By Thomas Esders
Although the TYPO3 developers clearly write down all changes, it is not very easy to understand and convenient for people who just want to know the interesting changes. This document aims to give you a short sum-up.
Intended Audience
This document is made for all TYPO3 users who would like to have a short overview of what has changed in the new TYPO3 release version 4.2.
For latest information on this release please see [1]. A full List of changes can be found in the ChangeLog shipped with the downloaded package.
Installation and upgrade
A update to this version is straight forward as usual. See [2] for details on how to update a TYPO3 installation.
Important note: The PHP version requirement for this TYPO3 release is raised to PHP 5.2.0!
Backend improvements
This release can definitely be labeled as the "reincarnation of the backend". For the first time since TYPO3 3.5 we see a new default backend with many changes aiming to improve the usability for end users. The restructuring of the backend is called "Cleaner Backend Project" and is now complete.
The new backend comes with a completely new toolbar at the top of the backend. This toolbar now contains the logout button, currently logged in user, workspace selector, a menu to clear caches, a shortcut menu, and a search field. The technique to display the frames has changed from “frames” to “iframes”.
Further changes introduced by the Cleaner Backend Project include a new toolbar when editing content elements and other records. The editor toolbar replaces the former buttons at the top and bottom of the editing forms by grouping them together and making them stick to the top of the form even if you scroll down.
The navigation Page Tree now got a nifty searchbox to filter and highlight/dim elements in the tree. This is very handy for quickly finding your way through huge Page Trees. The navigation Page Tree is now organized so that all pages shown in the menu are grouped in their normal order while pages "Not in Menu" and SysFolders are ordered alphabetically below. TSconfig options exists to configure/disable both these features.
The module for editing pages is divided into tabs. This helps to get shorter page-dialogs to configure the properties of a page.
Another welcomed change concerns the clipboard. Until now it was unclear whether the clipboard was in copy or move mode, this has been resolved by adding a select box clearly stating the current mode.
You can now select in which module you start after you log in to the backend under “User settings”. When installing a new extension that contains backend modules they will show up immediately without the need of reloading the backend.
Tabs in forms now indicate whether a required field is hidden on them.
Last but not least context sensitive help is now shown when you hover over the help icons you find in the backend.
