Be a speaker at Orchard Harvest 2025, Orchard Core AI Agent Module - This week in Orchard (09/05/2025)
This time, you can see a fascinating demo about the Orchard Core AI Agent Module! But first, let's look at our other topics, like adding a new page_title_add_segment Liquid tag, and applying the dark Monokai theme to CodeMirror if dark mode is on. Oh, and have we mentioned that now you can register to be a speaker at this year's Orchard Harvest?
Orchard Core updates
New page_title_add_segment Liquid tag
This newly added tag is similar to the existing page_title tag, but doesn't render it. It allows changing the page title from any Liquid view, similar to accessing the RazorPage.Title property in Razor.
Let's fire up our Orchard Core site. We created a simple Liquid Widget, a content type with only the Liquid Part attached, and the value of the stereotype is Widget. Then, we navigated to Design -> Widgets and added our widget to the Content zone using the following code.
Here, you can see that we utilized the new page_title_add_segment Liquid tag. The default parameter is a text appended to the current value of the title. The position specifies where the value is appended; in this example, it (the Segment) is appended at the beginning. You can also use position: "after" to append the segment at the end of the title. Note that the page title is only rendered when the page_title tag is called.
This means we must also call the page_title Liquid tag to see the result. The default parameter is a text appended to the current value of the title. The position is where the value is appended, in this example, at the beginning. So, they are the same. The separator is a string used to separate all the fragments of the title. As you can see, the word "Segment" will be appended before the site name and the page title.
Apply dark Monokai theme to CodeMirror if dark mode is on
When using the CodeMirror editor, the text highlighting was meant for the light theme. Thus, it was tough to read with the dark theme. The solution here is to add dark mode syntax highlighting.
Monokai is a theme for the CodeMirror 6 editor, making it visually engaging and adaptable to different coding styles and user preferences. From now on, we will apply the dark Monokai theme to CodeMirror if dark mode is on. This means we also change the CodeMirror theme on the dark mode switch on/off event.
To try this out quickly, we modified the content definition of the predefined Article content type provided by the Blog recipe. We navigated to Design -> Content Definition -> Content Types and changed the editor type to Monaco of the attached HTML Body Part. As you can see, the text is now much more readable when the dark mode is on.
Demos
Orchard Core AI Agent Module
At the beginning of this year, we mentioned a new module created by Mike Alhayek, which is an implementation of OpenAI that allows you to interact with any AI model. He worked a lot on that solution, and from time to time, he added many new features, which we mentioned here and here. Last time, we highlighted the Model Context Protocol (MCP) Client and Model Context Protocol (Local MCP) Client features. Here is the GitHub repository for this project, along with its corresponding NuGet package.
In the meantime, he introduced several enhancements and new features across the project, focusing on expanding AI capabilities, improving modularity, and refining functionality. The most significant changes include adding a new Orchard Core AI Agent module, improving AI function handling, and updating package dependencies. But what is Orchard Core AI Agent?
The Orchard Core AI Agent feature extends the functionality of the AI Services feature by enabling intelligent agents to perform tasks on your Orchard Core site. To try this out, enable the Orchard Core AI Agent feature under Configuration -> Features and add a new Profile under Artificial Intelligence -> Profiles. We selected the Azure OpenAI one and named it Site Admin Chat. As you can see, now there is a new Capabilities tab that you can use to assign the capabilities you want the AI Agent to perform. Here you can see a section called Communications. It's there because we enabled the Email Notifications and the SMS Notifications features. Let's enable all of these to see how it all works!
Now, the Site Admin Chat profile can work for us. For example, we can open the Site Admin Chat and email an existing user on our site. It can also enable/disable features if you tell it to. If you have enabled the Tenants feature, you can create a tenant using a given name.
And you can do a lot more by using the Orchard Core AI Agent feature! If you are interested in what other things you can achieve by using this feature, head to YouTube for this exciting recording!
News from the community
Be a speaker at Orchard Harvest 2025
After last year, the Orchard Harvest Conference will be held again in 2025. Last year, it was held in Las Vegas, and we had a really great time there. We would like to try to organize it again in Europe this year. The first step was to assess the potential interest and what would be needed. We created a survey, and we had the results!
The Orchard Harvest 2025 conference will be held in Prague, and we look forward to seeing you all this autumn in the Czech Republic, in the heart of Europe. Our confirmed dates for this year are the 11th and the 12th of November. To make our conference happen, we need our unreplicable speakers. Do you have an interesting Orchard Core-related topic you'd like to present to the community? Development techniques, memorable case studies, and valuable experiences that you'd like to share? Click on this link now to apply as a speaker! Selected speakers will receive complimentary tickets!
As we move forward, we will keep community members informed of the details, and you will also find every detail in this newsletter! We also updated the official website with the latest information about Harvest.
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