NEWS.txt

   1 ************************************************************************
   2 CHANGES & IMPROVEMENTS between TYPO3 4.2 and 4.3
   3 (for technical details see ChangeLog)
   4 ************************************************************************
   5
   6 General
   7 =======
   8
   9         * TYPO3 requires PHP 5.2 now
  10
  11         * Support for OpenID auhentication with a new system extension for both FE and BE.
  12           Any user with a valid OpenID identifier may log in when the OpenID authentication
  13           is successful.
  14
  15         * The JavaScript framework ExtJS was integrated as common widget library. This
  16           collection offers developers an easy but powerful option to create nice looking
  17           user interfaces by reusing predefined objects. For example, ExtJS supports grid
  18           views, dialog windows and dynamic panels. It is currently used in the TYPO3 Core
  19           for the dialog showing that a session in the backend has expired and for the
  20           new recycler.
  21
  22         * The JavaScript libraries are updated to prototype 1.6.0.3 and script.aculo.us 1.8.2.
  23
  24 Backend
  25 =======
  26
  27         * Extension Manager: You can now set a new option "excludeFromUpdates" in every
  28           extensions' ext_emconf.php array. This way, it is a) not shown in the
  29           list of extensions to update and b) is shown a exclamation mark in order to
  30           prevent updates for this extension. This is very useful if you made local changes
  31           to an extension and don't want any admin to overwrite them.
  32
  33         * The TypoScript editor "t3editor" was enhanced with code-completion. Now you get
  34           context-sensitive suggestions about possible properties while entering TypoScript.
  35
  36         * The recycling of deleted records is improved since most elements were not removed
  37           physically in TYPO3. The recycler offers the possibilities of cleaning up the garbage
  38           collection and to restore data again. Based on an ExtJS interface it's possible to
  39           get a quick overview of the accordant elements, filter the resultset and execute the
  40           desired actions. This new feature is the modernized and core-specific version of the
  41           kj_recycler extension, that has been available in the TER for years now.
  42
  43         * The permissions on file operations can now be set on a per-group basis. New back-end
  44           users now don't have any file permissions by default, since this has moved to back-end
  45           user groups and will apply automatically for each new group being created.
  46           The default settings for new groups are the following:
  47                 + Move, delete, rename and create new directories
  48                 + Upload, copy, move, delete and rename files
  49                 + Unzip files
  50
  51         * The popup telling an user that his session has expired was replaced by a dialog window.
  52
  53         * The workspace selector has been turned to an item in the toolbar menu.
  54
  55         * The elements shown when creating new content elements (like "regular text element" etc.)
  56           can be configured, modified and extended by Page TSconfig "mod.wizards.newContentElement".
  57
  58         * The tables shown when creating new records in the Web>List module are grouped by their scope
  59           or extension now. The order can be modified by Page TSconfig "mod.wizards.newRecord.order".
  60
  61         * Elements on each table in the Web>List module can be collapsed or expanded now.
  62           In the view showing a single table with many elements, a pagination helps to
  63           get through them.
  64
  65         * Uploading files is now available with an optional Flash Uploader which shows a
  66           nice widget with information on the upload progress. It makes it possible to select
  67           multiple files at once. Enable the Flash Uploader by checking the appropriate checkbox
  68           in the User Setup, reload the Backend and make sure that your browser has the
  69           latest version of Flash (Flash v9+) installed.
  70
  71         * It is possible now to temporarily lock down the backend for system maintenance. Editors
  72           will see an overlay with an message notifying them that the backend is locked. When the
  73           lock is removed, editors can continue without having to re-login.
  74           The lock is enabled by placing this file:
  75                 typo3conf/LOCK_BACKEND
  76
  77         * The backend gateway for manipulating files (uploading, renaming, copying) TCEfile is now
  78           separated from the file typo3/tce_file.php and put in a new file and class in
  79           typo3/classes/class.typo3_tcefile.php. There is now also a new AJAXid (TYPO3_tcefile::process)
  80           to use this functionality in AJAX-based environments as well.
  81
  82 Frontend
  83 ========
  84
  85         * The message log of the admin panel will report failures to set the locale
  86
  87         * Integrated functionality of extension jb_status_code into core:
  88           It is now possible to specify a redirection code (301, 302, 303 or
  89           307) together with a domain redirection in a sys_domain record.
  90
  91         * Added option named "additionalAbsRefPrefixDirectories" for Frontend in the Install tool.
  92           This option is useful if the installation uses non-TYPO3 applications and links to
  93           them from extensions. Earlier TYPO3 prepended only media/, typo3conf/ext/ and
  94           fileadmin/ directories automatically with config.absRefPrefix. Using the new variable
  95           administrators can tell TYPO3 to prepend also other directories inside the site root
  96           with config.absRefPrefix.
  97
  98         * Added new Install tool option named "dbClientCompress". This option will
  99           enable MySQL compression for network traffic. This is useful if
 100           MySQl is not on the same host as the web server. Do not use this option if MySQL
 101           is on the same host because it will only slow down the process. However if MySQL
 102           is on another host, this option may improve performance significally.
 103
 104         * CSS styled content was split into separate files for each compatibility versions of TYPO3
 105           (3.8, 3.9, 4.2 and current). When including the static template of css_styled_content,
 106           a specific version must be chosen (also see Compatibility below).
