One of the things that I have been caught complaining about from time to time with the way Sitecore handles assignment of data source in presentation details is that the data source is stored as a string path, making it necessary to update every instance of presentation details that references an item when it is moved on the content tree and preventing it from showing up in things like the broken links report or inbound/outbound links for a content item. Sitecore 7 fixes this in a big way by storing the ItemID of the item selected as the data source. This allows the item to be tracked in the links database and removes the fragility of looking up by path. I guess the little things are what excite me, but this single change represents a major improvement in a product that was already strong. For the full story on data source enhancements in Sitecore 7, check out John West’s blog entry Sitecore 7: Data Sources, Part 1: Enhancements.
