How Documentation Professionalises TYPO3
The TYPO3 project was always amazing. But especially with all the changes started in 2015 we see more retention. There is a lot of regained adoption, but still RTFS is a barrier for adoption. Good documentation creates traction for a project. Professionalism of a project comes with documentation. Documentation underlines the value developers rate their project with.
Especially with the steep learning curve people mention as a hurdle to adopt TYPO3 steps to set up and deploy TYPO3 are important. I do consultancy for many different open source projects, these days with Age of Peers, and in the majority of projects documentation, whether user oriented or technical plays a large role in community health. <link http: docs.typo3.org>
Project documentation:
- describes the project and issues it is trying to solve
- helps people getting started
- solves problems
- helps developer(s) validate that what they write makes sense
- supports maintenance and actively stewards community maintenance
- plenty more...
Martin says:
I’m very happy I could make the new theme (for docs.typo3.org)reality this year and that I pushed that through. People like it a lot. It really makes a difference. Soon we will switch the extensions to the new theme too. Xavier Perseguers has gone far on that track already. Each extension author then should add one file ‘Settings.cfg’ with a bit of meta data (title, author, copyright, description). So that’s where people should jump in. Besides that, it has never been easier to contribute to documentation (press the “Edit me on Github” button). Everybody should start doing that. Many already do, which is great.
Next step I’ll do is: pick an 7.6 LTS Introduction package, change layout and styling a bit and make that the start page on documentation. Then we can have that “more sexy” and add all the news and pointers to how-to's there.
There is another thing in the pipeline. Looking at this page: <link https: docs.typo3.org typo3cms fileabstractionlayerreference developers api allthelinks>docs.typo3.org/typo3cms/FileAbstractionLayerReference/Developers/Api/AllTheLinks/Index.html you can see the start to document the FAL API (File Abstraction Layer - Application Programming Interface). You will notice that linking to the API is doable already. In the API you can find what the Core developer wrote as PHPDOC comment IN THE CODE:
There now is a way to automatically insert those Comments=Descriptions of the Core developer into the documentation page. That really makes a difference! Core developers wouldn’t have to change much for this?—?just write complete sentences. And there is more to come. A lot of dedication goes into infrastructure making it a collaborative platform. Your help writing documentation is needed and the team has done a lot to make it very easy to contribute. The current documentation team has a small, but very dedicated basis. Next to core documentation, extension documentation is extremely important, because that is an easy angle as community member to contribute. To start your extension documentation install extension “sphinx” from TER (TYPO3 Extension Repository). It lets extension developers convert their existing OpenOffice manual.sxw (old format) to Sphinx, or kick-start documentation for their extensions. Rendering is done locally, installation is automatic. It’s really a few minute install (mainly of “waiting”) before one is able to work on doc locally. Check out Getting Started Tutorial for TYPO3 7 LTS on docs.typo3.org for getting up to speed with the latest TYPO3 version.
For those willing to help with official manuals, it is best to join the documentation channel on Slack.
TYPO3 Certification Sprint
On January 25 and 26 the Certification Team held a sprint. On many different fronts the team was brimming with activity. Many different new kinds of certifications are around the corner. The two certifications currently being worked on are Certified TYPO3 Editor & Certified TYPO3 Developer. Ahead in the future also lie Certified TYPO3 Agency & Certified TYPO3 Consultant, which would mean a total of 5 different certifications when all is achieved.
At the sprint questions for the developer certification were established and discussed. The integrator certification was revised and of course tested. A training manual is also planned and available for purchase at a later stage. We’ll keep you updated.
The team created a great ‘Getting Started’ overview on typo3.org
more certification info:
- <link https: wiki.typo3.org education_committee_sprint_hamburg_-_2016>wiki.typo3.org/Education_Committee_Sprint_Hamburg...
- <link https: wiki.typo3.org certification_team team_sprint_january>wiki.typo3.org/Certification_team/2016/Team_sprint_january
- <link https: twitter.com typo3_cert>twitter.com/typo3_cert
TYPO3 Campus
The Certification Team initiated the TYPO3 Campus e-learning platform, based on Moodle. The TYPO3 Editor certification will be available at the TYPO3 Campus website as a web based online certification. This certification will be multilingual to address the editor target group and their needs. For now there is a German language version available after signing up for an account.
