TYPO3 3.8: the new release
  • CACHE CONTROL HEADERS - One of the most important features in TYPO3 3.8 is the possibility to make use of so-called cache-control headers on frontend output. This allows a site to be cached by client browsers and proxies. See http://typo3.org/development/articles/using-cache-control-headers-in-typo3/ for more information. Thanks to such cache-control headers, browser clients and proxy servers become aware of how long a sent page can be cached (or in other words: how long it is not needed to re-fetch it again). The result of that is a big speed gain for servers who might have been permanently under high load because proxy server never cached their contents. 
  • INDEXED SEARCH - TYPO3s powerful search engine has got some high improvements. It now can offer statistics of entered search words, supports a lot of new file types for indexing (Excel tables, Powerpoint presentations, StarOffice/OpenOffice.org documents and even some more...). Furthermore, indexed search now contains support for "crawler" extensions which makes it possible to index all pages automatically by simply starting one of these crawlers from the backend of TYPO3.
  • IMPORT/EXPORT ENHANCED - This extension has been available for a long time, however it was not very comfortable to work with it because of its incompleteness. In TYPO3 3.8.0 most of the missing features have been completed. Here is a brief summary: 

  1. Support for flexforms (hence TemplaVoila) 

  2. Support for RTE embedded images 

  3. Support for updates of existing records in various forms 

  4. Optional XML format 

  5. Support for a new concept called "soft references" which are plain-text links/file references/markers and allows to track and include these in export. Examples are "fileadmin/..." references in TypoScript templates and <link> typolink tags. 

  6. It can export from the page tree root 

  7. Extension dependencies can be set 

  8. Export links directly from clipboard and Web>List 

  9. Support of meta data including embedded thumbnails 

  10. Added a new feature to force all UIDs in the Import/Export function 

  • BACKEND GUI - In the shortcut frame it's now possible to enter a table:uid pair in the "Edit page" box. For instance "tt_content:123" will launch the doc module for that element. This is a nice feature to jump directly to a content element. A new feature offers collapsible modules for the backend module bar so you can hide/unhide the modules to fit your needs. The context menu now also works by clicking with the right mouse button on an icon or a text. Additionally it also works with Opera browsers (minimal version: 6.x) now.
  • LANGUAGE PACKS - TYPO3 is famous for its multilingual abilities. TYPO3 3.8.0 is available in 43 different languages. In TYPO3 3.8.0 each language is represented by an extension. So if you need a new language for backend or frontend you only install another language extension. In order to keep the software more compact these language extensions are no longer shipped by default.
    Hint: The needed language extensions are named csh_[language code].

  • SYSTEM EXTENSION - System extensions is an expression for fundamental extensions in TYPO3. All extensions that are now considered "System extensions" are included in the folder typo3/sysext/.

  • IMAGE MANIPULATION TOOL - After years of ImageMagick domination a new image manipulation hero has entered the stage. Please welcome the new challenger GraphicsMagick and be happy that ImageMagick problems are gone! GraphicsMagick is faster, more reliable and the generated images are better in size and quality. To enable GraphicsMagick visit page 1 of the Install Tool. Find more about GraphicsMagick on http://www.graphicsmagick.org/
  • FRONTEND LOGIN MODE - The new feature for page records makes it possible to disable frontend logins for branches of a page tree. This feature is very useful if you wish a high performance website using Cache-Control Headers.
  • GENERAL CHANGES AND MODIFICATIONS - Frontend user passwords are now case sensitive and they get rendered as password fields. There is an new configuration option for frontend users cookies. They can now be set to a lifetime in seconds. Currently the cookie lasts only for the browser session and not more (See "Install-Tool" -> "All Configuration" for details). A new option "ascii" for config.spamProtectEmailAddresses has been added. With this option you won´t need JavaScript anymore to reassemble the real email-address! See TSRef ( http://typo3.org/documentation/document-library/doc_core_tsref/, section Setup, CONFIG) for further details. The property page.typeNum = 0 for a page object is now set automatically by default: If a page object has no typeNum and typeNum = 0 is not defined, TYPO3 will automatically do that now.  More than 200 bugs have been fixed. 
  • CONCLUSION - As the changes from TYPO3 version 3.6 to version 3.7 were more of a "under the hood" kind, these changes from TYPO3 3.7 to 3.8 are more obvious for every end user. Improvements in the Indexed Search extension will make a strong add-on even more valuable. The Cache-Control Headers can be a big advantage in planning and implementing a high load environment. The improved Import/Export extension is a helpful tool for administrators. Last but not least the round up for the Backend GUI will enhance the daily work.

 

Cache-Control Headers: http://typo3.org/development/articles/using-cache-control-headers-in-typo3/

Index Search: http://typo3.org/documentation/document-library/indexed%20search/

TypoScript reference: http://typo3.org/documentation/document-library/doc%20core%20tsref/

[by Thomas Esders, www.typo3.org]