The 6.1.4 release is a maintenance release which includes usability, security and performance improvements.
Cross Platform Time Zone Support
Time zone support was introduced in Oqtane 6.1.3 however it was discovered after release that the solution did not function as expected when running on WebAssembly. It turns out that cross-platform time zone support in modern .NET is far more challenging than expected, as Windows uses its own proprietary time zone format whereas other platforms use the standardized IANA Time Zone Database (TZ) format. As a result, in Oqtane 6.1.4 we have adopted IANA Time Zones exclusively and are utilizing the NodaTime library for retrieving the list of time zones in a consistent format and for performing date/time conversions. The time zones are sorted in order by time zone offset and the display names can be localized using the standard approach.
SMTP OAuth2 Authentication
For those who are not aware, Microsoft previously announced that it will stop supporting SMTP Basic Authentication by September 2025. So for those who are still utilizing Office365 or Exchange for SMTP services, you will need to either migrate to a different SMTP provider, or configure your environment to use OAuth2. In order to support OAuth2, Oqtane 6.1.4 has migrated from System.Net.Mail to MailKit and included some new SMTP configuration options in Site Settings. Please note that enabling OAuth2 for SMTP using Microsoft's online tools can be a complex IT process, so we encourage you to do your homework before making the transition.
User Email Verification
Oqtane uses the standard .NET Identity system for self-hosted authentication. Traditionally, the framework was configured to use RequireConfirmedEmail in SignIn options, which means that self-registered users need to follow an email verification workflow before they are allowed to sign in to a site. In Oqtane 6.1.4, a new User Setting has been introduced which allows an Administrator to specify their preference for each Site.
In addition, when Email Verification is required, it is possible that a user who registers does not complete the email verification process in a timely manner. This means they will not be able to sign in... and they will also not be able to verify their account as the link in the verification email is only valid for a limited period of time. In order to mitigate this scenario, Oqtane 6.1.4 will automatically send a new email verification message to the user when it recognizes during sign in that they are registered but not verified.
Permission Grid
The permission grid UI component in Oqtane provides the ability to configure resource access for specific roles and users. Traditionally the component would only perform validation when the user chose to save their changes. This would sometimes result in a difference between what the user selected and what the system actually accepted, which could lead to confusion about system behavior. In Oqtane 6.1.4 the permission grid was enhanced to allow users to only make valid interactive selections.
Security
This release has been upgraded to the latest .NET SDK version 9.0.7 which includes security patches for any issues identified in prior .NET 9 SDK releases from Microsoft. It also includes updates to Bootstrap 5.3.7 as well as the latest versions of SixLabors.ImageSharp, Swashbuckle.AspNetCore, MySql.Data, HtmlAgilityPack, MailKit, and NodaTime.
Open Source
To date, the open source project has recorded over 3000 pull requests from 58 contributors and has published 56 official releases, which ranks it among the most active open source projects within the .NET Foundation. The Oqtane framework continues to evolve at a rapid pace to meet the needs of the .NET community. The 6.1.4 release is available for download on Github and is running in production at https://www.oqtane.org, https://www.blazorcms.net, and https://www.blazorkit.net.
Time Zone support is a great addition. Thanks!