TYPO3 CMS 6.2 LTS beta4 released

What happened since beta3?

Notable changes

• Performance, Micro-Optimizations: We continued working on that, read more about it below!
• Improved caching framework by introducing groups (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54991). Nice enhancement which allows more fine grained flushing of caches and keeping system caches intact when only page caches needs to be purged.
• Improved Frontend Editing: adapted styling, using sprites API, optimized usability (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#49640). Great work, Georg Ringer!
• Functional tests for IRRE are in the core (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54812, <link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54857, <link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54849, <link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54741): This is now the basis for further Workspaces/IRRE fixes, part of the <link http: forge.typo3.org issues>IRRE & MM bugfixes Workpackage.
• MySQL Strict Mode: Several reports of MySQL errors in the backend and in the install tool popped up lately. Most have to do with newly installed MySQL Servers (mostly MySQL 5.6, with homebrew, MacPorts or Windows Installer) which come with a new default "STRICT" mode active. This is still not supported by TYPO3 and so we documented that TYPO3 is not compatible with MySQL strict mode (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54883) as of now. A related bugfix now finally allows the admin to specify the required sql mode in [SYS][setDBinit] if it cannot be changed system-wide (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#41596). After 6.2 we will try to seek for "strict mode" compatibility, but this will also require changes in extensions.
• Deprecation note: In TYPO3 6.1 we removed fe_adminLib script (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#46469, part of statictemplates). As a followup to this, ExtensionManagementUtility::addTCAcolumns parameter $addTofeInterface is now deprecated (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54613).

First time contributions

Many thanks to the new first time contributors to the core: Cynthia Mattingly, Tom Ruether, Torben Hansen, Marcin Sagol, Thomas Blaß. Welcome on board and we hope to keep seeing you around in future.

Backend

The "Template Analyzer" is now again the last menu item (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#55097). It was moved accidentally after refactoring of the tstemplate extension. First time contributor Marcin Sagol removed the fixed width for Content Element Wizard tabs content container (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#53904). Great work!

Performance

This is the main current topic going on in our developer base. Let's get TYPO3 6.2 up to speed again! Lots of micro-optimizations, benchmarking and even learning new stuff during the past few weeks. Thanks for the hard work of Michiel Roos, Ingo Schmitt, Jo Hasenau, and many others working on the changes, reviewing and testing them:

• Improve caching framework by introducing groups (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54991)
• Bring back final class name cache (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#55024)
• Speedup typolink root-line handling (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54959)
• Prevent double loading of session data (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#53598)
• Optimize TypoScriptParser (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54856)
• Add index to sys_category (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54929)
• Use file_exists() instead of is_file() (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#55052)
• Replace all strcmp() calls with === (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54085)
• isValidUrl() idna converts whole URI (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#53862)
• Use arrays in str_replace() calls (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54500)
• We now have a better and more performant array_merge_recursive_overrule method, which works on a reference of the original array instead of a copy (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54251).
• joinTSarrays() is replaced by array_replace_recursive() (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54520)
• Superfluous comparison in indexed_search (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54053)
• Superfluous comparison in DatabaseRecordList (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54049)
• Cleanup convertParameterReflectionToArray() (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54021)

File Abstraction Layer

Steffen Ritter is leading the work on the <link http: forge.typo3.org issues>FAL Workpackage and got plenty of things solved already with the help of Frans Saris, Benni Mack, Alexander Stehlik and others:

• Driver API had too many crosscutting concerns (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54230, <link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54231): This is another important breaking change to the Driver API. Let's call the new API "FAL 2.0". We will provide proper documentation of all driver changes in 6.2 in time. The FAL Team is also in touch with the maintainers of the few driver implementations out there (Amazon S3, WebDAV, Dropbox) in order to have a smooth transition.
• Image CE rendering does not scale images (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#45086). First time contribution from Thomas Blaß, thanks for finding and fixing this!
• Add fileSuffix option to GeneralUtility::tempnam() (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54750)
• Exception in FileMetadataOverlayAspect (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54169)
• getFileIndexRecordsForFolder only works for hierarchical path (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#53687)
• Folder::getFiles directly calls Factory::createFileObject (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#53688)
• Allow more DB and File Mounts for BE users and BE groups (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#55018, <link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#55025). In big installations, more than just 25 DB mount points are needed. Raise the default configuration to 100

And plenty of work also went into improving FAL Performance by enhancing its SQL tables:

• Improved indexes for sys_file_metadata (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54927)
• Improved SQL definition for sys_file_storage (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54923)
• Added SQL index to Processed Files DB table (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54729)
• Optimize columns and indexes in sys_file_reference (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54726 and <link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54725)

Package Management

The new package management introduced in beta1 was improved a bit further, fixing some issues. It now ignores dependencies of inactive packages (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54879) and correctly handles dependencies for non-composer extensions (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54142). Furthermore, some PHP warnings were fixed (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54963).

Install Tool

We've added a new check for a libxml bug in the install tool (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#51271). Some minor bugs (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54569) and wording fixes were fixed (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#55053, <link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54677, <link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54531). On that matter we've got the first time contribution help of Cynthia Mattingly, who as a english native speaker is now motivated to further help us with the wording in the Install Tool. Thanks also Sebastian Fischer and marketing-factory.de for getting her on board.

Extension Manager

Fixed some issues. The new extension manager is indeed a candidate for more love and care. Please help us make this part of the core rock solid again.

• Images in distributions are not shown (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54411)
• Render ext icon in EM only if available (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54838)
• EM does not always show description (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54689)

Other

• Documentation Module: Several usability enhancement (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54067) and adapted order of cols (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54840).
• Extbase: Usage of sys_lang_mode in Typo3DbBackend (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#54182) [extbase], which was buggy since <link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#51106.
• Backend Layouts: Corrected handling of empty Backend Layouts (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#52596).
• Indexed Search: Indexing external documents with umlauts in filename did not work, now it does (<link http: forge.typo3.org issues _blank>#30244).

Downloading and Upgrading

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

• Download 6.2 beta4 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 the Core!

MD5 sum of packages

456090b1a012d612223c04bbf1d66cb6 typo3_src-6.2.0beta4.tar.gz 9b70d8e81982e6490a5134c549795ab3 typo3_src-6.2.0beta4.zip 

What's next?

Workpackages Project

The <link http: www.workpackages.org>Workpackages initiative was started and found funding to support all our needs until the 6.2 release. Several people and teams already started working on the pending tasks. Please note that we are still using the TYPO3 Association funding where it fits, but we use the power of further sponsoring to be able to provide better rates for the senior developers involved. Due to Matthias Schreiber (the initiator of the project) being on holiday, Ingo Schmitt took over the organization of this effort, and organized the work packages in <link http: www.workpackages.org>Epics in our issue tracker so that we have a better overview on what is still missing. Take a note of the responsible persons for each package:

• FAL: Steffen Ritter
• Workspaces Test-Cases and Fixes: Oliver Hader
• Importer / Exporter FAL Support: Marc-Bastian Heinrichs
• Overall System performance: Release Team
• Responsive Distribution: Benni Mack
• Security Enhancements in the Backend: Helmut Hummel

Code Sprint Köln

Our next big thing will be the <link http: wiki.typo3.org cms_codesprint_2014>Code Sprint in Köln. A new beta5 is planned for right after this week. Let's see what we manage to achieve there!