What's changed in Aurora from Community Classic
This article captures some of the high-level changes (terminology, features, and concepts) that have changed (or will be changing) in Aurora from Community Classic.
Terminology changes
For Aurora, we have updated several terms that were previously used in Community Classic.
- Kudos are now called Likes.
- Subscriptions are now called Follows.
- Discussion Styles are now called Content Types. Content Types is the collective term used to describe the different types of boards community supports (forums, knowledge bases, blogs, etc.).
- Group Hubs are now called Groups.
- Tags and labels have been combined are now just all called Tags. There are two types of tags (preset and freeform).
Tool changes and enhancements
- The site-building tool Studio has been replaced with Designer and Dev Tools.
- In Aurora Designer, you can edit your site’s Theme and manage Page Templates. In a future release, you'll also use this area to manage Email Templates and text strings.
- In the Dev Tools, you will find the tools needed to develop and customize your site.
- The Content Editor has been enhanced with several new features and meets accessibility requirements. Auto-save is enabled by default for all content types.
- Members have access to full version history of content with the ability to Delete, Edit, Compare, and Restore versions.
- Integration with Unsplash image libraries for Blog cover images and Page Template sections.
- Community Analytics is no longer a separate tool and now is built into the Community application.
Where did it go?
Not sure where something moved to? Here’s a list of some of the bigger things that have moved to a new place in Aurora:
- Admin Settings: Several of the settings pages have been simplified (or removed) and grouped differently. Settings pages that used to be in the “Community Admin” or “Admin” area are now available under Settings. Each card (tab) groups related settings into a new page. As we continue to build out more Aurora features, more cards/tabs will be added to the Settings area.
- Content Management Areas: Most content-related management tasks (find and edit drafts, review and manage reported abusive content, Spam Quarantine, and Moderation) are now performed from the Manage Content space:
Developer Experience
Aurora is built on the philosophy that internal and external developers should have access to the same development tools, empowering everyone involved with your community's user experience while providing a seamless, simple, and powerful SDK to help you get the most our of Khoros Communities.
Why React?
We chose React to power the web layer of our technology stack because of its ubiquitous nature and powerful built-in toolset. React, coupled with React Bootstrap, offers developers the ability to create powerful customizations to the user interface without losing out on the popular Bootstrap DLS that has been a part of the success of Khoros Communities over the years.
Add the powerful Apollo Client state management library makes takes the communication between your React components and your community's data to the next level. It provides GraphQL call management, a catchable data store that monitors and responds to data updates.
This update gives developers a better toolkit without taking away some of the most popular time-saving capabilities our developer community has come to appreciate.
Why GraphQL?
GraphQL is the query language for all of Aurora's APIs. This solution is consistent across our entire user interface, giving external developers the same backend experience we use to create Aurora's built-in features.
REST API served us well in Khoros Communities for many years, but in Aurora, we wanted to give developers access to a more precise, flexible, and capable API to make data more accessible across the board.
Where communities once relied on custom REST endpoints or multiple individual calls to retrieve necessary data, GraphQL can handle multiple operations at one time, and return only the data you need when you need it.
