Apostrophe 4.23.0: Layout Widget (Beta), Enhanced Widget Operations, and Improved Astro Integration

Hello Apostrophe Community—

Apostrophe 4.23.0 introduces a new beta layout UI, expanded widget customization, and stronger Astro integration.

Layout Widget (Beta)
The new layout widget is a CSS grid system that lets editors create and adjust responsive column layouts directly on the page. Columns can be added, resized, or rearranged through intuitive drag-and-drop. Visibility can be customized per breakpoint, and alignment is configurable per column.

Editors gain freedom to build layouts without developer help, while developers can focus on higher-value work. Apostrophe Pro users can pair this with the Section Template Library to save reusable layout templates.

This feature is in beta, and feedback is encouraged before the stable release. It also sets the stage for future AI-assisted layout generation. See full details in the documentation and share feedback via the roadmap or Discord.

Enhanced Widget Operations
Developers can now use placement: 'breadcrumb' to add custom operations to a widget’s breadcrumb menu, expanding control over content workflows. Combined with conditional menu logic and previous operation APIs, the editing UI is more flexible and extensible than ever.

Improved Astro Integration
Astro continues to mature as a first-class frontend for ApostropheCMS.
– The REST API now supports render-areas for section template previews in Astro projects.
– The @apostrophecms/apostrophe-astro package adds dedicated components for layout widgets (LayoutWidget.astro, LayoutColumnWidget.astro, and AposRenderAreaForAstro), ensuring complex widgets render correctly and with full feature parity.

These updates make ApostropheCMS even more effective as a headless CMS with Astro.

Section Template Library Now Stable
The Section Template Library, previously in beta, is now production-ready. This Pro extension lets editors save any widget as a reusable template, offering quick-start layouts and reducing blank-page friction. Available to Pro and Assembly license holders.

Additional Improvements
– Manager modals now include a locale picker for easier multilingual navigation.
– Widget controls are now sticky, staying visible for tall widgets.
– Case-insensitive login support is available via a new caseInsensitive option and migration tool.
– Color field presets display directly in-field.
– Image widget sizing now respects aspect ratio settings.
– Area templates now support contextual styling via aposStyle, aposClassName, aposParentOptions, and aposAttrs, letting parent widgets influence nested areas.
– Security updates applied across Pro modules, replacing outdated dependencies.

Update projects with npm update and share feedback on the roadmap.

Happy coding! 🚀

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