brXM V16.9 Release Notes

Overview

brXM version 16.9 introduces new features, technical stack upgrades, and product improvements. This page summarizes the main changes and enhancements in this release. For a complete list of release notes, see the Release Notes Overview.

All features described here are part of Bloomreach Content unless otherwise noted.

Significant Updates and New Features

Folder Limits: Enforcing Repository Performance

Folders with large numbers of items can degrade CMS performance, affecting search, navigation, and publishing operations. Previously, Bloomreach recommended keeping folders under 100 items, but there was no enforcement at the platform level.

Starting with version 16.9.0, Bloomreach Content enforces a default folder item limit of 100. When a folder reaches this limit, editors cannot add more content and are prompted to use subfolders. This restriction applies to all content creation paths, including content imported via the Workflow API. The limit is configurable per environment and can be disabled.

Developer notes:

The limit is enforced in FolderWorkflowImpl, GalleryWorkflowImpl, and TranslationWorkflowImpl.
When the limit is exceeded, a FolderLimitException is thrown and surfaced to editors through the workflow error handling mechanism.
The feature is enabled by default and can be configured in the Console.
For configuration details, see Folder Item Limit Configuration.
For background on recommended folder sizes, see How to structure your data and content.

Taxonomy Performance: Improved Editing and Publishing for Large Taxonomies

The Taxonomy plugin allows CMS administrators to define category trees for content classification. Organizations with large taxonomies have reported slow editing and publishing, impacting editorial workflows.

With this release, editing and publishing large taxonomies is significantly faster. Editors experience improved speed and responsiveness when working with large category trees. Publishing a taxonomy no longer blocks other editors' work, allowing parallel content editing and publishing.

Developer notes:

The performance improvement is based on a new JSON-based storage model. The entire category hierarchy is stored as a single hippotaxonomy:categories binary property on the taxonomy document, replacing individual JCR child nodes per category.
This reduces database operations during taxonomy load and save.
The feature is opt-in and controlled by the taxonomy.json.tree.enabled property on the taxonomy service configuration node.
A TaxonomyJsonMigrator Groovy script is included for migrating existing taxonomies. Migration is one-way and cannot be reverted.
For configuration and migration steps, see JSON Tree Introduction in v16.9.

Ongoing Enhancements and Fixes

End User Improvements

Experience Manager

OpenUI extension dialogs now render at the correct size when opened from within Experience Manager. Previously, dialogs appeared in a very small viewport.

Content Editor

Selected values in multiselect palette fields now display fully, regardless of option label length. Previously, long labels were cut off, making it difficult to confirm selections.

Developer Improvements

Platform and Stability

Periodic handshake retries have been implemented in the CMS application bridge. This resolves intermittent 500 errors caused by timing issues between CMS frontend applications, improving connection resilience under slow or unstable conditions.

Content Model and Configuration

A new configurable MIME type resolution service maps file extensions to all known MIME type variants. This ensures consistent file upload behavior across browsers. Mappings are stored in JCR and changes take effect at runtime without requiring a restart. This replaces the static MimeTypeMapper utility from version 16.8.1.
For configuration details and default mappings, see MIME Type Resolution Configuration.

Bloomreach SPA SDK Updates

SPA SDK 27.2.0 – ImageSet Variant Access

Version 27.2.0 of the SPA SDK adds getVariant() and getVariants() methods to the ImageSet class. These methods allow developers to retrieve custom image variants by name. For full details and code examples, see the SPA SDK 27.2.0 release notes.

Translations Add-on - v8.0.1

This release provides compatibility for brXM 16.7.x.

For more information, see the Translations Add-on documentation.

Upgrade Assistance from Bloomreach Experts

The Bloomreach Professional Services team offers upgrade support for Bloomreach Content projects. The team can assist with upgrading your project to the latest Bloomreach Content version.

An Upgrade Assessment service is available. In three days, the team evaluates your current systems and infrastructure and provides a detailed report covering:

Executive summary
Overview of major changes
Recommended upgrade procedure
Comprehensive list of findings

The evaluation fee is fully refundable if you proceed with Bloomreach Professional Services for the upgrade.

To request upgrade assistance, contact your account manager.

Notices

Repository Node Type Definition (CND) Change

This release introduces the following node type definition change:

Added property hippotaxonomy:categories (binary) to the hippotaxonomy:taxonomy node type.

Important:
Upgrading to 16.9.0 changes the repository structure. You cannot roll back by redeploying the previous distribution or swapping binaries or containers.
To downgrade, you must restore from a full repository backup taken before the upgrade.

Minor Release

Version 16.9 is a minor release and is backward compatible with the previous minor release. Upgrading from the previous minor version requires minimal effort.
For upgrade instructions from v16.8 to v16.9, see the documentation (login required).
For an overview of minor version upgrade instructions, see Upgrade Introduction.

Supported Technologies

System requirements and a table of maintained third-party compatibility are available in the system requirements documentation.

End-of-Life, Support, and Maintained Code

Terminology

Supported product version:
Supported versions receive helpdesk support as described in your service level agreement (SLA). If a bug is found in a supported but not-maintained version, fixes are only applied to maintained versions. To receive a fix, you must upgrade to a maintained version.
Maintained product version:
Maintained versions receive code updates, security fixes, and bug fixes. System requirements for third-party libraries and components are kept up to date. Bloomreach supports only certified system requirement providers.
End-of-life product version:
End-of-life versions are neither maintained nor supported. They may be available from archives but can be removed without notice.

Support Status Table

Version	Planned end date of Standard Support	Planned end date of Premium Plus Support	Original major version release date
Latest 14.x	December 2024	December 2025	December 2019
Latest 15.x	December 2025	December 2026	April 2022
Latest 16.x	December 2026	December 2027	June 2024

Supported versions may vary depending on contractual agreements. Versions not listed are not active, not supported, and considered end-of-life.
Versions highlighted in orange are actively maintained and receive bug fixes and product improvements.

Security Notes

This release updates third-party dependencies with published vulnerabilities. Keep your systems up to date with announced product releases.

Availability

brXM version 16.9 is available as of April 9, 2026. The open source release will be available approximately two years later, in accordance with the release policy.