Changes & Improvements

Release Notes of Structr Version 6

See the history of Structrs evergrowing evolving in our release notes stream. Find detailed changes and feature improvements.

December 17th 2025 Version 6.0.1

Changes between 6.0.1 and 6.0.0

Structr 6.0.1 is a maintenance release that includes important bugfixes and documentation improvements.

Bugfixes

Core
  • Flow Execution: Fixed typo in flow execution method that could cause execution issues
  • Docker Configuration: Fixed sed --in-place failing on Docker-mounted config files, which caused duplicate entries and value concatenation on container restarts
  • URL Path Handling: Fixed URL path handling for Structr instances running on non-root paths
  • Working Directory: Restored working directory correctly after operations
Polyglot/Multi-Language Support
  • Context Locking: Fixed issue with context locking in scheduled jobs when exceptions occur
  • PolyglotFilesystem: Fixed various small bugs in PolyglotFilesystem
  • Python Support: Added python hint provider to prevent log spam on every keystroke
  • Token Handling: Added null check for lastToken to prevent potential null pointer exceptions

Enhancements

User Interface
  • Tab State Persistence: Enabled storage of active tab for each element with automatic localStorage cleanup to prevent indefinite growth
  • Documentation Navigation: Enabled back/forward navigation in documentation area
  • File List Display: Dynamically hide columns in files area depending on viewport width for better mobile/responsive experience
  • Type Inheritance: For overridden builtin types, show inherited properties in corresponding tab
File Handling
  • Direct File Writing: Added support for writing directly to a file node instead of OutputStream only
Permissions
  • Video Files: Added permission propagation to the POSTER_IMAGE relationship between VideoFile and Image, fixed relationship endpoints

Documentation

New Documentation
  • Fulltext Search: Added comprehensive documentation and examples for searchFulltext() function
  • Virtual Types: Added more information to virtual types documentation
  • Mail Templates: Enhanced mail templates documentation with additional details
  • Migration Guide: Added entries to migration guide for version 6.0
Documentation Improvements
  • Function Signatures: Updated signatures for sendPlaintextMail(), functionInfo(), and error() functions
  • Code Examples: Fixed mult() example in code documentation
  • Usage Documentation: Minor fix in usage documentation of find.contains()
  • Methods Section: Updated section regarding methods
  • Mail Template Names: Fixed mail template names (underscores were interpreted as markdown)
  • Version Organization: Moved outdated documentation to a subsection “Older versions”
  • References Chapter: Updated markdown files for References chapter
  • General Fixes: Fixed various minor issues and in-docs links
  • Content Updates: Changed content to better reflect Structr’s capabilities with improved formatting
Testing
  • Test Updates: Fixed tests by hosting example page on structr.org
  • Function Properties: Added test for function property sorting, fixed some issues in FunctionProperty

Quality of Life

Code Quality
  • Logging: Improved logging and enabled native logging output for polyglot contexts
  • Error Messages: Updated error message from “does not exist” to “not found” for consistency
  • Tokenizer: Silenced StructrScript tokenizer when generating hints to eliminate warning messages in the log
  • Naming: Renamed “declaring class” to “declaring trait” for better terminology

Upgrade Notes:

  • This is a maintenance release with no breaking changes
  • Recommended for all Structr 6.0.0 users
  • See the migration guide for general Structr 6.0 upgrade information

December 8th 2025 Version 6.0.0

Changes between 6.0.0 and 5.2.1

Overview

Structr 6.0.0 is a major release featuring a complete architectural overhaul with the new Traits System, migration to GraalVM 25 / JDK 24, Jetty 12, significant performance improvements, and a modernized user interface. This release includes breaking changes that require migration steps for existing applications.

