Beta: Monday 6 April, 2026 Full Client Release: Mon 13 & Tue 14 April, 2026
🎉 What’s new in Release 228?
This release is headlined by a major upgrade to your website's search engine – faster, smarter, and built to handle pressure. Alongside that, we've brought a cleaner CMS navigation experience, a more forgiving mailing list import, and a rebuilt Coming Soon part that sets the platform up for new features ahead.
🔍 A smarter search engine built to handle the rush of onsales
What changed?
- Our brand new search engine running on its own dedicated server, completely separate from your main site.
- This means search queries no longer slow your website down, especially during busy on-sales.
- Indexed search results load faster and deliver cleaner, more meaningful matches.
- More accurate results: searches now match whole words, not just any word that happens to contain them.
- Matches words that are not exactly the same as the search terms, but similar enough to still be relevant.
- Now finds matches based on similarity rather than exact spelling.
- This phase covers search engine upgrades for themes, pages & stories, people, and courses.
- Search engine upgrades for productions/events will follow soon.
How do I use it?
- No action needed. The new search is already implemented for you.
🤓What to know how it works under the hood?
Search now looks for meaning, not just matching letters. So a visitor searching "performances" will still find results tagged "performing" or "perform", without needing an exact match. This is powered by text analysis via Elasticsearch – the same search engine used by Wikipedia.
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This new search engine, together with the new CDN rollout introduced in Release 227 and a new Queue system coming soon, is part of a wider set of performance upgrades we're rolling out across the platform that will improve site performance, protect you malicious traffic and make your website more robust during onsales periods.
📂 Find what you need faster with our tidier CMS menu
What changed?
- The new Pages and Stories module is now the default – no more switching into Beta to access it.
- All sub-menu for individual Story types have been removed from the menu, giving you a cleaner, less cluttered navigation overview.
- All Story types remain available through the filter inside the new Pages module.
- The new and improved Productions modules (Movies, Exhibitions, and Courses) are now out of Beta and set as default. Each has its own module, with the option to switch back to classic view if needed.
- The "Recent" menu item has been removed, as it only worked in the old menu and caused confusion when switching to new CMS modules.
How do I use it?
- No action needed. The updated menu is live in your Dashboard.
- To find a specific Story type, use the filter inside the new Pages module.
- To switch back to classic Productions view, use the toggle within the new module.
📬 Mailing list imports just got a lot more forgiving
What changed?
- Only an email column is now required to import mailing lists.
- First name, surname, gender, and surname prefix are optional.
- Columns can appear in any order in your CSV file. The header names must match.
- Empty cells in the CSV file will never overwrite existing information already saved in the database
- All data is automatically converted to UTF-8, email addresses are cleaned of special characters, accents, and invisible whitespace – so imports are far less likely to fail.
- Gender values of male/female are now accepted alongside man/vrouw/onbekend. Anything else maps to "unknown".
- The "Skip validation" checkbox has been removed. All files are now validated automatically.
How do I use it?
- Prepare your CSV with, at minimum, an email column. Include any other columns you have available.
- Upload as normal. The system handles cleaning and validation in the background.
🏠 The Coming Soon part: rebuilt for the future
What changed?
- The Coming Soon part – used on most Homepages to showcase upcoming events has been fully rebuilt.
- Nothing visible has changed for your visitors.
- Accessibility has been improved, including keyboard navigation.
- The new foundation makes it ready for new features further down the line.
How do I use it?
- No action needed. The new part is already live.
- If you notice any unexpected visual changes, please let us know.
💳 iDEAL is now iDEAL | Wero
What changed?
- The payment option previously labelled "iDEAL" is now displayed as "iDEAL | Wero" in the integrated purchase path.
How do I use it?
- No action needed. The label update is automatic.
For Ticketmatic venues
🎟️ A clearer picture of your visitors' vouchers
What changed?
- The personal voucher overview has been improved for Ticketmatic venues.
- Previously missing vouchers have been restored, so visitors now see a complete picture of their vouchers.
- Valid and invalid vouchers are now visually distinct, making it easier for visitors to understand what they can use.
How do I use it?
- No action needed. The improved voucher overview is live for all Ticketmatic venues.
⚙️ Additional fixes & Improvements
A handful of behind-the-scenes improvements keeping everything running smoothly.
- Fixed an error that occurred when deleting People profiles.
- Fixed incorrect suggestions showing donation events where they shouldn't appear.
- All imported accounts are now automatically set to "confirmed" status, ensuring they are included in the Query Builder straight away.
- Fixed a data layer issue on production detail pages (location category).
- Added a new check to ensure iFrame URL fields only accept valid URLs. This prevents issues caused by accidentally pasting HTML embed code into the URL field.
- Removed the ticket sharing button when a ticket or QR code is not yet available.
- Fixed Vimeo player controls appearing incorrectly in the showcase.
- Fixed missing images on cross-sells.
- Fixed missing multilingual titles in Google Wallet tickets.
- Improved handling of "not available yet" messaging on e-tickets.
- Fixed Story filters.
Have questions about any of these updates? Contact your Customer Success team or visit our Knowledge Base for detailed how-to guides.
Spot something unexpected? We're monitoring the restored CMS editing closely. If you notice anything unusual, please let us know immediately.
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