New HCL DX and DX Compose CF234 Features & Enhancements Available + March 2026 Latest News

HCL Digital Experience Digital Experience Forum
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March 2026

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This month HCL Software offers:

HCL Digital Experience offerings v9.5 updates are available for entitled downloads through the My HCLSoftware portal platform to access software and manage deployments.

HCL Digital Experience v9.5 version adds these updates and benefits:

  • Updated design features enable content template rendering preview enabling faster author and update processes.

  • Developers and administrators can apply additional AI services and Search V2 DN certificate configuration options and invoke actions from DAM analysis results adding administrator control and efficiency.

HCL Digital Experience Compose v9.5 version adds these updates and benefits:

  • Administrators can use Helm to configure registry, and content authors can invoke spell check and sentiment analysis services adding management capability and boosting quality of published results.

  • Updated OpenLiberty and JRE support levels

  • 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 234 (All Versions)

  • Presentation Designer - Canvas Context Preview – Content authors can preview how presentation templates render with Web Content Manager (WCM) content items to verify layouts and data mapping across different device views before publishing.

  • WCM AI Analysis - Additional configuration options for custom AI providers - Administrators can expand capability and use additional configuration parameters to connect the default AI provider to alternative, OpenAI-compatible services: OPENAI_HOST and OPENAI_SCHEME

  • HCL Doc IQ chatbot for the DX Help Center - The HCL Doc IQ chatbot is now available as a preview in the DX Help Center. This AI tool answers your questions, summarizes information, and provides direct links to relevant documentation. Select the chat bubble icon on the lower right corner of any DX Help Center page. To provide feedback, select the thumbs-up or thumbs-down button. If you select thumbs-down, a prompt appears asking for your name and your additional feedback input.

HCL Digital Experience 9.5 Container Update and CF 234 (K8s deployments)

  • DAM - New actions available in Database Analysis – Administrators can retrigger failed operations, generate access references, and move orphaned media items into specified collections.

  • Search V2 - Expanded support for Certificate DNs – Administrators can apply comprehensive Distinguished Name (DN) validation and role mapping for administrative certificates. In addition,

the OpenSearch entrypoint script automatically parses the Common Name (CN) from maps it to the administrative role defined in the security configuration

  • WAS and JDK levels - HCL DX 9.5 CF234 contains WebSphere Application Server 9.0.5.26, Java Development Kit 8.0.8.55, iFix PH68243, and iFix PH68418

HCL Digital Experience 8.5 and 9 versions

  • 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.

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 234 (K8s deployments)

HCL Digital Experience Compose v9.5 CF234 adds many of the new capabilities available with DX CF 233 Container update, and:

  • Basic registry configuration is now managed using Helm – Administrators can configure the default basic registry using Helm instead of the hardcoded OpenLiberty server configuration. This change provides greater flexibility in managing authentication sources and enables production deployments to rely exclusively on external LDAP directories without maintaining file-based credentials.

  • SpellCheck service now supported - The SpellCheck service for the Enhanced Rich Text Editor (TinyMCE) is supported, enabled by default and requires no additional configuration

  • WCM AI Sentiment Analysis now supported – The Sentiment Analysis feature in the WCM Authoring user interface (UI) is supported for the TinyMCE Rich text editor.

  • HCL DX Compose entitled 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 DX Compose Evaluation software: Is available for HCL DX customers with select offering entitlements. See this HCL Digital Experience Developer Community post and HCL Support Knowledge Article.

Access the latest HCL Digital Experience 9.5 Education Materials on HCLSoftware U

The HCLSoftware U offers technical education for the HCL Software portfolio of products, organized by practitioner role. See the HCL Digital Experience section of HCLSoftware U and the What’s New for Digital Experience section for more information.

HCL Leap 9.3.12

Analyst Reports, Webinars and Education

DX Digital Asset Manager: Architecting & Configure DAM to Perform – Thursday, April 16, 2026 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM EDT

Join Felix and Ram as they team up to share powerful insights on optimizing HCL Digital Experience Digital Asset Manager (DAM). They dive into the core architecture and deliver practical, scenario-based configuration strategies to maximize performance and stability. Attendees gain clear, actionable tips for tuning their DAM. This expert duo turns technical complexity into straightforward guidance that can boost efficiency and reliability. Speakers: Ramachandran Mani, Lead Software Engineer for DAM, Felix Muller, Lead Software Architect Register here https://hclsw.co/tx-webinar

Streamline Content Creation: Expert Guide to DX Content Composer – March 19, 2026

In the dark alleys of the digital world, stagnant content breeds chaos. HCL DX Content Composer is your command center—the forge where dynamic sites are born. I am Jason Moore, Technical Advocate for HCL DX. Join me as I reveal the precise adjustments and strategies to make this tool swift, powerful, and yours to command. Simple moves that sharpen your efficiency. Techniques that make it unstoppable. No wasted effort. No compromise. Wield Content Composer as the guardian of flawless experiences.

View the session here: https://hclsw.co/tx-recordings

Unlocking Creativity: The Art of Vibe Coding – March 17, 2026

Join us for our session “Unlocking Creativity: The Art of Vibe Coding”

Discover how Generative AI and vibe coding are reshaping enterprise app development — and how HCL Project Leona turns natural language prompts into production-ready applications with built-in consistency, reusability, and security. View the session here

Self-Service Learning for DX and MX – March 12, 2026

You want to get started with DX or Volt MX and learn about them? You have heard of HCLSoftware U, HCL Marketplace (SoFy), Digital Solutions Community, Help Center, etc. It seems like too much. Have no fear … Herbert and Seth will show you how to get started on HCL DX and Volt MX. They will demonstrate how to use the learning tools and show you how to navigate to the resources that match your needs. View the session here: https://hclsw.co/tx-recordings

HCL DX: Performance and Caching Best Practices – February 4, 2026

This is the best webinar on HCL DX performance, and caching. Join Alex – fantastic guy, Alex – he’s been in the performance and caching world for over 20 years, longer than anybody, really knows his stuff. We’re going to make your Digital Experience load faster than anybody’s ever seen – lightning fast pages, incredible interaction, you’re going to love it. Alex is going to show you what to look for when tuning the database, WebSphere, the web server – everything working together beautifully.
Speaker: Alex Lang, DX Principal Software Engineer. Register and view the session here: https://hclsw.co/tx-webinar

Keep your product requests coming in!

Contributions from our experienced and new HCL DX practitioners help us prioritize DX and DX Compose requirements for continuous delivery releases. Let us know your key requests and how they can help improve your platform operations and business goals. Visit the HCL Digital Experience Ideas Portal to review requests and submit yours. https://dx-ideas.hcltechsw.com/

Participate in discussions of DX platform successes, challenges and best practices approaches with community leaders and expert practitioners in an open conversation at the HCL Digital Solutions Developer Community https://developer.ds.hcl-software.com/ and DX User Group: https://www.dxers.ug/