Thomas Löffler
A Visionary Thing?
It could be said that the TYPO3 Extension Repository was the first ever app marketplace in the world.
The SUSE Linux distribution had a frontend for its own app repository in 1996. Vodafone and Nokia had carrier-free downloadable content from 2002. Apple's App Store and the Google Play Store (formerly Android Market) both opened in 2008. Blackberry and Microsoft’s app marketplaces opened soon after, in 2009. When compared to some of the biggest and most popular names, TYPO3 is certainly a frontrunner.
The Beginning
With the first upload of the extension cc_fortune by René Fritz the success story of the Extension Repository began. The description of the extension says “This is a small PHP script to put a random message like a citation on a page.” and this shows us quite clearly the elegant simplicity of our earliest extension.
Some Numbers
In the 20 years since the first upload, there have been:
- 12,216 extension keys registered
- 117,064 extension versions uploaded by
- 40,338 different authors
The Future
Implementing a REST interface and building a connection to Packagist are just small steps into the future. Our vision is to have a “beautiful Packagist for TYPO3 extensions”, with its own filter and features.
Some Historical Articles About TER
- 4 August 2005: TER 2: First milestone reached
- 3 January 2006: TER2 - Save your private extensions!
- 14 February 2006: Launch of the new extension repository
- 14 March 2006: Mirroring TER2 - beta phase starts
- 20 July 2010: typo3.org relaunch status
- 15 February 2011: T3O: typo3.org Relaunch Week
- 24 May 2013: TER: New requirement for extension upload
- 13 October 2016: Extraction of TYPO3 Extension Repository
- 22 August 2017: New TYPO3 Extension Repository launching
- 25 November 2020: Extension Repository Shows Localization Status
- 2 June 2022: Deprecation and Shutdown of TER SOAP Interface
