Launching a website with Xperience by Kentico: First Impressions

As you may know, Kentico introduced a new product in the middle of 2022 called Xperience by Kentico. My initial reaction was one of surprise—this is nothing like the old Kentico. And I was right; it’s not the Kentico we knew. It’s a completely new Xperience, and it’s truly impressive!

Recently, I came across some buzz about Kentico’s new product launch, which aims to move away from traditional web forms. I was excited but also a bit skeptical. With so many questions on my mind—what if this, what if that, and how would it all work—I was eager to see how Kentico would address these concerns. When the Kentico beta was released, I was excited to test it out and see what it had to offer. Although my first impression didn't quite align with my expectations, I saw potential. While it looked appealing and was well-packaged, it felt quite limited in terms of features. After all, it was still a beta, so this was somewhat expected. It was enough to pique my interest but didn’t provide much to dive deeply into at the time. As new versions rolled out, each one brought improvements. While it still didn’t boast an extensive feature set, it was robust enough to experiment with and develop some intriguing solutions.

With extensive experience working on previous versions of Kentico and managing numerous websites, I found the transition to the new version both challenging and intriguing. Initially, I didn’t have high expectations about jumping into a commercial project right away due to some significant missing features, which led me to believe that widespread adoption might take time. However, as with many things in life, circumstances aligned in unexpected ways. We acquired a new potential client and were offered the chance to gain early access to the new product. Although we were already deep into a project with Kentico 13, the opportunity to explore the new Xperience was too enticing to pass up. So, we decided to give it a try!

During the transition from Kentico 13 to Xperience, we discovered that the differences between the two versions were not as significant as initially anticipated. While many aspects had changed and some out-of-the-box features were absent, only a few components required considerable rework. Most features from the MVC part were relatively easy to migrate, but the CMS presented significant challenges.

The first thing you'll notice when running the new CMS is its lightweight and exceptionally fast performance. While initially there were some features we needed that weren't available, Kentico fulfilled their promises, delivering them before our go-live. Notable additions include advanced features like Lucene search, reusable content type schemas, smart folders, and multilingual support, among others. Those who worked with the early version of Xperience will appreciate these improvements the most. If you haven't experienced it yet, you're missing out. As of the writing of this blog, the current product has significantly improved and matured. With a host of new features and a detailed roadmap, it's easy to stay informed about upcoming enhancements, making it a very useful resource.

For me, the most challenging aspect was developing my first custom module and UI component. The changes were substantial—everything is now decoupled, with numerous UI attributes for Applications, Extenders, Pages, and custom React components. The entire logic has shifted significantly, but the new approach makes perfect sense. Like any new beginning, it can be difficult at first, but the learning curve is manageable. Before long, you'll find yourself adapting to it naturally.

There were times when we doubted whether certain aspects would come together, but the results have been impressive. We faced challenges with site-specific settings for multilingual support, localization of variables and data annotations, as well as the release process involving CI/CD, among other issues. Despite these hurdles, the outcome has been successful, largely due to the considerable customization capabilities the new product provides.

Our first Xperience by Kentico website HT Real Estate went live on July 5th. While it may appear straightforward, there are many features behind the scenes, and being a pioneer in implementing new technologies is always challenging. In recognition of our efforts, Kentico awarded us "Site of the Month" for July 2024, alongside other notable winners from various industries.

We’re excited about the upcoming Kentico upgrades and changes, and we invite you to follow our blog for updates and insights into the customizations we've implemented to keep the website both functional and visually appealing.