TYPO3 CMS 6.2 LTS alpha2 released

Categories: Development, Community Created by Ernesto Baschny <ernesto.baschny@typo3.org>
The TYPO3 CMS Team and the TYPO3 Community are happy to announce the availability of a new sneak preview of the upcoming 6.2 LTS release: 6.2 alpha2.
Since the <link record:tt_news:1568>release of alpha1 (June 4th) we have had plenty of activity in our development team. Workspaces experts met up in Frankfurt at dkd for some <link http: wiki.typo3.org cms_wv_code_sprint_2013_frankfurt>heavy Workspaces Brainstorming sessions. We have had the incredible <link http: typo3.org news article developer-days-2013>Developer Days last week in Hamburg. The Active Contributors team met three days prior to it (report still to come). We haven't published some general news regarding 6.2 development since over a month, so there is lot of nice stuff to share. Please hold your breath and read on! What's new with alpha2 since alpha1? Here is a short round-up:
  • Install Tool completely refactored
  • We finally removed t3lib completely
  • Extbase now has recursive validation
  • Our Logger is now fully PSR-3 compliant
  • We merged the separate ts_* extensions into one
  • You can now drag&drop files into the file list to upload them
  • There is a new "System" group in the module menu
  • The BE authentication now uses saltedpassword by default
  • Many many other usability and code cleanups
And now the gory details (you can breath again...):

Install Tool

The most prominent and ambitious change was the completely reworked Install Tool (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49162). The base is the master refactoring work done by Christian Kuhn. It not only provides a suberb and robust new code base for the delight of the fellow developers: It also comes with a whole new usability feeling. It is designed not to crash, and redesigned to cope with the shortcomings that we have known for ages. The main menu now presents the Install Tool modules in a more usable way. All important actions (like "Database compare", "Change of site name" and "Create new admin user") are grouped together in one menu entry. The system environment now has dozens of new checks, which are directly linked from the Reports module in case some misconfiguration is detected. The folder structure can now be checked and automatically cleaned up (i.e. creating missing subdirectories, changing the permissions). Read more about the <link http: forge.typo3.org projects typo3v4-core repository revisions>technical details of this change if you are interested. The Usability Team will further go through the modules and further optimize it, while the development team will still be enhancing it even more.

The "Packaging" project

The refactored Install Tool doesn't currently provide support for installing the Introduction or the Government Packages as before. The package-handling will be completely reworked during the next weeks to provide several benefits:
  • Packages will be simply "extensions". The Install Tool will redirect to the Backend Login and the Extension Manager will then pick up with some workflow to install available packages.
  • The extensions will be provided through TER so that other enthusiasts could also create their own packages.
  • Package extensions will come with their extension dependencies so that the EM can fetch the right extensions directly from TER (rather than having to be shipped with the Package itself). A fallback possibility of providing the extensions in a "zip" package already is being considered..
  • It looks like a new Responsive Package will replace the current Introduction Package. Benni Mack is currently working on the basis of Sven Wolfermann's package.
So stay tuned for more news on that area!

Cleanup's: no more t3lib!

Wait a minute, what?! Yes, in alpha1 we already removed lots of obsolete files from t3lib. Now we managed to move them all to the corresponding System Extensions (core, backend, ...). So no more need to keep this folder around. A minimal typo3_src could now contain only the entry point index.php and a single typo3/ subdirectory containing the whole core! This also means that the constant TYPO3_t3lib was not used anymore, and thus removed. It was mostly used for "require_once" in extensions, which did not work since alpha1 anyway: Simply rely on the auto-loader and you can still use the old class names (t3lib_div etc) even though they are now called differently. Apart from this and plenty of other cleanups, we merged the separate tstemplate_* extensions (Template Analyzer, Object Browser, Info, Constant Editor, Info/Modify) into one single extension to ease maintainability.

Usability / Backend

Felix Kopp and the Usability Team continued to clean up the backend. The goal is still to have a common standard for backend modules to follow. To acchieve this, lots of conflicting ways of stying have to be identified and cleaned up.

New "System" top level backend module group

In the past system utilities cluttered the "Admin Tools". It was not uncommon that this holded up to 20 entries. Clearly too much for a menu. So we introduced a new top level module group called "System" (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#48625) and moved the "low level" administrative modules there ("Backend users", "Install tool", "DB check" etc), leaving most commonly used tools in "Admin Tools" which is also the place where extensions currently place their admin modules.

Extbase and Fluid

Finally Extbase allows recursive validation (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#6893). Note that in certain situations this can be a breaking change, please stay up to date by following <link http: forge.typo3.org projects typo3v4-mvc wiki breaking_changes>the list of Extbase/Fluid breaking changes, maintained by the Extbase team. The team also improved some ViewHelpers: The BE module ViewHelper was improved to allow loading more than one CSS/JS files and other new goodies (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49749). Already in use by the Extension Manager, Language and Reports Module. There is now a new Switch-ViewHelper (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#48653) and one to display file sizes (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49139).

