Pimcore X takes off!

Pimcore X was released on May 11: The new version offers increased performance and new features for efficient collaboration on product data, digital assets and other content. The long-awaited release of Pimcore X is finally here! The most important news right away: Technologically, the framework has been put on a new, faster footing with the help of the Pimcore community. Pimcore X is more powerful and leaner than all previous versions. The developers achieved this with Symfony 5, PHP 8 and ExtJS 7. As the world's leading PHP framework, Symfony offers the best prerequisites for efficient developments based on Pimcore. This makes the developers in house happy!

The new setup improves the performance of Pimcore in all PIM/MDM, DAM, DXP/CMS and digital commerce solutions. Numerous integrable modules, such as for automated data import, new connectors for automated translation workflows, product data syndication to more than 2,500 marketplaces such as Amazon, Zalando and many more, the integration of Adobe or Microsoft as well as the new Experience Portals expand the already broad performance portfolio in the tenth Pimcore version.

All open source benefits with option for enterprise subscription

In addition to the well-known free Open Source Community Edition with GPL license, Pimcore X is now also available as a paid extension. The advantages of the commercial Pimcore Enterprise Subscription? Access to extensions and connectors and additionally the commercial license gives full legal security and access to SLA support, Customer Success, Consulting and LTS packages.
However, of course, the open source base still offers numerous advantages such as ownership of the technology and full intellectual property protection.

Pimcore Data Importer vs. Blackbit Data Director

Pimcore X speeds up the exchange of data with the new Data Importer. The plugin adds a comprehensive import function to the Pimcore Datahub. Data imports from external sources and targeted transfer to Pimcore objects using configured mappings is now possible. This tool simplifies import and export processes and is available free of charge as open source.

However, compared to Pimcore's Data Importer, Blackbit's Data Director still offers some advantages. Our import and export tool, which will soon be available in version 2.5, comes with numerous additional features and user-oriented optimizations:

Stronger import performance

• Streaming of input files also allows the import of large import files.
• Many optimizations speed up the import of data into Pimcore elements. If no data has been updated, import or save operations are automatically skipped to save time.
• Auto-complete functions to set up imports very quickly.
• Flexible import resource, you can import data from individual files, folders or URLs.
• PHP script for complex requirements, such as importing a CSV file, you need only if a PDF file with the same filename (but different extension) exists in the import folder.
• cURL requests to import data from resources that require authentication; alternatively, of course, you can apply PHP scripts that authenticate and then provide the data to be imported.

Blackbit Data Director is highly compatible. The following file formats are supported for imports and exports:

• CSV
• XML
• JSON
• Excel
• Pimcore elements (data objects, assets, documents)
• Pimcore reports (e.g. to import data from Google Analytics, external databases or other Pimcore database tables)
• File system (e.g., to import assets)

Adaptable, flexible features

• Full flexibility
  For common data transformation use cases, the bundle provides ready-to-use templates. These can of course be modified, including the ability to write your own (PHP or JavaScript) functions to set up transformation pipelines, conditions, etc. for specific fields.
  
• Import object hierarchies
• Option to set up write protection for individual fields: Only import data into a specific field if the field is empty.
• Generate response documents, e.g. to send the success status back to the source system.
• Start imports automatically, e.g. to
  • automatically assign assets to data objects after upload, or
  • automatically start the import for uploaded CSV, JSON, XML, Excel files.
• Trigger imports via push from external systems (via REST API) for live interfaces without exchanging files,
• Traceability: import archive (for import files) and searchable import log history to always know when and why a specific field received a specific value.
• Undo imports: If data loss occurred due to errors, newly imported fields can be reset to a specific date. This is a huge advantage over restoring a database dump, as data from the unimported fields is preserved.
• Dataports are also saved as JSON files.
  Allows tracking of changes via VCS (Git) and easy deployment. Dataport configuration download and import is also supported.
  
• Optimized inheritance function
• Permission system: Differentiated access rights can be configured for each dataport. Configuration and execution rights can be assigned separately for all dataports.
• Import different types of elements:
  • Data objects
  • Assets
  • Documents
  • Quantity value units (incl. conversion factors)
• Integrated interface to translation providers (DeepL, AWS Translate) to set up automatic translations with just one click (incl. caching of previous translations to save costs for recurring strings).
• Artificial intelligence features, e.g. to automatically assign categories based on product name and description.

Advantages over other Pimcore export plugins

• Access to all data associated with exported objects. For example, when exporting products, you can easily access assigned categories, images of assigned categories and even metadata of images of assigned categories - chaining can be extended as needed.
• Full flexibility to set up a transformation pipeline to convert values to the desired format (e.g. date format conversion, conversion of quantity values to specific units, etc.).
• Full flexibility for format and document structure of the export document.
• Predefined export templates to create CSV, XML, JSON exports with or without referenced asset files (e.g. CSV file plus assets (or thumbnails) in a zip archive).
• Perform exports automatically as soon as an object is saved whose data is to be exported:
  • Prepare export as soon as data changes, so data does not need to be loaded the moment an export is requested. This results in very fast exports, since the export document is already available at the moment of the request.
  • Automatically upload exports to a target system to always have up-to-date data there.
  • Automatically send data to other APIs, e.g. online stores, marketplace distributors, etc.
  • Intelligent check for data changes since the last export. If there are no changes, the result document is pulled from the cache.
  • Access to exports via URL, e.g. to pull data feed into an external system.

Pimcore X: Improvements for users and agencies

Apart from its new technological basis, which makes it a real major release, Pimcore X comes up with many other improvements.

• The new Perspectives Editor makes it easier to customize the view on managed data. Custom perspectives can be set up for different groups in the organization without programming.
• Revised AutoSave feature for documents and objects automatically saves changed data.
• The central translation terms tab has been revised to support plural terms in common translations.
• Pimcore X supports the MPEG-DASH standard for adaptive progressive video streaming. Videos are automatically streamed in a universally optimized format.
• Opcache preloading support
• Inheritance improvements
• Faster WebDAV and backend UI for asset previews.
• Easier deployment to the cloud of your choice
• Improved deployment of Pimcore in the cloud
• Simplified deployment of Pimcore applications as data model changes can now be integrated into CI/CD pipelines
• Running Redis in cluster mode (Sentinel) as a cache makes higher availability, simplified maintenance and improved caching performance possible

Departure into a new Pimcore dimension - and Pimcore announces even more ...

Upgrading to Pimcore X should be seamless. By updating to the latest versions of the libraries used, Pimcore 10 is on the cutting edge of technology. Thus, it forms the ideal basis for the further continuous development of new, interesting functions. For in addition to the new features and improvements mentioned, Pimcore promises to add many more new features in the coming months.
We're excited to see what features are still in the pipeline! Blackbit is looking forward to launching with a new, even stronger Pimcore and the digital experiences it will bring to you and us!

If you have any questions about your Pimcore, your options for upgrading to version X, or would like any other support, please feel free to contact us at any time.