The other certifications will be either live certifications or PEARSON VUE certifications as we have known them from the past years. The live certifications have returned by popular demand. Event organizers who are interested in having live certifications at their events can get in touch with Pascal Dürsteler (<link>certification@typo3.org) from the certification task force for details.
T3Rookies
In 2015 the T3Rookies initiative had en exchange program with Romania where they built a website for an orphanage.
T3Rookies has several activities going on this year aimed at pupils, students and trainees (age range 16–25 years) offering free / reduced-cost tickets to for instance TYPO3camps and other TYPO3 related events.
For TYPO3camp Vienna and TYPO3camp Venlo each there are 3 free tickets available. Send an email, together with a copy of your student pass or ID , and let T3Rookies know why you like to be there and get a free ticket. Don’t forget you need to be registered on the T3Rookies website. T3Rookies also puts a lot of effort into getting young people an apprenticeship at a TYPO3 company. If you, as a company, can offer training or apprenticeship for rookies as members of the TYPO3 community. It means a lot for the TYPO3 project if we are able to integrate and support young people. Participating companies will have their logo on the t3rookies website and they will be mentioned as much as possible in the communication channels. For more information on how to contribute to the program please contact Ingo Müller at <link>rookies@typo3.org.
T3Rookies also raffled a number of books that were graciously provided by authors Kay Strobach, Jo Hasenau and Thomas Deuling who wrote the book on Theming for TYPO3. AUTHORS! Please let T3Rookies know if you have some books to share. The rookies are young and eager to learn!
T3Rookies Summer Camp 2016
The plan for 2016 is to have the Summer Camp in 4 European locations simultaneously from July 23–31 2016 (incl. Weekends with leisure). Each location will host 6 rookies. During the work week, the kids are working on a project that is either a charity or community project. Locations will be Germany, Sweden and Romania. The organisation is looking for one more location. If you are interested in organising a Rookies Summer Camp, please get in touch with <link>rookies@typo3.org. Of course you can also sooth your guilty conscience by supporting the Summer Camp 2016 financially. The TYPO3 kidz need your support. If you are between 16 and 25 years of age and want to particpate in the Summer Camp 2016 than apply at <link http: t3rookies.net>t3rookies.net. Registration starts at the beginning of March.
Meet India TYPO3 User Group (iTUG)
Sanjay Chauhan lets us know that iTUG?—?India TYPO3 User Group?—?was started at April 2015 at office of NITSAN. They regularly meet at each 2nd & 4th Saturday with 15+ TYPO3 Enthusiast. Currently, the UG is developing a site for the usergroup which will be release soonish.
The India TYPO3 User Group is a non-profit association and consists of users, administrators, developers, testers, designers and agencies, which focus on working with the Open Source.
- The aim of iTUG is the promotion and involvement/participation into TYPO3 community.
- The iTUG’s goals are to enthuse TYPO3 developers / Integrators / Testers / Agency within India-Asia and promote TYPO3.
iTUG Community
iTUG looks at developing TYPO3 Extensions for TER. Raise awareness of TYPO3 CMS to Universities Students and trying to explore TYPO3 to Local Agencies & IT Professional to use TYPO3 as CMS for their agencies / companies.
For any questions feel free to contact, ITUG warmly welcomes you to join.
- Email: <link>sanjay@nitsan.in (Sanjay Chauhan)
- <link https: www.facebook.com indiatypo3usergroup>www.facebook.com/indiatypo3usergroup/
- <link https: www.linkedin.com groups>www.linkedin.com/groups/8455472
TYPO3?—?The University CMS
At the end of last year, at the Eastern European TYPO3 Conference (T3EE) in Cluj, a couple of people from international universities using TYPO3, met unexpectedly, not knowing beforehand more universities were visiting the conference in this Romanian university city. Universities from Austria, Greece and the Netherlands talked and discussed about their experiences with TYPO3 within these large organizations. It seemed we are all facing the same problems and challenges, reinventing the wheel without proper communication between these universities.
Patrick Broens, hired by the Technical University of Eindhoven in the Netherlands, and Raman Ganguly, from Vienna University Austria, joined forces to try to organize an international TYPO3 event dedicated to universities and other large educational institutions. This event will take place right before the T3EE in Cluj in November of this year. The goals are to meet, discuss and learn with and from other universites, but also to promote TYPO3 as “the” CMS for universities all around the world, like in Eastern Europe, hence the location.