Logging API

Our logging API is now fully compliant with the <link https: github.com php-fig fig-standards blob master accepted psr-3-logger-interface.md>PSR-3 specification. This means that integrating third party components which require Psr\Log\LoggerInterface is now fully supported. Further work is still open and we need your help to tackle it. Get in touch with Steffen Müller through the <link http: forge.typo3.org projects typo3v4-logging>Logging Project if you want to contribute.

File Abstraction Layer

During the Developer Days a Workshop concentrated on the user experience of FAL. During this, we managed to include two new additions thanks to the work done by new FAL artists:
  • You can now drag&drop files into the file list to upload them directly - if your browser supports it (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#47005).
  • The Label for sys_file_reference which is displayed for example on content elements referencing to files was made more usable (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49718).
Since there is still lot of work to do to make FAL provide a robust API for everyone's needs, we will be organizing a Code Sprint for it in the next two months. Stay tuned for more information on that! During the Developer Days we gathered many new ideas and got in touch with new potential contributors.

TER extension cleanup

The TYPO3 Core's Extension Manager now support the concept of "outdated" extensions in TER (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49350). This was <link http: typo3.org news article announcing-ter-cleanup-process>introduced with the TER cleanup project and will improve search for actively maintained extensions. Currently no extension is marked as "outdated", but as soon as TER starts outdating extensions, the extension manager will know about it.

Other notable changes

Extensions providing backend modules now have a new option to configure the module when calling ExtensionManagementUtility::addModule() (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49643). This makes the conf.php file obsolete. There is now a new task for the scheduler to update language files automatically (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#43703). Currently it is a bit hidden inside the "Extbase CommandController Task", but this should be improved later (see <link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49375). The BE authentication now uses saltedpassword and rsaauth by default (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49694).

Downloading and Upgrading

You can download TYPO3 6.2.0alpha2 on our <link>download page in the tab "TYPO3 CMS 6.2 LTS Preview".

MD5 Sums of packages:

d528f7abe0290bfb4302b7ef7b64a2fe typo3_src-6.2.0alpha2.tar.gz d71b97d09cb1719b76ba3bd86efaba19 typo3_src-6.2.0alpha2.zip 855dc17f85f3ce23b19c1f4d76883f71 blankpackage-6.2.0alpha2.tar.gz cc0a6caf4f1b34b4eb34eff159f18a66 blankpackage-6.2.0alpha2.zip 51c546d3d4e47c0bf1c23f6adf341131 dummy-6.2.0alpha2.tar.gz 07434fe70acc3a67e23fb0a09568df3d dummy-6.2.0alpha2.zip 6b244fe908a301a3d9c1437da08b381c typo3_src+dummy-6.2.0alpha2.zip

Upgrading notes:

Please note that we haven't shipped an Introduction Package and a Government Package with alpha2 as explained above. One way to use the introduction package with alpha2, is:
  • Install 6.2 alpha1 Introduction Package
  • Remove typo3_src and replace it with a "fresh copy" of alpha2 source package (or simply checkout current "master" from git instead).
If after updating your typo3_src you get some "Fatal error" (i.e. Interface 'Psr\Log\LoggerInterface' not defined or Call to a member function isEnvironmentInFrontendMode() on a non-object), make sure that you:
  • clean typo3temp/Cache directory
  • use "Clear all caches" in the backend.

What's to come?

Despite being a couple of days later with the alpha2 release we are still in track with <link http: forge.typo3.org projects typo3cms-v62 wiki release_plan>the 6.2 Roadmap. The following events are planned already for the weeks to come:
  • <link http: wiki.typo3.org phpunit_code_sprint_2013>PHPUnit Code Sprint Berlin: July 19-21
  • <link http: wiki.typo3.org ecs13ws>Extbase Code Sprint for Workspaces Stuttgart: August 15-18
  • TYPO3 Smooth Migration Sprint: August 26-30 (details will follow)
  • FAL Code Sprint (being planned)

List of unique new changes in 6.2 alpha2

Apart from the below mentioned 112 new unique issues since alpha1, the team was able to commit 98 other bugfixes which were also backported to older releases! That's a huge effort, thanks to everyone involved! Refer to the <link https: git.typo3.org packages typo3.cms.git shortlog refs tags typo3_6-2-0alpha2>git log for full details.

