Content Blocks — International Exchange and Major Feature Releases

Alongside these community touchpoints, we’ve continued to deliver improvements and new features for Content Blocks. Together, these efforts showcase how community collaboration and ongoing development drive the project forward.

Connecting with the Community

TYPO3 Camp Mitteldeutschland in Jena: A Wonderful Reunion

The TYPO3 Camp Central Germany in Jena was truly a highlight of quarter 1, 2025! It felt like a reunion among friends, with the warmth and enthusiasm of the community making every moment special. The atmosphere was electric with passionate discussions about TYPO3 and Content Blocks.

What really surprised us was the level of familiarity attendees already had with Content Blocks. We were positively surprised that no introduction session was necessary! This allowed us to pivot and offer something more valuable: a deep dive session packed with best practices, recommendations, how-tos, and advanced features that go beyond simple content element creation.

The engagement was fantastic, and the feedback we received was both incredibly positive and constructively helpful. It's moments like these that remind us why we love being part of this community!

Community Connections at TYPO3 Camps

In quarter 2, we attended TYPO3 Camp Switzerland and TYPO3 Camp Vienna to share our progress and gather feedback from the developer community. At TYPO3 Camp Switzerland, we ran two sessions covering Content Blocks basics for newcomers and advanced implementation techniques for experienced developers. The smaller, more intimate setting allowed for detailed discussions about specific use cases and implementation challenges.

At TYPO3 Camp Vienna, held at the University of Vienna, we followed a similar format with beginner and deep-dive sessions. The direct feedback from developers actively using Content Blocks in their projects helped us identify pain points and prioritize which features to focus on next. These events give us valuable insight into how Content Blocks perform in real-world scenarios and what developers actually need to get their work done efficiently.

Feature Highlights

Content Blocks: From v1.1.4 to v1.1.9

Throughout Q1, we were busy refining Content Blocks with regular updates. One notable improvement in version 1.1.7 is the ability to leave out default values, which will now default to null. This small change provides more flexibility in content configuration.

Our development efforts in Q2 resulted in significant enhancements across two major releases, introducing features that address real-world needs identified by our community.

Content Blocks 1.2 Features

FileTypes Support 
The sys_file_reference table of TYPO3 is special, because it has a type field which references values from another table. Content Blocks now allows you to override the types section for this table, making it possible to define custom file reference configurations with tailored fields and palettes. This feature opens new possibilities for creating specialized file handling workflows, such as custom image galleries or document management systems with specific metadata requirements.

Type Overrides 
This feature is the Content Blocks implementation of the mighty TCA feature overrideChildTca, allowing you to override anything in child tables. The most interesting use case is overriding the showitem string, which is especially valuable when working with sys_file_reference tables that don't allow custom types. This gives developers unprecedented flexibility in customizing how related records are displayed and organized within their Content Blocks.

Content Blocks 1.3 Features

Custom EditRecord ViewHelper 
Content Blocks introduces its own cb:link.editRecord ViewHelper that supports Page Layout anchor links by default. When you click on a custom edit link and close the editing interface, you automatically jump back to the referring Content Element. This small but significant improvement enhances the editor experience by maintaining context during content editing sessions, making workflows more fluid and efficient.

Default config.yaml Values 
The content-blocks.yaml file has been extended to support arbitrary default values for the generated config.yaml file from the make:content-block command. This feature streamlines the setup process for new Content Blocks by allowing developers to define project-wide defaults for common configurations like group assignments, field prefixes, and basic settings, reducing repetitive configuration work.

Support for Record Object in EditRecord ViewHelper
Building on the Custom cb:link.editRecord ViewHelper, this enhancement allows direct use of record objects in edit links, making template development more intuitive. The important part is adding the id attribute following the schema: element-[type]-[uid], making it easier for editors to edit specific items quickly.

PAGEVIEW Data Processing Support 
The Content Blocks Data Processor is now able to resolve the Page Record for page templates based on PAGEVIEW. This addition streamlines the integration of page-level Content Blocks with TypoScript templates, providing a unified approach to handling both page and content-level structured data across your TYPO3 installation.

Publish Assets Command 
The command content-blocks:assets:publish publishes your public Content Block assets into the Resources/Public folder of the host extension. While this normally happens automatically during Content Blocks compilation, having it as a separate command proves invaluable in deployment scenarios where database connections aren't available during the build process, such as containerized deployments or CI/CD pipelines.

Allowed Record Types in Collection 
It is now possible to set specific record types which should be available for the type selector of Collection items. The most common use case is probably some kind of accordion or tab element, which should only have a few allowed Content Elements as children. This feature provides better content governance by ensuring that collection-based elements maintain their intended structure and purpose.

Community Feedback: Support, Insights, and Improvements

We are grateful for the invaluable feedback from our community. Through our active Slack channel, we've been providing continuous support and gathering insights. It's been fascinating to see the variety of questions we receive — while not all are directly Content Blocks related, they help us understand the broader context in which developers work.

We've noticed that many reported issues stem from misunderstandings about implementation approaches. This feedback loop has been incredibly valuable, helping us identify areas where our documentation could be clearer. Even more exciting, some of the feedback we received about Content Blocks helped us discover and fix several TYPO3 Core bugs along the way. It's a perfect example of how community collaboration strengthens the entire ecosystem!

What's Next?

Looking ahead to Q3, we're focusing on refining the developer experience with Content Blocks and exploring deeper integrations with TYPO3's ecosystem. We're also working on a dedicated Content Blocks GUI that will provide a visual interface for creating and managing Content Blocks, making the technology accessible to users who prefer working with graphical tools rather than YAML configuration files. The feedback from our camp presentations has given us valuable insights into where we should direct our efforts next, particularly around making Content Blocks even more accessible to developers transitioning from traditional TYPO3 development approaches.

You can find Content Blocks on GitHub and install it via Composer with composer require friendsoftypo3/content-blocks. The documentation provides comprehensive guides for getting started and exploring advanced features.

Meet Us at Upcoming TYPO3 Camps!

We're thrilled to announce that you'll have the opportunity to meet team members at two upcoming TYPO3 camps:

TYPO3 Camp Munich 
We'll be presenting at TYPO3 Camp Munich with sessions on Content Blocks development. Get your tickets today!

TYPO3 Camp Berlin 
We'll also be at TYPO3 Camp Berlin to share updates on Content Blocks and discuss implementation strategies. Get your tickets and we’ll see you there.

Keep In Touch

Thank you for your great feedback so far! Please keep testing and sharing your thoughts with us! You can reach us at #cig-structuredcontent channel on Slack, or join our calls on the 1st and 3rd Monday of the month at 20:00 CET (19:00 UTC).

The Content Types Team