Breaking Changes

Architecture
  • Traits System: Complete rewrite of the type system using traits instead of Java class inheritance. Dynamic schema classes are now static Java code with trait-based composition.
  • Static Schema Migration: Most dynamic schema classes moved back to static Java code
  • Removed Dynamic Java Code Generation: NodeExtender and related classes removed
Removed Features
  • GraphQL Support: Completely removed (was based on outdated graphql-java v12)
  • Content Area: Removed entirely (ContentItem, ContentContainer)
  • Crawler Module: Removed
  • Working Sets: Removed
  • Edit Mode Binding: Legacy edit-mode-binding removed in favor of Event Action Mapping
  • Windows Support: Removed Windows-related scripts and start.cmd
  • R Integration: Removed R references (not available in Graal)
Removed Functions & Properties
  • batch() function removed (use doInNewTransaction() instead)
  • keys() and values() functions removed (use Object.keys() and Object.values())
  • slice() expression removed from StructrScript
  • validate_email() function removed (use is_valid_email())
  • restQuery property removed from DOMNode (use functionQuery)
  • debug() function removed
  • includeAsJavaScript attribute for files removed
  • includeJs function removed (use actual JavaScript imports)
  • xpathQuery, hideOnIndex, hideOnDetail, renderDetails properties removed
API Changes
  • All built-in functions renamed to camelCase (backwards compatibility conversion provided)
  • Resource access “grants” renamed to “permissions”
  • Method parameter handling changed for REST calls
  • set() function: third call-style removed
Configuration
  • memory.config renamed to memory.conf (graceful fallback with deprecation warning)
  • Default upload folder changed to /._structr_uploads
  • Removed settings for deployment servlet anonymous deployments
  • Removed force-arrays setting

Major New Features

Traits System
  • Complete type system rewrite using trait-based composition
  • Multiple inheritance support through traits
  • Improved schema flexibility and extensibility
  • Service Classes: New concept for stateless service types that cannot be instantiated
Integrated Documentation
  • Built-in documentation system with searchable content
  • Inline documentation for all built-in functions
  • Documentation for system types, lifecycle methods, and services
  • Autocomplete hints from system types documentation
  • Keyboard shortcut Ctrl+K for documentation search
Event Action Mapping Enhancements
  • Flow (FlowContainer) selector in EAM dialog
  • Confirmation dialog feature for Event Mapping
  • Two-factor authentication support
  • Custom event names support
  • CSS class structr-action-running automatically added during action execution
  • Events structr-action-started and structr-action-finished dispatched on trigger elements
Page Paths & URL Routing
  • Dynamic paths for pages (PagePath objects)
  • URL routing dialog in UI
  • Methods callable via configurable HTTP verbs (GET, POST, etc.)
  • Private methods support
Fulltext Search
  • New fulltext indexing using Neo4j fulltext indexes
  • searchFulltext() and searchRelationshipsFulltext() functions
  • Fulltext search UI in files area with context display
User-Defined Functions
  • Global schema methods renamed to “user-defined functions”
  • Static methods callable via cron
  • Function signatures with method overloading support
  • functionInfo() built-in function for method introspection
New Built-in Functions
  • login() – Programmatically sign in a user
  • is_valid_uuid() – Validate UUID format
  • is_valid_email() – Email validation
  • createFolderPath() – Create folder hierarchies
  • searchFulltext() / searchRelationshipsFulltext() – Fulltext search
  • rollbackTransaction() – Manual transaction rollback
  • addLabels() / removeLabels() – Neo4j label management
  • set_log_level() – Runtime log level configuration
  • functionInfo() – Get method information
Performance Improvements
  • Transaction-based caching with prefetching replaces global node cache
  • Optimized HTML/DOM rendering performance
  • Improved prefetching for user authentication and permission propagation
  • Better handling of large data deployment exports
  • Optimized websocket commands
  • Reduced database queries through caching of user-defined functions

Security Enhancements

Upload Servlet Security
  • Default upload folder enforced to be non-empty
  • Write permissions required for parent/parentId targeting
  • uploadFolderPath restricted to authenticated users under default folder
  • Non-whitelisted properties blocked during file upload
Other Security
  • Server-side request forgery (SSRF) protection via whitelisting in HttpHelper
  • ZIP slip vulnerability fix in SyncCommand
  • Updated encrypt()/decrypt() functions to use more secure mode
  • Read-protection for configuration keys containing secrets
  • Bouncycastle updated to 1.81

