Strapi Release: 5.0.0-rc.18

TL;DR

Strapi v5.0.0-rc.18 brings important fixes to the publishing workflow, guided tour functionality, and document actions. It also enhances developer experience with improved admin panel APIs and plugin examples, adds support for exports map in strapi-server resolution, and optimizes the upgrade tool to ignore unnecessary directories. This release continues to refine the v5 release candidate with quality-of-life improvements for both content managers and developers.

Highlight of the Release

• Fixed publishing workflow to correctly update creator fields
• Improved document action labels for better clarity
• Fixed guided tour functionality
• Enhanced admin panel developer experience with improved APIs
• Added support for resolving strapi-server with exports map
• Optimized upgrade tool to ignore node_modules and dist directories

Migration Guide

No specific migration steps are required for this release candidate update. This is an incremental improvement to the v5.0.0 release candidate series, focusing on bug fixes and enhancements rather than introducing breaking changes that would require migration.

Upgrade Recommendations

If you're already using Strapi v5.0.0-rc.17, upgrading to v5.0.0-rc.18 is recommended to benefit from the bug fixes and enhancements. The upgrade should be straightforward as this is primarily a maintenance release.

For users on Strapi v4.x who are considering moving to v5, it's advisable to wait for the final v5.0.0 release unless you're specifically testing the release candidate for compatibility with your projects.

Bug Fixes

Publishing Workflow Fixes

Fixed an issue where creator fields weren't being updated correctly during the publishing process. This ensures that the proper attribution is maintained when content is published.

Document Actions Labels

Resolved issues with document action labels, improving clarity and usability in the content manager interface.

Guided Tour Functionality

Fixed problems with the guided tour feature, ensuring that new users can properly navigate through the onboarding experience.

Upgrade Tool Improvements

The upgrade tool now properly ignores node_modules and dist directories, preventing unnecessary processing and potential errors during upgrades.

New Features

Enhanced Admin Panel Developer Experience

The admin panel developer experience has been significantly improved with better APIs and more advanced plugin examples. This enhancement makes it easier for developers to create and customize plugins for Strapi v5.

Exports Map Support for strapi-server

Added support for resolving strapi-server with exports map, improving module resolution and compatibility with modern JavaScript module systems.

Security Updates

No specific security fixes were mentioned in this release.

Performance Improvements

Upgrade Tool Optimization

The upgrade tool has been optimized to ignore node_modules and dist directories during the upgrade process, which significantly improves performance by avoiding unnecessary file processing in these typically large directories.

Impact Summary

This release candidate update focuses on quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes that enhance both the content management experience and developer workflows.

Content editors will benefit from fixes to the publishing workflow, document action labels, and guided tour functionality, making the content management process more intuitive and reliable.

Developers gain improved tools with enhanced admin panel APIs, better plugin examples, and support for modern JavaScript module systems through exports map resolution. The upgrade tool optimization also makes the development and deployment process more efficient.

While this is still a release candidate and not recommended for production environments, these improvements bring Strapi v5 closer to a stable release by addressing important usability and functionality issues.

Full Release Notes