https://github.com/elmsln/issues/issues/1809

CHANGELOG.md

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 # HAXcms change log
 
+## 8.0.0 - 23-12-21
+This is a pretty massive update in perspection of quality of the system. Since Version 7 released in June, there have been 291 issues closed that are in this release!
+Major improvements in UX associated with Merlin. Merlin is starting to consolidate the UX of working with files and types and getting content streamlined in integration with HAX.
+This release also starts unlocking several new types of sites that we've expressed as possible for years but have not visualized via design.
+It adds a new concept in theming called "Regions" which are very easy to implement going forward.
+
+- Documentation / Community Improvements
+  - Monthly team meetings and Bi-monthly User meetings now take place
+  - New community documentation and excellence in teaching resource established via HAXcellence: https://oer.hax.psu.edu/bto108/sites/haxcellence/
+  - Site contains tutorials, Pedagogical articles, videos, community stances / pillars, experiments and more
+  - https://www.youtube.com/@haxtheweb associated YouTube channel just for the project
+- Merlin Improvements
+  - User scaffolding improvements to better understand what you are trying to do and suggest actions accordingly
+  - User Scaffolding runs in the background now and sets the stage for more intelligent processing and decision trees in the future
+  - Merlin is now an "omnibar" in that it is immediately visible, present, and easy to understand what it does
+  - Ability to import DocX, HTML and Markdown based content by dropping onto Merlin to rapidly insert HTML or build new pages
+- Theming / Page capabilities:
+  - Regions now possible in theme layer via site-region tag which works off of the site.json schema. Regions can also be set via the Site Settings buttton
+  - better mobile support across all themes
+  - Email page capability added to a few designs
+  - page-break now includes possible icon, description, tags, image, ability to not appear in menus and relatedNodes. This information can all be used with smart-collection type but also some themes start implementing these capabilities in their design (namely Collections and Blog theme)
+- New content blocks added:
+  - play-list for slide-show type material that provides options for scrolling between items. Great for image galleries but works with any block type as it is a grid
+  - collection-item / collection-list / smart-collection
+- New themes added to overworld:
+  - "Polaris" - a typical Brochure-ware / small project advertisement site. This is based on a popular and simple WP theme.
+  - "Blog" - maturation of a design we already had which has been optimized for blogging. This is inspired by a popular blogging site.
+  - "Training" - a more on-rails / intentionally limited experience of pacing through material in a linear order. This is inspired by google code labs.
+  - "Collection" - a theme intented to optimize usage of the new collection blocks. It is designed to be a simple Brochure-ware site developed originally by Eberly College of Science to promote OER offerings in their college, it now can be used to build similar sites for anyone.
+- Miscilaneous
+  - Bug fixes to back end as far as saving content, schema validation and updating rss / sitemaps when new content added
+  - Better SEO support via tags injected by backend based version of HAXcms but also  via Google Analytics support in site.json
+  - Performance improvements on front-end via Lit 3.x and Lit Virtualizer implementations
+
+## 7.0.0 - 23-06-01
+Merlin added for a more inteligent way of working with the system and discovering new functionality. Merlin consolidates many UX patterns into one making it easier to work with the system.
+
+- Over 370 features, bug fixes, and enhancements since HAX 6 (Jan '23)
+- Overhauled block discovery system. See preview on hover, easily expand and collapse logical groupings of elements
+- Merlin - A command discovery agent that allows you to type and discover functionality, search for media, search with your voice, suggest community improvements, insert blocks, and much, much more!
+- More unified authoring experience - menus slide in gracefully to indicate editing mode changes, authoring tools all grouped in one location, menus look and feel unified and the inputs for editing blocks in context have all been reviewed to improve their usability and ease of understanding.
+- Dark mode and enhanced mobile support for viewing AND authoring
+- Lots of new block types for instructional design including inline audio, multiple choice, mark the words, "learning component", page types, worksheet downloads and more!
+- Additional blocks including audio players, spotify embed, twitter embed, author "page flag" notes, collapsed fieldsets!
+- Performance - This version of HAX loads even faster than previous iterations at all levels. Sites load faster, pages load faster, larger sites load faster, and the editor loads faster with less resources with extensive testing and support for low performance / connectivity devices and environments
+- Ground work laid for the team to begin building out HAXCellence - A resource for teaching excellence with HAX. Learn more about this work in progress effort to make HAX the ultimate instructional design and development backed platform -- https://oer.hax.psu.edu/bto108/sites/haxcellence/ontology
+
 ## 6.0.0 - 2022-12-20
 Features as related from our new Request Intake process
 - [video-player] full-screen / sticky corner bugs #1063

VERSION.txt

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-7.0.18
+8.0.0