New in Craft CMS 5.9

Custom Entry Index Pages

This is the one I care about most, partly for selfish reasons. CraftEntries runs on Craft, and for years the Podcast section sat buried under Entries alongside everything else.

Those of us coming from WordPress know what a cluttered sidebar looks like. Custom post types, plugin settings, media, everything fighting for attention. Craft's approach of keeping everything under Entries was a deliberate contrast to that, and for the most part it worked. "All your content lives in Entries" was a reasonable thing to tell a client.

But you start counting the extra clicks. Why go Entries → Podcast just to add an episode? Why Entries → Links when Links could sit in the sidebar directly? With 5.9, it can. I started with Podcast and Articles here on CraftEntries and figured that would be enough. By the time I was done, Links and Crafters had moved out of Entries too. The old structure still works if you prefer it, but now you choose.

Inline List View for Relational Fields

Relational fields now offer an "Inline list" view mode that displays selected items side by side rather than stacking them. If you've used Tags fields, it's the same compact layout. For fields where editors regularly pick multiple related items, this is just a cleaner way to work. The old list view remains available, as do cards and card grid.

Matrix Field Improvements

Matrix fields with grouped entry types now show a separate Add button per group when the viewport is wide enough, so instead of a single menu listing everything, editors see only the groups they care about.

There are also new bulk actions at the field level. In Blocks view, you can expand, collapse, copy, duplicate, and delete selected blocks. In Cards view, copy, duplicate, and delete are available. If you've ever worked through a long content builder and had to collapse blocks one at a time, you'll be relieved.

Element-Based Editability Conditions

Previously, you could only make fields read-only based on user permissions. Now you can base it on the entry itself. For example, an end date field that becomes editable only after a start date is set. That's a cleaner alternative to hiding and showing fields based on visibility conditions, which makes the form jump around as people fill it in. All non-editable fields now also get a visible "Read Only" badge, so the state is always clear.

Conclusion

The Custom Entry Index Pages alone will change how I set up the control panel for client projects. It's the kind of thing you only miss once you have it. The release also includes several security fixes, among them two high-severity vulnerabilities. Update sooner rather than later. Check the full changelog; there's more than I covered.