Payload CMS Release: 3.0.0-beta.27

TL;DR

Payload CMS 3.0.0-beta.27 introduces significant enhancements with the release of live-preview functionality, improved richtext editor features, and UI improvements for array and block fields. This beta continues to refine the upcoming major version with quality-of-life improvements for both developers and content editors.

Highlight of the Release

• Introduction of live-preview and live-preview-react packages for real-time content previewing
• New UI feature to toggle sortable arrays and blocks for improved content organization
• Added maxDepth property to various Lexical richtext features for better control over content structure
• Fixed missing HorizontalRuleFeature export in richtext-lexical package
• Performance improvement with new index on version status field

Migration Guide

No specific migration steps are required for this beta release. However, if you're using the richtext-lexical package and have been working around the missing HorizontalRuleFeature export, you can now import it directly.

If you want to implement the new live-preview functionality, you'll need to install the appropriate packages:

npm install @payloadcms/live-preview @payloadcms/live-preview-react

Or with yarn:

yarn add @payloadcms/live-preview @payloadcms/live-preview-react

Refer to the documentation for implementation details on the live-preview feature.

Upgrade Recommendations

As this is a beta release (3.0.0-beta.27), it's recommended for testing environments and projects that are already following the v3 beta track. Production applications should continue using the stable 2.x releases unless specifically testing the v3 features.

If you're already on a previous 3.0.0 beta, upgrading to beta.27 is recommended to take advantage of the new features and fixes, particularly if you're using the richtext editor or would benefit from the live preview functionality.

Bug Fixes

Fixed Missing Export in Richtext-Lexical

• Fixed the missing export of HorizontalRuleFeature in the richtext-lexical package (#6236), ensuring developers can properly import and use this feature in their editor configurations

New Features

Live Preview Functionality

Payload now offers live-preview capabilities through two new packages:

• live-preview: Core functionality for real-time content previewing
• live-preview-react: React-specific implementation for live preview

This feature allows content editors to see changes to their content in real-time as they edit, significantly improving the content creation experience.

Toggleable Sortable Arrays and Blocks

The UI now includes the ability to toggle sortable arrays and blocks (#6008), giving content editors more control over how they organize and structure their content. This feature makes it easier to manage complex content structures and improves the overall editing experience.

Enhanced Richtext Editor Features

The Lexical richtext editor now supports:

• maxDepth property for various Lexical features (#6250), allowing developers to control the nesting depth of content elements
• Properly exported HorizontalRuleFeature (#6236), making it available for use in custom editor configurations

Security Updates

No security fixes were included in this release.

Performance Improvements

Database Performance Improvements

• Added an index to the version status field (#6256), which should improve query performance when filtering or sorting by version status, particularly in applications with many document versions

Impact Summary

This beta release continues to build on Payload's v3 with significant new features like live preview functionality and UI improvements. The addition of the live-preview packages represents a major enhancement to the content editing experience, allowing for real-time visualization of content changes.

The UI improvements for sortable arrays and blocks provide better content organization capabilities, while the richtext editor enhancements give developers more control over content structure with the new maxDepth property.

Database performance should see improvement with the addition of an index to the version status field, which is particularly beneficial for applications with many document versions.

Overall, this release focuses on improving both the developer and content editor experience with quality-of-life features and fixes.

Full Release Notes