There was a message today on the CMS newsgroups implying that the Telerik CMS Editor Control would soon not be supported and a new v2 version would be released that would be chargeable. Let me explain the roadmap and assure everyone that there will be a continued evolution of the free Editor control.

There will be a new v2 version but it is not the intention to abandon users of this control - it will be FREE for all CMS users!

The key major improvement will be to use at its core the new Telerik r.a.d.Editor 4.0 Regular Edition. The effect of this will be to improve all dialogs. This will solve not only usability but performance problems as well. CMS authors with large Resource Galleries will be able to browse content folder by folder and won't have to wait for everything to get loaded on the client. Also, this will add some nice features like the ability to preview Windows Media and Flash files in the dialog, zoom in and zoom out for images.

Other likely improvements include:

• Add a new Windows XP style layout and make the toolbar and other elements even slicker
• Improvements in Bulleted/Numbered list functionality
• Minor improvements such as the addition of a convenient context menu for links
• Fix outstanding bugs

Telerik are keen that the upgrade to v2 is as smooth as possible and so will release a beta v2 around the end of October / beginning of November. I'll blog later when the beta program is open.

Let us share one other plan for something that will be chargeable but will not happen until after CMS Editor Control V2. Telerik are working on developing the "r.a.d.controls suite for MCMS" - this will be a package of their components that have been extended to be driven by CMS configuration and content. This suite will include a Premium version of the CMS Editor Control.

Anyone wanting to discuss this further / provide feedback should join the peer discussion group at http://groups.msn.com/cmseditor