SignalR Module, Lombiq has a new website - This week in Orchard (02/10/2026)
Ever forgotten the exact syntax for filtering your content items, users, or audit trail events? The Available Filters dialog now shows every filter as a compact grid of cards.
Building a module that needs real-time updates across multiple server instances? A new SignalR module centralizes hub registration, authentication, and Redis or Azure backplane configuration.
Curious how Orchard Core works as a headless CMS behind a booking app? Dave Black demoed Flexstructor, a driving lessons application for instructors and learners.
And have you seen our redesigned website yet? It covers our software audit, technical due diligence, and data analytics services, not just Orchard Core.
This week's changes come from Mike Alhayek, with a demo by Dave Black!
Orchard Core updates
Available Filters Dialog Redesign
Mike Alhayek redesigned the Available Filters dialog (the Filter syntax entry in the Filters dropdown of the content items, users, and audit trail admin lists). The filter cards, previously stacked full-width one per row, are now laid out in a compact responsive grid, and the dialog was widened to modal-xl.
Let's start with the content items admin list under Content -> Content Items. Its Filters dropdown sits next to the search box, and the Filter syntax entry opens the Available Filters dialog, which lists every filter you can type into the search box (text:, type:, status:, sort:, and more) as a compact grid of cards. The current filter is shown at the bottom of the dialog. For example, to list content items whose display text contains blog or about, use text:blog OR about.
The users admin list (Access Control -> Users) works the same way, with its own set of filters: name:, email:, status:, role:, and sort:. Each card shows the filter title, its capability icons, the syntax token, and a short description.
Finally, the Audit Trail list under Tools -> Audit Trail gets the same dialog, where you can filter by category, event name, date, user name, user ID, and correlation ID. Date filters support greater than, less than, and range comparisons, using either the @now operator or the ISO 8601 date time format. Dates without a UTC or time component are parsed in the user's time zone. For example, @2020-01-01..@2020-02-01 matches everything from the start of January until the start of February.
SignalR module
Mike Alhayek introduced a new, reusable SignalR module that centralizes SignalR hub registration, authentication, and backplane configuration (Azure and Redis) for all modules. The Media module now builds on this shared infrastructure instead of carrying its own SignalR startup logic and dependencies, and the documentation and configuration samples were updated to match. Under Tools -> Features, you'll find three SignalR-related features in the Infrastructure group:
- SignalR: Registers SignalR with a camel-cased JSON protocol, the SignalR JavaScript client as a named resource (signalr), and the SignalR authorization policy used by secured hubs.
- SignalR Redis Backplane: Uses Redis as the SignalR backplane, enabling multi-instance deployments. Each tenant's traffic is isolated on a dedicated Redis channel prefix.
- SignalR Azure Backplane: Uses the Azure SignalR Service as the backplane, enabling multi-instance deployments.
For module authors, this means a hub in your own module no longer needs its own SignalR wiring, and scaling out to multiple instances is a configuration choice rather than a code change. Check the module's documentation to see how to declare a hub in another module, which hub options are available, and how to integrate clients, whether it's a Vue/TypeScript app or server-rendered pages.
Demos
New Orchard Core site: Flexstructor
Dave Black presented Flexstructor, a driving lessons application for instructors and learners that uses Orchard Core as a headless CMS. It's available in multiple countries, with Stripe handling payments.
On the technical side, Dave described how they decoupled profiles from user settings, so profiles can use flexible content types and are associated directly with users, with a prompt to create one when it's missing. They adapted a lightweight admin theme and added a plain HTML admin node to organize the menu, with further enhancements and widget integration planned.
The demo also covers the instructor and learner features: granular control over instructor availability and pricing, real-time booking and verification workflows, and location-based matching for learners. Check out the site on Show Orchard, and head to YouTube for the recording to see it in action, including a look under the hood.
If you are interested in more websites using Orchard and Orchard Core, don't forget to visit Show Orchard. Show Orchard is a website that showcases representative Orchard CMS and Orchard Core websites from around the internet. Ryan Drew Burnett started it, but since he no longer works with Orchard, it is now maintained by our team at Lombiq Technologies.
News from the community
Lombiq has a new website
Lombiq's website got a full redesign. It now shows more clearly what we do and which organizations we've worked with.
You may know us for our Orchard Core expertise, but our work goes further: we also provide software audits and technical due diligence, along with data analytics and business intelligence services. We'll soon publish a case study about how we built the site. On Orchard Core, of course.
Take a look at the new site here.
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