TYPO3 CMS 6.2 LTS beta2 released

This new snapshot of our 6.2 development is released in the light of the decision of postponing the final release of TYPO3. This means that this is not the last Beta-Release of the 6.2 branch yet. If you haven't read about it yet, read more about <link record:tt_news:1655>why we decided to postpone the final 6.2 release.

What's new since beta1?

Compared to beta1, beta2 contains lots improvements and fixes. We had documented some exceptions to the feature freeze which started with beta1, so these are the most prominent new features:

• Categories-based tt_content menu (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#52137)
• The new file abstraction layer indexer with a new Extractor interface and registry (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#52841, <link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#53599, <link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#53600). This also introduced new more flexible scheduler tasks (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#53601) that replace the old indexing task (now deprecated, but still available).
• Added DESC sorting for FILES cObject (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#53130)
• Enabled cookieHttpOnly by default to increase security in new installations (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#24647)
• Wizard to add OpenID to backend user (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#49310)
  

The remaining issues are bug fixes, tasks, usability improvements and stabilization. A total of 169 fixes and changes were incorporated since beta1! Amazing, fellow contributors, kudos to all of you and thanks for the hard work.

File Abstraction Layer

The file abstraction layer got plenty of attention due to the hard work of this small team, especially Steffen Ritter's endurance and perseverance. The team managed to include various bug fixes, API enhancements and stabilizations. There are still various issues to consider, so this is not yet the end. With the postponing of the final release we will be able to bring you a very mature and stable FAL that comes with an API that allows old DAM extensions to adapt very easily and with more flexibility. Also the Usability of working with files gained some attention, i.e. placeholders in content elements are now working (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#52630) and we improved drag&drop overwrite confirmation (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#53776). There are still plans on further enhancing this drag&drop functionality (see <link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#53829). Since also the data structure changed substantially since beta1 and also from previous releases, we ended up with several "Upgrade Wizards" to cope with these changes. So you are urged to go through all Upgrade Wizards in order to get a stable data structure, if you have tried out some previous snapshot before.

Performance

After beta1 we started the "Performance Task-Force" in order to tackle the most prominent performance hogs. Both the Frontend and the Backend performance were considered. We already enhanced a lot since beta1:

• Optimize performance of the class loader (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#53029)
• TCA cache is now a serialized array (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#53747),
• Icons in the Extension Manager and Language Module are no longer processed through FAL (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#53771, <link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#53627)

There is still room for improvement and there are already plenty of <link https: review.typo3.org q>work in progress. If you are interested in that area, contact us so that we can get you involved in that effort. We also need more test-cases and test-scenarios so we are glad if you can share your experience with that.

Usability

The Usability Team around Jens Hoffmann did a great job in collecting obvious "usability and layout issues" we have in the current backend. We have managed to tackle several issues already, but there are still work to be done. We are using Invision platform to communicate about the designs, and it this new working mode was found to be very productive for both the designers, usability experts, editors and developers.

Others changes

• Package Management: one of the great new feature introduced with beta1 was the new package management, allowing the Core to load Flow packages and be integrated in Composer-Based setups. In beta2 we have the most crucial issues solved, i.e. loading order of Extensions (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#52828), wrongly created PackageStates.php file (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#53410, <link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#53077). Once this has even more tests we will be able to further stabilize this integration.
  
• Install Tool: The Install Tool also gained several bug fixes and stabilization. There are further plans to yet improve usability especially for "new time users" which should be gently guided through an easy installation procedure.
• Responsive Images: this new feature that was already part of beta1 also gained several fixes now that was tested in the wild (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#53220, <link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#53003, <link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#52991). We expect to gain even more experience and feedback from it in the next months to improve it further.
• Backend Layouts: some issues surrounding the new Backend Layouts dataprovider have been solved now (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#53608, <link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#53244, <link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#53304, <link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#53269, <link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#52953, <link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#52983). This great new feature might get some enhancements and fixes still until final release.

Upgrading and Testing

If you have tried some earlier snapshot of the 6.2 development branch (i.e. some alpha or beta1) here are some tips when upgrading to this latest beta:

• Download from the <link>Download Page.
• Uncompress into your old Document Root.
• Switch the typo3_src symlink to the new package
• Use the Install Tool:
  • "Important Actions" and delete the whole cache content (make sure this deletes the whole typo3temp/Caches/* files and also the content of Extbase Reflection Caches - do it manually if not working otherwise!)
  • "Important Actions": Use the "Database Analyser" and let it migrate the data structure
  • "Upgrade Wizards": Walk through all Upgrade Wizards

Keep in mind that the exact same steps are required when upgrading from a previous version of TYPO3. Note that you might need to upgrade the extensions to the latest state before upgrading! Read more details on the already reworked <link https: github.com typo3 typo3.cms blob master install.md _blank file rendered at>INSTALL text file (now converted to Markdown markup).

MD5 sum of packages

d0806b18c28f3e72415160853bcb0e23 typo3_src-6.2.0beta2.tar.gz 50cd865600cd058a23dcff77ed6cac06 typo3_src-6.2.0beta2.zip 

Now we head into a phase of stabilization, as already explained in the article about postponing the release. The next steps are:

• Planning of the Stabilization Phase by the Release Team
• Special Release Team Meeting in Stuttgart, 5th until 8th of December
• 17th of December, release of Beta3

Then we gently move into Christmas and New Years Eve time and continue with full power in the next year. Keep in mind that all help is highly appreciated. Ask not what TYPO3 can do for you — ask what you can do for TYPO3! :)