Release of TYPO3 4.4alpha1 and the current status

Today, the TYPO3 community released the first alpha version of TYPO3 4.4. Although it's far from a final release, which is scheduled for a release in mid June, we're doing a lot of fine tuning and groundwork. You can consider this alpha version as a "developer snapshot" to try out and play around. First, I'll give you a short overview of what you will find in this alpha version, after that I will give you a brief snapshot of the current development and the changes that will await you in the next releases on our way to TYPO3 4.4. ExtDirect API We've introduced the great JavaScript library ExtJS in our most recent stable version, TYPO3 v4.3, but what to do with it? There is use for it in all sorts of places in the TYPO3 Core package. One important element that comes with ExtJS is ExtDirect, an API for a consistent way of communicating between the JavaScript framework and the server (which is in our case typo3/ajax.php). ExtDirect is the foundation for certain elements in the TYPO3 backend that can be ported to ExtJS, like the PageTree (there is already a working version in the <link http: forge.typo3.org repositories show hci>SVN repository from the TYPO3 User Experience Week T3UXW09) or the whole backend.php. The latter part is cool in a lot of ways: We will get rid of most of our frames in the TYPO3 backend ("Hello, drag'n'drop"), and have all our elements based on ExtJS which makes it easier to skin and style than in the current state.
Currently, Stefan Galinski is in charge of integrating this part and is doing an incredible job. Thanks! Static Templates in their own System Extension I don't know if you've ever heard of static templates. They were ready-to-go designs that are shipped with TYPO3 since version 3.5. However, they are quite outdated and actually look kind of silly nowadays, but still reside in the TYPO3 Core. The TypoScript for "table-based" rendering of Content Elements (content Default) is also among them. This part is now completely separate (previously inside the required "cms" system extension) and outsourced in a system extension "static_templates", which is not installed by default. An installer update checks if you need this extension in your existing TYPO3 installation, if you're still using one of these templates. This separation has also a nice side-effect: The overall system should be a little bit faster if you don't need to use these templates, since there is less configuration overhead. Get it - TYPO3 4.4.0alpha1 Be sure to download the Alpha packages from our <link http: typo3.org download packages>Download page or <link http: sourceforge.net projects typo3 files>SourceForge

MD5 checksums:

83e3600ab9af91a5c55282b837e8789c  dummy-4.4.0alpha1.tar.gz
bbb0c950ac5f94e8c2a96996a4e078ae  dummy-4.4.0alpha1.zip
12f857d96a69f3d8f021e2179a363c8c  typo3_src-4.4.0alpha1.tar.gz
ba5d1e63ac9400a56f9b4847867773ac  typo3_src-4.4.0alpha1.zip
4c38974d5c1e087e626fe0817afa0951  typo3_src+dummy-4.4.0alpha1.zip

or check them out via our Subversion repository on forge.typo3.org. When is TYPO3 4.4 gonna be released? Although we wanted to release in a six month period, Oliver Hader and me discussed in the last days that it might be better to have an additional month before the actual feature freeze happen, so there is a bit more time for your code to be integrated in the next major TYPO3 version. This said, the final release of TYPO3 4.4.0 will be on June 22nd, 2010. All further release dates "on the road" can be found on the <link http: forge.typo3.org wiki typo3v4-core fourfour>wiki page of forge.typo3.org.
What's next?
Workspace Improvements Last year, Sonja Scholz from cabag AG in Switzerland made some improvements to the workspaces handling in TYPO3. This includes features like disabling the draft workspace, allowing DB Mounts and Filemounts from the user to be mounted in a workspace as well, and individual workspace steps. The cool thing is that she developed these features as extensions that work with TYPO3 4.3 and the latest alpha, and are hopefully being integrated in the final version of TYPO3 4.4 as well. Please, have a look at the <link http: forge.typo3.org projects show typo3v4-workspaces>forge project and details on how to <link http: forge.typo3.org wiki typo3v4-workspaces try_out>grab the extension. Please provide feedback and enjoy these cool features.

Also, if you've seen the new Workspace preview module from AOE media in the latest podcasts, we hope to see some improvements for this part of the workspaces as well.

Icon Sprites / Skinning Steffen Gebert, Thomas Allmer and Fabien Udriot, all of them participants from the T3UXW09, are laying the groundwork for the new Skinning API which will be based on Icon sprites for faster loading. There is already the API itself currently being reviewed in the TYPO3 Core list, and the next steps like a sprite generating mechanism and updated icons will follow soon. By the way: These guys are also responsible for having a consistent naming scheme for all CSS classes in the TYPO3 backend, which will also be part of TYPO3 4.4. Consistent Validation For the new Forms project, some TCA elements / TCEforms, and for all Extbase extensions, there a certain concepts of validating input values. We decided to have one place in the TYPO3 core where you can validate certain core elements. It is yet unclear how this API will look like, however Sebastian Kurfürst and a few others will discuss this topic on the T3BOARD10. Btw: The Forms project is a rewrite of the FORM TypoScript element to have an up-to-date, accessible possibility to create forms for TYPO3-driven websites. The rewrite will also include a Wizard to easily click together the form you need to create. The whole project is coming together quite nicely, Patrick Broens is heavily working on this to get it ready for 4.4, but needs feedback for his work to enhance this feature. Please check out the code from the <link http: forge.typo3.org projects show typo3v4-form>SVN repository, try it out and provide feedback to him directly.

Refactored Extension Manager Marcus Krause "had an itch" for some time, which was the loading of the Extensions list from the remote server (which is currently heavily memory consuming, big time). He wrote a new XML parser for that job, and Steffen Kamper got hooked on the project, leading to split up the Extension Manager work in several API classes. We're all very much looking forward to an improved extension manager. See the current status on the <link http: forge.typo3.org projects show typo3v4-em>forge project page.

Of course there are many other things like the TCEforms refactoring and the new introduction package...

And finally -- A new mailing list!
For more readings, check out the FourFour page on forge, and make sure to read the freshly created Mailinglist / Newsgroup "typo3.projects.v4" from lists.typo3.org, which is meant to be a place to throw out new ideas for v4, and to discuss all newly breeding projects that could be integrated in TYPO3 v4. For TYPO3 4.3 we had the "typo3.projects.typo3v4-3", so this is the "version-independant" successor of the previous list.