Install Tool

  • [TASK] Install steps: Load saltedpasswords and rsaauth (core) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49694)
  • [BUGFIX] Reports module link to Install Tool section is incorrect (reports lang) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49352)
  • [BUGFIX] System information looks ugly (install) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49748)
  • [BUGFIX] Folder structure honors file and folderCreateMask (install others) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49715)
  • [TASK] Database analyzer: Enable add tables and add fields (install) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49705)
  • [BUGFIX] Installer triggers PHP warnings with folder structure tests (install) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49700)
  • [BUGFIX] Install tool performs all db updates (install) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49591)
  • [BUGFIX] Check for imageftbbox() existence before usage (install) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49458)
  • [BUGFIX] Reports Module links to the standalone install tool (lang install) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49353)
  • [TASK] Adapt install tool mail functions to use Swiftmailer (install) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49366)
  • [TASK] Install: Update TTFdpi test description text (install) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49267)
  • [TASK] Remove last bits of forceCharset handling (install core others) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49336)
  • [BUGFIX] Show unit "Bytes" for file size of Installer test images (install) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49269)
  • [TASK] Remove last bit of multiplyDBfieldSize handling (install) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49334)
  • [FEATURE] Install tool: Remove obsolete keys from LocalConfiguration (core install) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49299)
  • [BUGFIX] Frontend shows HTML tags in messages (install) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49266)
  • [BUGFIX] Install tool: Warning in upgrade wizard (install) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49265)
  • [BUGFIX] Use userInput instead of own broken method (install) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49260)
  • [BUGFIX] Update Wizard user input not taken into account (install) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49258)
  • [TASK] Install tool: Code optimization in update wizard action (install) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49263)
  • [TASK] Rewrite install tool (install) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49162)
  • [BUGFIX] Fix missing single quotes in SchemaMigratorTest (install) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49072)
  • [FEATURE] Install tool: Check xdebug.max_nesting_level (install) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49298)

Frontend

  • [FEATURE] Debug register and page with TypoScript (frontend) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49478)
  • [FEATURE] Hook for tsfe::checkEnableFields (frontend) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#48981)
  • [BUGFIX] Follow-up: Add stdWrap for _DEFAULT_PI_VARS (frontend) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49314)
  • [FEATURE] Add stdWrap for _DEFAULT_PI_VARS (frontend) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#22045)

Extbase / Fluid

  • [TASK] NEWS.txt Entry for recursive validation in extbase () (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49669)
  • [FEATURE] Backport recursive and allowing empty validation from Flow (extbase) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#6893)
  • [FEATURE] Enable chaining of set* funtions (extbase) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#47684)
  • [BUGFIX] Generation of class information fails with DateTime (extbase) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49307)
  • [BUGFIX] ShortcutVH must not ignore options.enableBookmarks (fluid) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49220)
  • [FEATURE] ViewHelper to display file sizes (fluid) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49139)
  • [FEATURE] Switch View Helper (fluid) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#48653)
  • [FEATURE] Improve BE container view helper (extensionmanager langfluid) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49749)

Developement / Integrator:

  • [BUGFIX] Fix deprecation call in AbstractRecordList (backend) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49764)
  • [FEATURE] Add TCA label_userFunc_options support to BackendUtility (backend) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49721)
  • [FEATURE] IRRE: Provide default values for created records (backend) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#46124)
  • [FEATURE] Allow flexible configuration for BE submodules (backend others) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49643)
  • [FEATURE] Exclude doktypes from pagetree (backend) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49279)

FAL:

  • [BUGFIX] Change the label userfunc for FAL records (core:Resource) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49718)
  • [FEATURE] Add Drag&Drop Upload to file-list (backend lang others) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#47005)

Core Misc:

  • [FEATURE] MathUtility: Add canBeInterpretedAsFloat (core) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49144)
  • [FEATURE] Increase size of be_groups table subgroup field (core) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#36505)
  • [TASK] Namespacing: Use-statement for common classes like GeneralUtility (core frontend others) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49745)
  • [BUGFIX] Cleanup permission settings in factory configuration (core) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49732)
  • [TASK] CGL, switch(): Indent "case" correctly; no "break" in default (core indexed_searchfrontend dbal backendothers) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49527)
  • [FEATURE] Add checkFlexFormValue hook in DataHandler (core) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49699)
  • [BUGFIX] Skip APC test on php 5.3 (core) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49682)

Logging:

  • [BUGFIX] Failing test due to Log exception renaming (core) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49663)
  • [TASK] Mention PSR-3 Logger compatibility in News.txt () (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49661)
  • [TASK] Throw InvalidArgumentException for undefined log level (core) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#48876)
  • [TASK] Implement LoggerInterface from PSR-3 (others) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#48880)
  • [TASK] Convert log levels from string to integer (core) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#48881)
  • [TASK] Cast log message to string (core) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#48877)

Backend Features:

