Mail 7.0.0

  • Marketing Tags Manager 4.0.0

  • Messages 6.4.0

  • Multiple Pages Apps 3.0.0

  • Multisite 4.0.0

  • Observation 4.0.0

  • Pages 6.4.0

  • Password Manager 3.0.0

  • Periscope 3.0.0

  • Personalization 4.0.0

  • Privacy 4.0.0

  • Public User Registration 4.0.0

  • Publishing 4.0.0

  • Publishing Transactional 3.0.0

  • Ranker 3.0.0

  • Repository Tools 3.0.0

  • Resources 5.0.0

  • REST Client 4.0.0

  • REST Client UI 3.0.0

  • REST Framework 4.0.0

  • Scheduler 4.0.0

  • Security 8.0.0

  • Single Sign On 5.0.0

  • Sitemesh 3.0.0

  • Site 3.0.0

  • Soft Locking 5.0.0

  • Solr Search Provider 10.0.0

  • Synchronization 4.0.0

  • Task Management 3.0.0

  • Tasks 6.4.0

  • Templating Essentials 4.0.0

  • Templating Samples 7.0.0

  • Text Classification 3.0.0

  • Third-party library BOM 6.4.0

  • Third-party library BOM for Extensions 6.4.0

  • UI 6.4.0

  • Usage Metrics 3.0.0

  • Vaadin Compatibility Addons 2.0.0

  • Accessible Forms 1.0.0

  • Webhooks 3.0.0

  • Workflow 8.0.0

Acknowledgements

The Magnolia team would also like to thank everyone who reported issues, contributed patches or simply commented on issues for this release. Your continued interest helps us make Magnolia better.

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