SPE 8.0 “Wayward Son” is here and it is a big one. This release packs 7 new features, 30 improvements, and 30 bug fixes - all shaped by the community that makes SPE what it is.
I know this announcement is long overdue. The release itself shipped a while back, but the blog you are reading this on has just been reborn. After years on WordPress, the SPE blog now lives on GitHub Pages as a static Hugo site - faster, cheaper, and fully open. It felt right to celebrate that re-launch by finally giving 8.0 the proper write-up it deserves.
What’s new
Multi-tab ISE
The most requested feature is finally real. You can now open multiple scripts simultaneously in one ISE window, with a tree-based library navigation panel on the left side. No more juggling windows to cross-reference scripts.
SPE Rule Conditions
A new rule condition system lets you control when and where scripts execute. Combined with context script visibility rules based on App settings and template inheritance, you get fine-grained control over which scripts appear for which contexts.
Script Libraries Tree View
Browse your script libraries in a convenient tree view. When you have dozens of scripts organized across libraries, this makes navigation significantly easier.
Variable Preview
Hold Ctrl to preview non-cached variable values without running the full script. A small quality-of-life improvement that saves time during development and debugging.
Deferred Sheer Messaging
New support for deferred Sheer messaging and JavaScript execution opens up possibilities for more responsive script-driven UIs.
PowerShell Script Runner Dialog
The Script Runner dialog can now return results as dialog values, making it easier to chain script interactions and capture user input programmatically.
Notable improvements
Out of the 30 improvements in this release, a few stand out:
- Standardized enriched item properties across all retrieval methods - no more inconsistencies depending on how you got the item.
- Wildcard support at any path level for path completion and enumeration. Tab-complete through deep trees with ease.
- Extended
Find-Itemwith accelerator parameters for common search criteria. - Case-insensitive path completion - because nobody should have to remember exact casing of Sitecore paths.
- Select/Un-select all in ListView reports.
Clear-Host(cls) support in the ISE console.- Improved file upload error reporting - uploads that previously failed silently now tell you what went wrong.
- jQuery and Underscore.js updates for security.
- Enhanced broken links report performance.
- Rendering parameters support in remoting scenarios.
Bug fixes
30 bugs squashed in this release. Among the more impactful ones:
- Fixed orphaned item event execution in PowerShell sessions.
- Resolved “Stack is null or empty” errors during
Publish-Itemoperations. - Corrected
Add-Renderingparameter handling in remoting contexts. - Fixed
Export-User,Export-Role,Login-User, andLogout-Usercommands. - Resolved multiple Module Event Handler Rules conflicts.
- Fixed ISE search functionality (the “Scripts Containing” plugin).
- Fixed
AccessDeniedExceptionin file upload dialogs. - Resolved runspace availability issues.
- Fixed ListView double-click default action execution.
Download
Grab the release from GitHub:
Docker images are available for ltsc2022, ltsc2019, and 1809.
File hashes
IAR (Items as Resources)
- ZIP:
08E50EB57D00AC0F1861985AA97C154B916D3FA219457A609B6D0E2E02FD7EFF - SCWDP:
C373CDF49360D3A4E3023FDA5F9BACD110E73A01A508BDD631F255C9FBEBA7EA
Standard
- ZIP:
F7837A2317D04EA402C5C84D4398E0AC472302262AA118318D8329D4228A84C5 - SCWDP:
A5EF5730751C325AA21F69081DF8F50A8E18E4BCE5A2F41ABE0134E23352314C
Thank you
This release would not have happened without the community. Special thanks to Michael West for keeping SPE alive and the community supported while I was away, and to Alan Plocieniak for QA automation and catching those last-minute bugs. Thanks also to VML for enabling my return to engineering.
And to all the contributors who shaped this release - Antonytm, Krusen, lundebro, alan-null, coreyasmith, simoncroak, mrvinaykj, stanislavSV, and everyone else - thank you. SPE is a community project and 8.0 proves that more than ever.
Here’s to SPE, to the community, and to this blog’s new home. Carry on.