Darren Farley, technical writer from Sitecore wrote me answers to some of my questions on upcoming features.
About 3 databases
The new version of Sitecore has significantly less databases than in previous versions. Previous versions had 7 now there are only 3. The Core, Master and Web Databases are the only databases in the latest version of Sitecore.
The “Sitecore” and “Extranet” security databases were removed as they are now handled by the .NET security model and stored in standard tables.
The “Archive” and “Recycle bin” databases were removed as each database now has its own internal archive and recycle bin storage areas. The archive and recycle bin have also been enhanced to contain a search facility similar to the content editor.
He also wrote something about “Page Editor“
The old “WebEdit” has been completely replaced with in-line editing. This feature, called the “Page Editor”, brings a whole new level of functionality and ease of use to the web site. In its simplest form it will allow users with limited It skills to directly edit text and images on a web page directly without any knowledge of Sitecore architecture, whilst in the background all the items, workflow procedures and security that goes into editing items within the Sitecore framework are all still followed. Items still get locked and unlocked, and an item will move through a workflow in the same manner as if it was being edited in the Content Editor.
Branch Templates and Command Templates, this is completely new for me.
What was referred to in Sitecore 5 as “Templates” are now called “Data Templates” in Sitecore 6. Assigning a data template to an item means that content authors will be allowed to create items directly from the assigned template. To further expand the functionality of templates and facilitate the removal of Masters Sitecore has created two new template types. The first is the Branch Template, which allows the creation of a whole series of items to create a part of a content tree when item creation is invoked. The second is Command Templates which allows a class and method to be called to invoke a programmed operation to be performed during item creation ( i.e. invoking a wizard to collect data).
More info about ASP.NET security on Sitecore six
Sitecore 6 replaces the standard Sitecore security model with the .NET security model. This provides the security infrastructure with a variety of enhancements, which are:
· The standard ASP.NET way of handling security.
· The ability to use plug and play security providers from Microsoft.
· Abstraction of data from the real data source.
· An easy option to replace or extend the default configuration with your own custom security providers.
· The possibility of using several providers simultaneously and thus keeping the accounts in identifiable storage areas.
The security model has been enhanced to allow roles in roles, a feature that is not available in the standard .NET security model.
These enhancements serve to allow the security of the Sitecore client to handle a lot more users, roles and domains than previously. Along with the new feature of roles in roles this serves to allow for scalability enhancements to support large scale security repositories.
I started to use color themes in VS.NET 2005 (after reading Hanselman post about it) and I really liked more dark color than default white. It is somehow easier for eye, imho.
![Terminal Theme for Gmail [PIC]](http://i33.tinypic.com/2hyuypl.jpg){kind=link}