Reading time 3 min

Tom Claus

Liferay DXP has become a widely adopted portal platform for building and managing advanced digital experiences over recent years. Organizations use it for intranets, customer portals, self-service platforms, and more. While Liferay DXP is known for its user-friendliness, its default search functionality can be further optimized to meet modern user expectations. To address this, ACA developed an advanced solution that significantly enhances Liferay’s standard search capabilities. Learn all about it in this blog. Searching in Liferay: not always efficient Traditionally, organizational searches relied on individual keywords . For example, intranet users would search terms like "leave" or "reimbursement" to find the information they needed. This often resulted in an overload of results and documents , leaving users to sift through them manually to find relevant information—a time-consuming and inefficient process that hampers the user experience. The way users search had changed The rise of AI tools like ChatGPT has transformed how people search for information. This is also visible in online search engines like Google, where users increasingly phrase their queries as complete questions. For example: “How do I apply for leave?” or “What travel reimbursement am I entitled to?” To meet these evolving search needs, search functionality must not only be fast but also capable of understanding natural language. Unfortunately, Liferay’s standard search falls short in this area. ACA develops advanced AI-powered search for Liferay To accommodate today’s search behavior, ACA has created an advanced solution for Liferay DXP 7.4 installations: Liferay AI Search . Leveraging the GPT-4o language model , we’ve succeeded in significantly improving Liferay’s standard search capabilities. GPT-4o is a state-of-the-art language model trained on an extensive dataset of textual information. By integrating GPT-4o into our solution, we’ve customized search algorithms to handle more complex queries , including natural language questions. How does Liferay AI Search work? Closed dataset The AI model only accesses data from within the closed Liferay environment. This ensures that only relevant documents— such as those from the Library and Media Library—are accessible to the model. Administrators controls Administrators can decide which content is included in the GPT-4o dataset, allowing them to further optimize the accuracy and relevance of search results. Depending on the user’s profile, the answers and search results are tailored to the information they are authorized to access. Direct answers Thanks to GPT-4o integration, the search functionality provides not only traditional results but also direct answers to user queries. This eliminates the need for users to dig through search results to find the specific information they need. The comparison below illustrates the difference between search results from Liferay DXP’s standard search and the enhanced results from ACA’s Liferay AI Search. Want to see Liferay AI Search in action? Check out the demo below or via this link! Be nefits of Liferay AI Search Whether you use Liferay DXP for your customer platform or intranet, Liferay AI Search offers numerous advantages for your organization: Increased user satisfaction: Users can quickly find precise answers to their queries. Improved productivity: Less time is spent searching for information. Enhanced knowledge sharing: Important information is easier to locate and share. Conclusion With Liferay AI Search, ACA elevates Liferay DXP’s search functionality to meet modern user expectations. By integrating GPT-4o into Liferay DXP 7.4, this solution delivers not only traditional search results but also direct, relevant answers to complex, natural language queries. This leads to a faster, more user-friendly, and efficient search experience that significantly boosts both productivity and user satisfaction. Ready to optimize your Liferay platform search functionality Contact us today!