 107
 108 Compatibility
 109 =============
 110
 111         * A deprecation log has been introduced to track calls to deprecated/outdated methods
 112           in the TYPO3 Core. Developers have to make sure to adjust their code to avoid using
 113           this old functionality since deprecated methods will be removed in future TYPO3 releases!
 114           The information can be found in /typo3conf/deprecation_[hash-value].log
 115
 116         * The caching system has been revamped. It is not possible to query the cache tables directly.
 117           Any compliant extension has to use the new caching framework.
 118
 119         * The simulateStaticDocument functionality (URLs like "MyPage.13.0.html" instead of "index.php?id=13")
 120           was extracted and put to a separate system extension "simulatestatic".
 121
 122         * The frontend editing functionality was extracted into a separate system extension "fe_edit".
 123
 124         * The help modules "about" and "cshmanual" were extracted into separate system extensions with the same name.
 125
 126         * As mentioned in "Frontend" CSS styled content has been split into several files.
 127           The update wizard can switch the versions of the static includes by refering to
 128           the TYPO3 compatibility version.
 129
 130 Development
 131 ===========
 132
 133         * t3lib_div::makeInstance now supports singletons. To mark a class as a
 134           singleton it must implement the t3lib_singleton interface.
 135
 136         * A new caching framework has been added. It allows extensions to store temporary data
 137           transparently to different cache back ends (database, file system or memory).
 138
 139         * Frontend plugins now can convert themselves from USER to USER_INT on the fly. This
 140           is useful for plugins who can disallow caching using a TSConfig option (for example,
 141           tt_news). Earlier plugins had to use $GLOBALS['TSFE']->set_no_cache(), which caused
 142           huge performance problems. Now plugin simply need to call
 143           $this->cObj->convertToUserIntObject() and return immediately without generating any
 144           content.
 145           Objects can find their current execution mode by calling $this->cObj->getUserObjectType().
 146           This function can return either tslib_cObj::OBJECTTYPE_USER (if object runs as USER)
 147           or tslib_cObj::OBJECTTYPE_USER_INT (if object is running as USER_INT). Here the code
 148           example:
 149                 function main() {
 150                         ....
 151                         if (!$this->conf['allowCaching'] && $this->cObj->getUserObjectType() == tslib_cObj::OBJECTTYPE_USER) {
 152                                 $this->cObj->convertToUserIntObject();
 153                                 return '';
 154                         }
 155
 156         * Class tslib_eidtools is enhanced with new methods for eID/AJAX applications:
 157                 static function initLanguage($language = 'default');
 158                         Creates $GLOBALS['LANG'] for the given language
 159                 static function initTCA();
 160                         Loads 'ctrl' sections for TCA tables from all installed extensions
 161                 static function initExtensionTCA($extensionKey);
 162                         Similar to initTCA() but loads the table only for the given extension
 163
 164         * Class t3lib_extMgm has new methods to enhance palettes:
 165                 t3lib_extMgm::addFieldsToAllPalettesOfField($table, $field, $addFields, $insertionPosition = '');
 166                         Adds new fields to all palettes of an existing field.
 167                 t3lib_extMgm::addFieldsToPalette($table, $palette, $addFields, $insertionPosition = '');
 168                         Adds new fields to a palette.
 169
 170         * A random byte generator has been added to t3lib_div::generateRandomBytes() which can
 171           be used for cryptographic operations in the TYPO3 Core or in any other extension.
 172
 173 TypoScript changes
 174 ==================
 175
 176         * Custom sub categories can be used in TypoScript constants like the following:
 177                 #customsubcategory=limits=LLL:EXT:devlog/locallang.xml:limits
 178
 179 Database changes
 180 ================
 181
 182         * The database tables cache_hash, cache_pagesections and cache_pages have been
 183           changed due to a move to the new caching framework.
 184
 185         * Reference indexes storing table names have been extended from 40 to 255 chars
 186
 187         * The database table pages_language_overlay was extended by several fields to
 188           support an alternative URL or a shortcut dependent on localization.
 189
 190 DBAL
 191 ====
 192
 193         * ...
 194
 195
 196 Backend skin
 197 ============
 198
 199         * ...
 200
 201
 202 Speed improvements
 203 ==================
 204
 205         * PHP classes for frontend plugins are now loaded only if they are used to render
 206           content by enabling the "includeLibs" property also for USER objects in TypoScript.
 207           In the past, all available class files for frontend plugins were loaded so this new
 208           feature increases performance by reducing memory consumption.
 209
 210         * TYPO3 now enables client caching of JavaScript, CSS and image files by using .htaccess
 211           files in various directories. This may cause problems if mod_expires is not enabled
 212           in the Apache configuration. See the FAQ section in the INSTALL.txt about disabling
 213           these files if necessary.
 214
 215 Important bugfixes
 216 ==================
 217
 218         * ...
 219
 220 Currently unsupported
 221 =====================
 222
 223         * Missing features concerning the disposal of Inline Relational Record Editing (IRRE)
 224                 -> Workspaces and Versioning are currently not supported
 225                 -> FlexForms using the TCA type 'inline' are currently not supported/tested
 226                 -> Import/Export (sysext tx_impexp) might not work correctly in special cases