User Interface Improvements

Schema Editor
  • Pan and zoom functionality (mouse wheel, middle-mouse drag)
  • Trait inheritance arrows displayed
  • Built-in types and relationships visible
  • Improved node selection and movement
  • Layout save/restore functionality
  • “Hide selected types” functionality
Code Area
  • Code navigation / “Go to definition”
  • Bulk edit mode improvements
  • Method parameters in run dialog
  • Usage examples with copy buttons
  • Monaco editor settings (auto-closing brackets/quotes, auto-surround)
  • Customizable monospace font/size
Dashboard
  • HTTP request statistics display
  • Available processors and memory info
  • Deployment wizard
  • Improved vis.js integration with drag/zoom
  • Update messages for script jobs
Data Section
  • Improved array type handling in create/edit dialogs
  • Date/DateTime picker improvements
  • ZonedDateTime support
  • Better handling of large array attributes
  • Column sort order persistence
General UI
  • Notification system with bell icon and message count
  • User settings for auto-removing time-limited notifications
  • SSO login buttons in login dialog
  • Configurable UI settings reset
  • Improved popup dialogs (grid-based layout)
  • Custom confirmation dialogs

Dependency Updates

Runtime
  • GraalVM: Upgraded to version 25.0.0 / JDK 24
  • Jetty: Migrated to Jetty 12
  • Neo4j: Support for Neo4j 2025
Libraries
  • Apache Commons Lang3: 3.18.0
  • Apache Commons Compress: Security update
  • Logback: 1.5.20
  • Bouncycastle: 1.81
  • Geotools: 32.4
  • vis.js: Latest version
  • Monaco Editor: 0.51
  • Various other dependency updates for security and compatibility

Configuration Changes

New Settings
  • structr.conf settings for heap and timezone configuration
  • Email validation regex configurable
  • FTP passive mode port range configuration
  • exec()/exec_binary() command logging configuration
  • Auto-closing brackets/quotes for Monaco editor
  • Default log level configuration
  • UUID format settings (compact/dashed/both)
Removed Settings
  • GraphQL servlet configuration
  • Legacy OAuth classes
  • Deployment servlet anonymous access
  • Various deprecated settings

Notable Bug Fixes

  • Fixed memory leak in scripting contexts
  • Fixed session timeout issues
  • Fixed thumbnail generation for images with alpha channel
  • Fixed permission propagation query performance
  • Fixed websocket initialization timing
  • Fixed circular group hierarchy resolution
  • Fixed cascading delete implementation
  • Fixed LDAP group configuration
  • Fixed deployment export/import for various edge cases
  • Fixed ransomware-style file recovery issues
  • Fixed email configuration problems

Migration Guide

Before Upgrading
  1. Backup your database and deployment exports
  2. Review breaking changes above
  3. Test in a staging environment first
Function Name Changes

All built-in functions now use camelCase. A backwards compatibility layer is provided, but you should update your code:

// Old (deprecated)
get_or_create(...)
to_json(...)

// New
getOrCreate(...)
toJson(...)
restQuery Migration

The restQuery property has been removed. Migrate to functionQuery:

// Old
$.restQuery('/api/users')

// New  
$.functionQuery('find', 'User')
Traits System

Custom types now use traits. The migration is handled automatically, but review your schema after upgrade for any issues with:

  • Multiple inheritance
  • Abstract properties
  • Method overriding
Configuration File

Rename memory.config to memory.conf to avoid deprecation warnings.

Documentation

The integrated documentation system provides comprehensive coverage of:

  • All built-in functions with examples
  • System types and their properties
  • Lifecycle methods
  • Services and configuration
  • Migration notes for 6.x

Access via Ctrl+K in the Structr UI or the documentation icon.

Contributors

Thanks to all contributors who made this release possible through code contributions, bug reports, and documentation improvements.

Full Changelog

For the complete list of almost 1,600 commits between 5.2.1 and 6.0.0, see the git log or GitHub compare view.