  • [FEATURE] Add search for alias as option to the pagetree filter (backend) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#32960)
  • [FEATURE] Refactor ElementInfo / show_item (backend) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49164)
  • [FEATURE] Scheduler: Add delete button to edit view (scheduler) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#48054)
  • [TASK] Make uid,pid selectable by users in list view (recordlist) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49810)
  • [TASK] DB-Browser: Pagetree shown even though tables only allow rootLevel (recordlist) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#47436)
  • [FEATURE] Allow custom record list in element browser (recordlist) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49037)

Language:

  • [TASK] Move language include to .xlf (cms others) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49832)
  • [FEATURE] Add task to auto update languages (lang) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#43703)

TS-Template Modules:

  • [FEATURE] Merge extensions TS/Template (tstemplatetstemplate_ceditorothers) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49270)
  • [TASK] Remove table in TSOB condition (tstemplate_objbrowser) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49635)

Backend User Management:

  • [CLEANUP] Use proper Clickmenu API (beuser backendtstemplate_infosys_note others) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#20326)
  • [TASK] Backend user management: add delete button (beuser) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#43053)

Backend Styling / Cleanups:

  • [TASK] Remove <table> in lowlevel configuration (lowlevel) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49743)
  • [BUGFIX] Bring back my icons to me, to me () (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49594)
  • [BUGFIX] Follow-up: Docheader spacious (row1/row2) (t3skin) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49735)
  • [TASK] Remove not needed icons & css (others) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49638)
  • [TASK] Use flash message in CreatePageWizard (wizard_crpages) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49637)
  • [TASK] Replace table structure in new element wizard (backend t3skin) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49603)
  • [FEATURE] Module menu: System group (t3skin lowlevelscheduler others) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#48625)
  • [BUGFIX] Followup for removed table wrap in FormEngine (backend) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49647)
  • [TASK] Clean up TCEforms main table and according CSS definitions (t3skin) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49596)
  • [TASK] Remove not needed table in permission legend (perm t3skin) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49599)
  • [TASK] Docheader drop-shadow (t3skin others) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49597)
  • [TASK] Remove empty table at end of list output (backend recordlistothers) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49593)
  • [TASK] Crisp up navigation frames borders (t3skin) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#48586)
  • [TASK] Unwrap "Page TSconfig" info tree (info_pagetsconfig) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#48976)
  • [TASK] Page module edit icon for language overlay (backend others) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#39107)
  • [FEATURE] Add autofocus attribute to BE login (backend) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49228)
  • [TASK] EXT: t3skin - extract table styling (t3skin) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#48786)
  • [TASK] EXT: t3skin: Extract form styling into own file (t3skin) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#48783)
  • [TASK] Remove styles for former ExtensionManager (t3skin) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#48550)

Cleanups:

  • [TASK] Adapt INSTALL.txt to removed t3lib () (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49346)
  • [TASK] Remove constant PATH_t3lib (core t3editor) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49348)
  • [TASK] Move ExtJS- & JavaScript from t3lib (backend) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49342)
  • [TASK] Move typo3/stylesheets to EXT: backend (backend) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49747)
  • [TASK] Cleanup entry classes in typo3/ part1 (backend) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49394)
  • [TASK] Cleanup ext:recordlist (recordlist) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49578)
  • [TASK] Cleanup ext:lowlevel (lowlevel) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49552)
  • [TASK] Cleanup ext:setup and ext:tstemplate (setup tstemplate) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49580)
  • [TASK] Cleanup ext:opendocs (opendocs) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49550)
  • [TASK] Move JavaScript files to EXT: backend (backend) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49507)
  • [TASK] Remove dummy files from ext:indexed_search (indexed_search others) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#47852)
  • [TASK] Remove dummy files from ext:wizard_crpages and wizard_sortpages (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#48155)
  • [TASK] Remove class.* from /typo3/ (recordlist backendothers) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#48942)
  • [TASK] Remove last bits of gdlib_2 setting (core others) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49335)
  • [TASK] Cleanup openid extension (openid) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#48522)
  • [TASK] Cleanup wizard initializing (backend) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#48963)
  • [TASK] Remove duplicate vera.ttf from ext:core (core) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49261)
  • [TASK] Remove unused icons from /gfx () (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49112)
  • [TASK] Move video-js to contrib () (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49152)
  • [TASK] Move express-install to contrib (flowplayer) () (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49151)
  • [TASK] Move t3lib/csconvtbl && t3lib/unidata (core) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#49005)
  • [TASK] Remove "require_once" in /typo3/ () (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#48934)
  • [TASK] Move JavaScript files out of t3lib (backend others) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#48379)
  • [BUGFIX] Fixed return URL in reports module (reports) (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues>#43417)