It's been a while since our last major release, and there's a reason for that. As a small team, we made a choice: ship incremental updates and write about them constantly, or focus that energy on building a better product.
Version 2.0 introduces the Exhibition Builder: a full-featured system for creating and publishing digital exhibitions directly from your collection data. It's the tool we've been building toward since we started Objects & Order.
Your exhibition content and collection data work together seamlessly. Add an object to your Base, and it's immediately available in the Exhibition Builder. Update a field or add new images, and those changes flow through to any exhibition using that object.
Whether you're building scholarly online exhibitions, creating digital components for physical shows, or establishing a web presence for collections that have never been accessible online, the Exhibition Builder gives you the tools to create content from your objects on your timeline, reflecting your expertise and curatorial voice.
Beyond the Exhibition Builder, this release brings major improvements to security (two-factor authentication), performance (faster loading across the platform), and asset handling (unified zoom functionality). We've also increased limits on modules, refined object management, and rebuilt several core systems to support what's coming next.
Here's what's new:
The Exhibition Builder
Build rich, interactive digital exhibitions directly from your collection:
- Drag-and-drop page builder with live preview and intuitive content block management
- Multiple exhibition types/themes with customizable page templates and blocks to get you started quickly
- Universal Editor provides a consistent editing experience across all blocks, pages, and global elements
- Page management with drag-and-drop reordering, move up/down controls, object detail templates, and more
Comprehensive Block Library
Build rich exhibition pages with our extensive block system:
- **Text & Heading ** with rich text editing, typography controls, and spacing settings
- Image choose from object assets, uploaded assets, or CDN/DAM external urls with zoom functionality (including scroll wheel support), quality controls, and width/height settings
- Video & Audio with integrated media player and caption support
- Container with column layouts, video backgrounds, spacing and alignment options
- **Card ** for creating custom containers with images and text like articles or custom object content
- Blockquote with attribution, spacing and styling options
- Separator with customization for styles and spacing
- Links/Buttons block with customizable sizing, colors, internal page linking, and external links
- Objects show exhibition section objects or choose custom objects, with search/filter options, responsive layouts, and field selection display
- Object for featuring individual objects with custom field display controls
- **Primary Image ** for object layouts
- **Object Field ** for displaying specific object data from text fields to media fields
- Compare to choose two image assets either from objects or uploaded assets for left/right, before/after comparisons
- Page Title for consistent page headers that dynamically use the page title or choose from any other page title to create links
Publishing & Deployment
- One-click publishing to exhibition.objectsandorder.com with automatic asset packaging
- Custom domains with verification status tracking
- Vanity URLs with registry and validation
- Unpublish workflow with automatic asset cleanup from storage
- Exhibition thumbnails auto-generated for cards and previews
Theme & Design System
- Typography controls including font selection, weights, sizes, and uppercase options
- Color scheme customization with CSS variable system
- Header options including fixed positioning, blur effects, shadows, and logo uploads
- Footer customization with layout options and typography settings
- Mobile-responsive controls for header, footer, and content areas
- Custom scrollbar styles for consistent exhibition appearance
- Animation library integration for entrance effects
Collaboration Features
- Page chat/discussion with real-time chat and notes
- Presence indicators to show who is on a section within the app
Privacy-first Exhibition Analytics
- Views over time with dynamic period selection
- Visitation patterns with hourly breakdown
- Top pages and popular objects tracking
- Traffic sources, devices, and languages breakdown
- CSV export with exhibition name and date
Blueprints & Object Management
Blueprint Improvements
- Blueprint Templates for quick setup with predefined field configurations
- Dublin Core preset fields for standardized metadata fields
- Blueprint builder performance optimizations for faster editing
- Manage Blueprint interface improvements
Object Enhancements
- Object tour/onboarding for new users
- QR codes for individual objects
- URL field type in blueprints with link functionality in exhibitions
- Markdown conversion for object fields in published exhibitions
Image & Asset Handling
- Collection Zoom: Unified full-screen image viewing experience across the entire system
- Primary images, file lists, and asset pages all use the same zoom functionality
- Pan and scroll wheel controls for detailed inspection
- 1800px image size added for higher quality displays as the extra large image variation
- Asset caption improvements with markdown support
- File select refactor allowing multiple file selection
- Reprocess image action for regenerating alternate image sizes on demand
Modules
Slideshow Module
- Increased limits to 100 objects and 100 slides (up from 50)
- Improved navigation with better arrow key functionality
- Caption editing improvements
- Display title support for assets
Featured Object Module
- Single-click editing for faster updates
- Improved editing interface with outline adjustments
General Module Updates
- QR code option for easy sharing
- Module browse functionality improvements
- Media player integration for audio and video content
- Asset metadata race condition fixes
Authentication & Security
Two-Factor Authentication
- TOTP-based 2FA with QR code enrollment
- Manual secret entry option
- Re-authentication required before removing 2FA
User Interface & Experience
Platform UI
- Toast/notification system complete refactor
- Modal system updates with children/snippet support
- Semantic range slider component with visual defaults
- Color picker improvements with custom color support
- Dark mode improvements for exhcat
Mobile Experience
- Responsive design improvements across all features
- Mobile menu refinements
- Touch-friendly controls and interactions
Performance Optimizations
- Base object loading optimizations
- Blueprint builder performance improvements
- Module and exhibition card display optimizations
- Thumbnail loading optimization
- Bundle reduction with manual chunking
- Lazy loading of exhibition builder components
- Font loading optimizations
Datasets
- Sorting and reactive columns improvements
- CSV import updates
- Dataset editor refinements
- Label sync from title field
Member Management
- Dropped per-seat members in favor of preset members per Base
- Unlimited members on certain plans
- Legacy bases automatically get 5 member invites
- Improved invite UI and status tracking
API & Integrations
- API key management in base settings
- ISR (Incremental Static Regeneration) for articles and guides caching
Drag & Drop System
- New drag-and-drop engine for blocks and pages
- Container block drag between columns
- Page list move up/down controls
- Block selection maintained after dragging
- Copy/paste blocks between pages
Notable Bug Fixes
- Fixed signup hanging in Firefox Private mode
- Fixed object overlay closing when exiting preview
- Fixed blueprint editor reactivity issues
- Fixed container height overflow and vertical alignment
- Fixed caption publishing and styles
- Fixed card background image display
- Fixed page URL building for exhibitions
- Fixed object field markdown rendering
- Fixed member invite count calculations
- Fixed hamburger menu inheriting header text color
- Fixed image zoom passive listeners
- Fixed mobile semantic scale display
- Fixed link block page links
- Fixed video placeholder sizing in edit mode