Apply the benefits of HCL Digital Experience and Digital Experience Compose CF230 - Now Available!

HCL Digital Experience Digital Experience Forum
,
1

October 2025

This month HCL Software offers:

New Digital Experience offerings v9.5 updates that are available for entitled downloads through the My HCLSoftware portal, a simplified, streamlined platform to access your software and manage deployments.

New HCL Digital Experience v9.5 version adds updates designed to:

  • Streamline design and delivery for target audiences for authors and designers with new Presentation Designer style sheet options, UX enhancements to speed previews, and Search V2 Authoring - Advanced search features

  • Add administrator and developer efficiencies with new DXClient, OIDC SSO, and Helm values updates, and enhanced “Guide Me” tutorials for new and experienced practitioners.

  • New HCL Digital Experience Compose v9.5 version adds updates designed to:

  • Expand content and site design capabilities with support for EAR-based themes and WCM plugins.

  • Enable administrators to optimize repeatable delivery tailored to requirements with capability to customized DX Compose WebEngine images with custom scripts, also new support for SQL Server 2022 when using Amazon RDS

  • DX Compose includes a main container called WebEngine that is built on the Open Liberty platform and operates on certified Kubernetes platforms.

Key Features and Benefits

HCL Digital Experience 9.5 Container Update and CF 230 (All Versions)

  • HCL DX software is now available through the new My HCLSoftware portal for customers licensed for HCL Digital Experience offerings. My HCLSoftware portal replaces the HCLSoftware License & Download portal as of June 30, 2025. Also see the HCL Support Knowledge Article
  • DXClient – New xmlAccessOutputFileName parameter - Release managers can specify the output file name for execution of an XMLAccess process
  • Presentation Designer - Handle multiple stylesheets components – Designers and authors can apply multiple stylesheet components to a presentation template for more advanced control and structured styling,
  • HCL DX Action Bar and Practitioner Studio UI updates – Updates to the HCL DX Action Bar and Practitioner Studio UI add a new side navigation and improved navigation structure to accelerate design and delivery.

HCL Digital Experience 9.5 Container Update and CF 230 (K8s deployments)

  • Enabling OIDC SSO between HCL DX and HCL Leap in Kubernetes – Administrators can enable Single Sign-On (SSO) using the OpenID Connect (OIDC) protocol when integrating HCL DX with HCL Leap, providing end users a seamless SSO experience.
  • DX Help Center Guide Me Updates - The Guide Me Documentation pages contain detailed instructions, guides, best practices, and reference materials to assist practitioners across roles to configure, tune and use the HCL Digital Experience environments. Updates add Guides, How-to-articles and a Glossary topic areas to speed access.
  • Search V2 Authoring - Advanced search filters – Content authors can refine search results and narrow down large data sets more efficiently with new filter options including Author, Status, and Last Modified, and attributes such as Description, Title, and Type.
  • Updated IBM WebSphere, JDK levels and iFix – This release updates to WebSphere Application Server 9.0.5.24 and Java Development Kit 8.0.8.45 .

HCL Digital Experience 8.5 and 9 versions

  • HCL DX software is available through the My HCLSoftware portal for customers licensed for HCL Digital Experience offerings. Also see the HCL Support Knowledge Article
  • Extended Support option is available for DX versions 8.5 and 9.0 – Customers who may not be able to update from DX versions 8.5 and 9.0 version 9.5 by June 30, 2025 can sign up for an Extended Support option. The Extended Support option will be offered from June 30, 2025 until June 30, 2026.
  • Automatically apply 9.5 from a later CF installation – Administrators can speed upgrading to the latest DX 9.5 version from V8.5 & 9 using the CF Update process, now set as the default (configurable) setting.

Notices of deprecation

  • CKEditor Rich Text Editor (8.5, 9.0, and 9.5)
  • Woodburn Studio demo site (9.5)
  • Removal of automated Pod restart on ConfigMap updates (9.5)

HCL Digital Experience Compose v9.5

HCL Digital Experience Compose v9.5 is separately available lightweight, fast performing, cloud–only digital experience platform for delivering content-centric and transactional experiences. DX Compose includes a core container called WebEngine that is built on the Open Liberty platform and operates on Certified Kubernetes platforms. This architecture supports fast startup and execution times to deliver high-performance DX sites and the latest Java Development Kit (JDK) and Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) levels.

Key Features and Benefits

HCL Digital Experience Compose 9.5 CF 230 (K8s deployments)

HCL Digital Experience Compose v9.5 CF230 adds many of the new capabilities available with DX CF 230 Container update, and:

  • SSL Deploying and configuring EAR-based themes and WCM plugins – Administrators and developers can extend integration options in the DX Compose environment with new support to deploy and configure Enterprise Archive (EAR)-based themes and Web Content Manager (WCM) plugins
  • Customize DX Compose WebEngine images with custom scripts – Administrators can add custom shell scripts to specific plugin directories within the WebEngine container, for execution at container startup or during a CFUpdate process, providing more control with custom automation and configuration within the WebEngine container.
  • Support for SQL Server version 2022 when using Amazon RDS – DX Compose administrators can optionally configure admin data storage with SQL Server 2022.
  • HCL DX Compose software is available through the My HCLSoftware portal for customers licensed for the HCL Digital Experience Compose offering. Also see the HCL Support Knowledge Article

HCL Leap 9.3.10

Analyst Reports, Webinars and Education

HCL Digital Experience now encapsulates all benefits of using a Design System with frameworks that fuels Design Ops and Development Ops: Blueprint
Design systems have become an essential part of modern product design. As a collection of reusable components, guidelines, and principles they can help designers and developers create cohesive and consistent experiences across products and platforms, design systems that accelerated the regular implementation, while reducing the TCO. [https://developer.ds.hcl-software.com/t/hcl-digital-experience-now-encapsulates-all-benefits-of-using-a-design-system-with-frameworks-that-fuels-design-ops-and-development-ops-blueprint/171996]

Replay available: Introducing HCL Volt MX v10 Darwin: The Future of App Development

Explore the latest advancements in HCL Volt MX and how you can:
Accelerate innovation with AIUnlock faster, smarter development with GenAI tools like Figma-to-Form for automated UI generation, Volt IQ (now enhanced with RAG) - your built-in AI assistant for smarter coding & support, also reusable AI components, new support for Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, and more that simplify integration and accelerate time to value. August 6 2025 - Replay available here.

Replay Available: HCL DX 2Q 2025 Quarterly Webinar: May 13: HCL DX Offerings Roadmap, and Latest Updates in Digital Asset Management.

This session featured:

  • Easier digital asset management with updates to DAM user interface.
  • A presentation of the DX roadmap, presented by Kyle Farnand, Director of HCL Digital Experience Product Management
    Understand the latest innovations and how you can take advantage of the new capabilities ahead! Replay available here.

Learn more and view the latest features in action (and in minutes)! In DX and DX Compose with the Digital Experience 9.5 HDX-NEW-2025 HCL Digital Experience What’s New in 2025 video lesson in the Digital Experience, What’s New in 2025 course section of the HCL Software U.

HCLSoftware is recognized as a Challenger in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Digital Experience Platforms. As a Challenger in the Gartner Magic Quadrant™, HCLSoftware is one of only 17 vendors evaluated in this report, which is based on an in-depth evaluation of vendors’ Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute. Access the report here.

Participate in the Digital Solutions Developer Community, and DX Users Group

Contribute and learn from ongoing discussions of DX platform successes, challenges and best practices approaches with community leaders and expert practitioners in an open conversation.