Introduction
Recently, Khoros unveiled a game-changing update to the industry-leading Khoros Community solution, ushering in a new era of transformative capabilities to elevate the delivery of exceptional community experiences.
The updated version of Khoros Communities, called Aurora, supports the same level of customization available in the past, with a range of new enhancements that render the platform more flexible, scalable, and adaptable to each community’s unique needs.
This next-generation community software simplifies the setup and customization process with intuitively designed page templates and robust tools that enable community managers to make changes to page design, navigation, and more — all without the need for custom code.
Along with these enhanced tools, the underlying platform has undergone a significant evolution, making it faster and more developer-friendly for building custom components and integrations.
Key Updates and Enhancements
Take a moment to explore a few of the latest advanced features and capabilities in the new version of Khoros Communities.
API-first, headless platform
To understand how Khoros Communities is now simultaneously more powerful for developers and simpler for managers and moderators, it’s important to note one of the biggest changes to its structure, which is the separation of the web application from the backend platform.
This substantial change means that everything built in the new version of Khoros Communities — like administrator settings, permissions management, ranks, and badges — now uses an API built on a robust GraphQL layer.
This API-first approach not only increases flexibility for what can be customized in the app, but it also increases flexibility for where community experiences can be integrated. Put another way: when every feature is accessible via an API, every feature has the potential to be modified or integrated with another application or digital property (like a native mobile app or web page, for example).
This API-first approach empowers developers to seamlessly implement a brand community into various digital touchpoints across the customer journey. In doing so, they can build custom experiences in applications like websites and mobile apps, extending overall community reach and impact.
Next-level development framework
Another critical enhancement in the Aurora update is the adoption of a GraphQL framework as the query language for all APIs. This solution is consistent across the entire user interface, giving external developers the same backend experience used to create Khoros Communities’ built-in features.
The updated approach to data querying and distribution was made to expand a community's capabilities, providing a faster, more versatile experience for users.
The GraphQL framework also enables richer customizations that support all the user interfaces, expanding beyond the limitations of the previous REST API.
In terms of performance, GraphQL is far more efficient than the legacy REST API used in Khoros Community Classic. One reason for this is its ability to batch multiple server queries into a single call, reducing the number of round trips and minimizing over-fetching. Another reason is that GraphQL was purpose-built to work efficiently with React — the new language underlying the front-facing Aurora web app.
Streamlined developer flow
Finally, Khoros Communities’ streamlined developer flow makes everything faster and easier for developers.
With the updated version of Khoros Communities, developers can perform a number of activities that reduce both the time and effort it takes to develop and implement custom code. The streamlined workflow allows developers to:
- Work on multiple developer branches at once
- Synchronize Production data to Stage at any time
- Create and update custom components via Handlebars or React
- Work in branches and preview their changes without impacting production
- Preview changes live without needing to commit or merge
Conclusion
While Khoros Communities’ powerful new design tools allow many custom experiences to be replicated with out-of-the-box configuration instead of custom coding, the platform continues to support the same exceptional level of customization as before.
With the Aurora update, the backend platform for Khoros Communities has become even more robust, flexible, and heavily customizable. Innovations in the front-facing app have also made communities much simpler to set up, design, and modify without code changes.
The new version of Khoros Community is built on the same backend data architecture as Community Classic, ensuring a smooth transition for existing customers. However, users with customizations on the front end may require some additional work to move to the updated platform.
Get up-to-speed on the Aurora update with our Getting Started Guides, take a tour of Aurora, or view our training and support resources on the Community Atlas page.