Reading time 4 min

Tom Claus

From February 3 to 5, Liferay welcomed its global teams and partners to Athens for the Liferay Sales Kickoff (SKO) . During this annual event, Liferay presents its strategic direction and new features for the upcoming year. Liferay SKO is the place where sales, marketing, and partners come together to get inspired, share insights, discuss best practices, and discover new innovations within Liferay. ACA Group was also present to further discuss our strategic partnership and initiate several joint initiatives. Curious about the most notable announcements from Liferay Sales Kickoff 2025? Discover them below! * Disclaimer: The information and announcements mentioned below are based on Liferay's current insights and plans and are subject to change. New features and products may still be modified or delayed. Liferay PaaS Premium Security Liferay’s SaaS platform was already equipped with an advanced AI-driven firewall that has repeatedly proven its effectiveness. Through several case studies, Liferay demonstrated how this smart security system effortlessly blocks millions of attacks, all this without any intervention from partners or customers. Now, Liferay is bringing this proven security technology to the PaaS platform! With the Hyper Security Pack , PaaS users gain access to the same powerful protection that SaaS users already enjoy. What’s included? 🔹 ML DDoS Protection – Robots versus robots! The AI-driven DDoS protection from SaaS is now available for PaaS. 🔹 Blocking Bots – Advanced filters separate humans from machines and offer regional configuration options. 🔹 Scaling Insurance – Liferay automatically scales with your DXP at no extra cost. 🔹 Vulnerability Notifications – Immediate alerts for critical vulnerabilities, plus assistance with patching. 🔹 Vulnerability Report Processing – Submit your security report to Liferay and receive a prioritized list of action items. For SaaS users , this protection is included by default, while PaaS users can add this package as an add-on. Liferay Digital Days: training and events for customers Liferay is launching Digital Days ! These hands-on training sessions will introduce you to the latest features. But that’s not all, because Liferay is also taking the Customer Summit World Tour around the globe in 2025! These large-scale events will bring together partners and customers, providing the perfect opportunity to immerse yourself in the latest trends, insights, and possibilities within Liferay. Teaser Showcases demonstrate Liferay’s USPs ACA already has multiple Liferay environments to demonstrate the platform’s endless possibilities. Now, Liferay is making this even easier. With 8 Teaser Showcases, we can now present Liferay’s unique selling points (USPs) to potential customers in a clear and compelling way. These Teaser Showcases are the perfect complement to existing product trials and personalized demos, allowing customers to explore Liferay’s capabilities at their own pace. Liferay CMS: a small but powerful new addition The Liferay family is growing! Later this year, Liferay will launch a new Liferay CMS , a lighter alternative to the comprehensive Liferay DXP. While this smaller version won’t include all the features of Liferay DXP, it is the perfect solution for smaller projects that need a powerful and flexible CMS . Not all details are available yet, but ACA is closely following the developments. We are confident that Liferay CMS will be a valuable addition to our product portfolio. Liferay continues to grow Liferay continues to impress with its global growth! The partner network has now expanded to 400 partners worldwide , with a strong focus on the EMEA market . On a product level, Liferay is also making significant strides. In the Gartner Magic Quadrant , the platform continues to move upward toward the Leaders category, a testament to its strength and innovation. Additionally, Liferay is now ranked among the top three DXP Customer Choice platforms by Gartner, alongside Adobe and Pimcore. It’s a recognition of the trust and appreciation from users worldwide. Many more new features for Liferay DXP Liferay also introduced numerous new features for the Liferay DXP platform. Highlights include: Customizable Content Editor: Tailor the editor to fit your project’s needs. Advanced Export/Import: An improved import/export functionality with staging support and detailed error reporting. Camunda integration: Smooth two-way integration with Camunda for better workflow automation. Cloud Native Experience: Additional tools to run self-hosted Liferay DXP effortlessly on AWS, Google Cloud , or Azure . AI Wizard : A smart AI assistant that quickly creates pages, blogs, and media. Upload a sketch photo, and the wizard generates a complete page structure with fragments! Intelligent Search: Liferay’s search function gets a major upgrade. In addition to classic keyword search, there is now a powerful semantic search engine, fully customizable to your needs. 💡Curious about Liferay’s future plans? Check out their public roadmap at https://liferay.com/roadmap . Get started with the new Liferay updates? With these new developments, Liferay is taking its platform to the next level, making it more secure, user-friendly, and attractive than ever for both partners and customers. For ACA, it’s a fantastic opportunity to strengthen our market position and fully leverage these innovations. Want to know how these updates can benefit your organization? We’re happy to think along with you! Contact us!