At the moment the team is collecting contact information of the university employees responsible for their TYPO3 installations. Not only on a technical level, but also decision makers, daily administrators (like user administration) and website communication experts. If you recognise yourself and/or your university in this description or you know people for whom this might be interesting, please contact Patrick Broens at patrick.broens@typo3.org. Please provide the name of the educational organization, the city and country of this organization, the website url and the name(s) and email address(es) of the employee(s).
After collecting the information the team will inform all these persons with plans directly and gather information how to make this a great, informative and the best educational event!
General Assembly of the TYPO3 Association
The annual General Assembly of the TYPO3 Association will take place on the April 6, 2016 13:00 pm in Essen in the Unperfekthaus. The GA will be mainly in the light of the move towards a TYPO3 Incorporated structure. Like we mentioned before an enquiry towards a CEO (executive) and CMO (marketing) has already been done and results of that are most likely to be presented at the GA. For now the agenda of the GA is formal.
Community blog resources
For This Week in TYPO3 (typo3.community) some authors have submitted Medium articles to include in this publication. Writing This Week is a huge task and contributions are more than welcome. It is pretty easy once you have a Medium blog to include that. Medium is fun to write in as well.
There are many new English language resources popping up and I want to highlight a few that definitely deserve attention:
Use TYPO3
On <link http: usetypo3.com>usetypo3.com Daniel Goerz posts some examples that are more code oriented and snippet style. Daniel writes in the About section of the website: My first “patch” to the TYPO3 core was very exiting which sounds a bit nerdy but is true nevertheless. Since then I visited many TYPO3 events and contributed more to the project. I am even allowed to spend one day of my worktime each week exclusively for the TYPO3 core, which is a great thing. What was missing was a place where I could share some how-tos and things I considered clever or helpful even if most developers consider it yesterday’s news.
TYPO3worx
On <link http: typo3worx.eu>typo3worx.eu Marcus Schwemer has some really interesting practical TYPO3 solutions all offered in a nice design with good examples. TYPO3worx also includes the full TYPO3 event calendar in a somewhat nicer design than on the current typo3.org. Marcus invites people to contribute to his blog.
Visionbites Blog
The blog of the Munich-based Internetagency visionbites is about projects, online-marketing, cms-systems and web-technology. Originally author Nepomuk Gasteiger had an excellent article on TYPO3 7 and Bootstrap in German only. As the ‘Hands-on TYPO3 7 LTS’ is just perfect as an introduction into TYPO3 he translated it in English.- Hands-on TYPO3 7 LTS: The set-up of Enterprise CMS with Bootstrap 3
- Hands on TYPO3 7 LTS Part 1: Installation and backend
- Hands on TYPO3 7 LTS Part 2: The frontend with Bootstrap 3
- Hands on TYPO3 7 LTS Part 3: Rendering contents with Fluid Styled Content & grid elements
- Hands on TYPO3 7 LTS Part 4: Conclusion
Communicating in English is important to let the world know about TYPO3. If you have any other english-language resource please let me know and I will list it here.
If you do not have your own blog it is easy to create that on Medium and write about TYPO3. If it is worthwhile for the community I can also include it in this publication.
Bootup Days
The bootup days were initiated by <link http: cabag.ch>Cabag from Basel, Switzerland, as a means to give community members insight in how to contribute to the TYPO3 project, be it code wise or in some other form. Cabag has held two such events and also makes a whole script and resources available to host your own bootup days. Two initiatives have followed the Cabag example:
- Nitsan (from iTUG fame) hosted a bootup day on Februari 13?—<link http: typo3.org events community-events itug-india-typo3-user-group-week-7>?https://typo3.org/events/community-events/itug-india-typo3-user-group-week-7/
- MaxServ (from This Week sponsoring fame) organises a whole series of bootup days?—?<link https: typo3.maxserv.com contribution-bootup-days>typo3.maxserv.com/contribution-bootup-days/
Organise your own TYPO3 Bootup Day to introduce community members to contributing to the TYPO3 Project.
This Week in TYPO3 is brought to you by <link http: maxserv.com>MaxServ. Originally published on: <link https: typo3.community>typo3.community/this-week-in-typo3-2016-week-3-fd177f742dd0 <link https: typo3.community>
Thanks everybody (you know who you are) for contributing to this article. I had a lot of great input. There would be no ‘This Week in TYPO3’ without this great community.
~ben