Orchard Harvest 2025 venue, Azure Search AI Module enhancements - This week in Orchard (21/03/2025)
This week, you can read about the Azure Search AI Module enhancements, the new save and continue button to Admin Menu Node and Content Type editors, and the venue for the Orchard Harvest 2025! Without further ado, let's get started!
Orchard Core updates
Azure Search AI Module enhancements
This enhancement includes several changes to the OrchardCore.Search.AzureAI module, focusing on improving index creation and settings management and adding support for recipe execution steps. The most important changes include modifying the index settings service methods, updating logging messages, and introducing new service classes and handlers. It also updates the AdminController to improve the handling of search index settings and operations.
As of version 3, Azure AI Search supports multiple index sources. When the Contents feature is enabled, the Contents source is automatically added, allowing you to create indexes based on content types. We've also introduced a migration process to maintain backward compatibility.
If you need to create an index for data that doesn't originate from Orchard's content items, you can do so by registering a custom index source. This gives you full control over where the data comes from and how it is mapped to your index fields. To add a custom source from your project, configure it as follows:
services.Configure<AzureAISearchOptions>(options =>
{
options.AddIndexSource("CustomSource", o =>
{
o.DisplayName = S["Custom Source"];
o.Description = S["Create an index based on custom data."];
});
});
We've introduced the IAzureAISearchIndexSettingsHandler interface, enabling deeper customization of index settings. To simplify integration, you can extend AzureAISearchIndexSettingsHandlerBase. Additionally, the new IAzureAISearchEvents interface provides hooks for handling search-related events.
And there are other changes, like:
- UI routes now accept index IDs instead of index names.
- The following methods in AzureAISearchIndexSettingsService now use an id instead of an index name: GetAsync(id), DeleteAsync(id).
New methods added to AzureAISearchIndexSettingsService:
- Task<AzureAISearchIndexSettings> NewAsync(string source, JsonNode data = null)
- Task<ValidationResultDetails> ValidateAsync(AzureAISearchIndexSettings settings)
- Task SynchronizeAsync(AzureAISearchIndexSettings settings)
These enhancements provide greater flexibility, improved maintainability, and an easier integration experience. Here you can see a GIF of the updated user interface:
Add "Save and Continue" button to Admin Menu Node and Content Type editors
When editing a Node of an admin menu, there is no option to "Save and Continue" to stay on the edit page. After saving the Node, the user is always redirected to the list view, which slows them down if they want to debug or try things out. The same applies if you are editing the content definition of a content type.
And now this has been improved. If you navigate to Design -> Content Definition -> Content Types and hit Edit near any content type, you will see an updated Save button which is now a split button dropdown. If you simply hit Save, your definition will be saved, and you will be redirected to the list of content types. But if you click the dropdown caret and select "and continue," Orchard will save your current modifications without leaving the current editor. The same applies when you are editing the Nodes of the Admin Menus.
News from the community
Orchard Harvest 2025 venue
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!
We have great news: We've found the location for the Orchard Harvest 2025 conference! It will be held in Prague, and we look forward to seeing you all this autumn in the Czech Republic, in the heart of Europe. As we move forward, we will keep community members informed of the details, and you will also find every detail in this newsletter!
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