Reading time 5 min

Tom Claus

Last week, Liferay announced the latest 2025.Q1 release. Since last year, Liferay has shifted away from versioning like 7.2, 7.3, or 7.4, opting instead for quarterly releases that remain fully compatible with Liferay 7.4. This ensures that customers always have access to the latest, most secure, and feature-rich version of Liferay. A key milestone in this update: Liferay 2025.Q1 is the first Long-Term Support (LTS) release under the new schedule. This means extended support , making it a highly stable and reliable choice for businesses with a long-term digital strategy. In this blog, we’ll highlight the most important updates in Liferay 2025.Q1. Important updates in Liferay DXP 2025.Q1 Liferay e-commerce improvements 1. Product Configurations: Centralized product eligibility settings Streamline operations and gain better control over your products with centralized product configuration management . Product Configurations are templates for managing product configuration and suitability in one place. With Product Configurations you can: View a centralized table of products for better oversight. Use targeted configurations to avoid duplication. Simplify adding new products with predefined master settings. Improve the customer experience by ensuring they only see relevant products, improving their shopping journey. 💡 Example : Customers only see relevant products, which leads to a better shopping experience and increased conversions. 2. Multi Shipping: multiple deliveries possible per order (Currently, this feature is behind a beta feature flag (LPD-20379)). Multi Shipping allows customers to ship items from a single order to multiple addresses and on different dates. This results in: Higher productivity: More flexibility for customers who need to ship to multiple locations. Increased sales: Simplifies bulk ordering for businesses that ship to multiple locations or customers. Fewer cart abandonments: Streamlines the checkout process for complex orders, reducing the likelihood of customers abandoning their carts Enhanced customer loyalty : Provides a more user-friendly and convenient shopping experience, promotes customer loyalty. 💡 Example : A B2B customer can supply several branches in one order. 3. Warehouse Eligibility: smart inventory management Determine which warehouses customers can order products from based on inventory levels. Geoptimaliseerde inventaris toewijzing: productoverzicht op basis van inventaris hoeveelheden en voorraadniveaus en verdeel inventaris om prioriteit te geven aan belangrijke klantsegmenten. Increase sales / reduce lost sales: Boost sales and minimize stock outs and prevent lost revenue by controlling product inventory. Targeted product overview: Control which customers see which products based on warehouse location and inventory levels. 💡 Example : A retailer can use this to implement an optimal inventory strategy and maximize sales. 4. B2B Guest Checkout: faster registration and checkout Streamline the B2B guest checkout experience by allowing users to log in or register directly from the mini cart. Higher conversion rates by simplifying the checkout process. Improved customer satisfaction by providing a more seamless and user-friendly experience. Improved customer retention by allowing guests to easily convert to registered users, capturing valuable customer data. Reduced cart abandonment by keeping items in guest carts when users sign in. 💡 Example : A B2B customer ordering for the first time can immediately create an account without interrupting the process. Sites and content management Publications now automatically resolves more conflicts during publishing, significantly reducing manual effort. Automatic conflict resolution: Reduced publishing time / increased efficiency: Automation minimizes manual intervention, speeding up the publishing process. Reduced errors: Automation of conflict resolution reduces the risk of human error during manual conflict resolution. Reduced operational costs: Less manual effort translates to lower operational costs associated with publishing content. 💡 Example : Content teams can continue working without interruption, even during major releases. Content retention after Liferay upgrades: Publications now allows users to publish customizations made before upgrading to Liferay instead of marking them as “Outdated”. Maintain content continuity: ensures that existing publications created in older Liferay versions remain accessible and public after upgrades. Faster upgrade process: simplifies the upgrade process by removing a potential blocking point. Lower support costs: reduces the need for Liferay support related to publishing older publications. 💡 Example : Companies do not need to republish content after a Liferay upgrade. Low-Code innovations In-context translation for text-based form fields (Text, Rich Text and Textarea) directly within the page. Object Entries with text fields can now be translated as users enter them when built using the Form Container. Improved user experience: Provides a seamless experience when adding Object Entries. Root Objects: Simplifies the management of multiple objects by configuring the relationship between objects. Expanded global reach: Enables businesses to effectively reach international audiences by adding localization support for input fields. Faster time to market for translated applications : Enables faster creation and deployment of localized forms for data applications. Service builder sntities as Objects: Enables applications built on Service Builder to leverage the benefits of the Liferay Objects framework. The Data Sets Data Set Manager: a flexible way to retrieve, manage, visualize and interact with structured data in Liferay DXP . Retrieve data: Retrieve information from any compatible Headless API to use as a data source. Manage flexibility: Admins can customize which parts of the API response are included, along with filters, sorting options, and available actions. Visualize data: Multiple visualization options make it easier than ever for end users to meaningfully consume data. Enable interaction: End users can dynamically interact with data using the filters, actions configured by administrators. Extensible by default: Create custom filters and column renderers with Client Extensions. ... more Liferay upgrades Liferay has updated to React v18 to ensure that Liferay DXP maintains its status as a robust and future-proof platform. Provision cloud apps directly to your Liferay SaaS environments without leaving Liferay Marketplace. Want to learn more or not on the latest version of Liferay yet? Let us know! {% module_block module "widget_d36a7fc7-b2f9-4994-b508-aed7bed81058" %}{% module_attribute "buttons" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}[{"appearance":{"link_color":"light","primary_color":"primary","secondary_color":"primary","tertiary_color":"light","tertiary_icon_accent_color":"dark","tertiary_text_color":"dark","variant":"primary"},"content":{"arrow":"right","icon":{"alt":null,"height":null,"loading":"disabled","size_type":null,"src":"","width":null},"tertiary_icon":{"alt":null,"height":null,"loading":"disabled","size_type":null,"src":"","width":null},"text":"Contact us"},"target":{"link":{"no_follow":false,"open_in_new_tab":false,"rel":"","sponsored":false,"url":{"content_id":230950468795,"href":"https://25145356.hs-sites-eu1.com/en/contact","href_with_scheme":null,"type":"CONTENT"},"user_generated_content":false}},"type":"normal"}]{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "child_css" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}{}{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "css" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}{}{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "definition_id" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}null{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "field_types" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}{"buttons":"group","styles":"group"}{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "isJsModule" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}true{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "label" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}null{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "module_id" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}201493994716{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "path" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"@projects/aca-group-project/aca-group-app/components/modules/ButtonGroup"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "schema_version" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}2{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "smart_objects" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}null{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "smart_type" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"NOT_SMART"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "tag" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"module"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "type" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"module"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "wrap_field_tag" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"div"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% end_module_block %}