TYPO3 v13.3 — Prepare for the Fun

TYPO3 developers have been on fire these past few weeks, hustling to deliver every feature we committed to implement during the TYPO3 v13 release cycle. TYPO3 version 13.3 received more than 20 new features in the last 8 weeks. With the powerhouse collaboration between developers and contributors around the world, we’ve pushed this release across the finish line. Thanks to this effort, we’re thrilled to declare TYPO3 version 13.3 officially feature-complete, and ready for the community to test all its new technologies and features.

Our focus until the long-term support release in October is now on completing and improving existing features and polishing the user interface where required.

Let’s have a closer look at the main changes of the new release. For more in-depth information with detailed technical insight, see the v13.3 Changelog.

Integrating a new paradigm that fundamentally impacts several aspects of the TYPO3 Core is always a meticulous process. The Core developers must ensure that the additional code becomes part of the system without compromising stability. Existing options to maintain and upgrade TYPO3 must also remain intact.

Two possible approaches allowed us to achieve this for Content Blocks. We could add the solution as a new system extension as it stands, or cherry-pick the best features and functions and integrate them into the Core individually.

André Kraus outlined in his article Content Blocks on the Way to the Core that we opted for the cherry-pick strategy and we have integrated some standalone functionality of Content Blocks into the Core. 

The Content Blocks extension remains an optional third-party extension. On the day of the TYPO3 v13 LTS release, the TYPO3 Core team and the Content Types team will collaboratively publish version 1.0.0 of the extension. That’s doubly good. Both teams will continue to maintain the extension after its initial v1.x release.

Although this approach means that the Content Blocks extension does not become a system extension like the TYPO3 Dashboard or the SEO extension, it has many benefits. Our aim is to ensure that an upgrade to TYPO3 v13 is as smooth as possible in almost every scenario. This includes installations that already use the Content Blocks extension, as well as instances with custom content types developed with Fluid Styled Content, for example.

If you’ve already worked with Content Blocks, you can rest assured that your work isn’t in vain. Upgrade the TYPO3 Core, upgrade the Content Blocks extension to version 1.x, lean back and off you go.

If you plan an upgrade to TYPO3 v13 and your current site doesn’t use Content Blocks yet, upgrade the TYPO3 Core as usual. We recommend to stick with the current content types though and not to mix Fluid Styled Content types with Content Blocks content types (avoid a paradigm shift).

New projects starting with TYPO3 v13 LTS from scratch can leverage all functionality implemented in the TYPO3 Core making the creation of custom content types easier.

The successful integration of almost every Content Blocks’ core features into the TYPO3 Core marks a significant milestone in creating new content types in TYPO3.

“Content Blocks is truly the realization of so many ideas and dreams. It’s exactly what the TYPO3 community has been yearning for, and now that its main features are an official part of the TYPO3 Core, I couldn’t be more excited. Maintaining a separate extension in addition to the core functions also allows us to add new features to Content Blocks after the TYPO3 v13 LTS release.” — Nikita Hovratov

Looking beyond TYPO3 v13 LTS, our strategy offers exciting possibilities. We don’t see this release as the end of the journey of Content Blocks in TYPO3, but as a foundation for future advancements, with the TYPO3 v14 release series already on the horizon. Our plans include adding new features to the Content Blocks extension such as a user interface for building content types. Stay tuned—this is just the beginning!

We introduced Site Sets in TYPO3 version 13.1. Site Sets let you package predefined configurations such as TypoScript, TSconfig, templates, etc. in an extension, include them in sites, and share them across installations. Although the TYPO3 backend module Site Management → Sites already offers a simple way to select one or more sets in the scope of a site, reviewing or editing the default configuration wasn’t possible until now.

TYPO3 version 13.3 now features a new backend module Site Management → Settings that provides an easy-to-use web interface for TYPO3 integrators. The module lists all available sites and their Site Sets clearly arranged. The backend module also lets you edit the settings (override the defaults) and export the current configuration in YAML format—ideal for storing a site configuration in an extension, for example.

This addition completes the development of Site Sets in TYPO3 v13 as promised in the TYPO3 v13.1 release announcement.

We streamlined and modernized the backend user editing section, making it more intuitive and easier to navigate. These updates not only improve usability, but also provide a more aesthetically pleasing and cohesive design in TYPO3 version 13.3.

In TYPO3 version 13.3, the TYPO3 Dashboard comes with a set of new dashboard widgets that provide an insight into your system’s current status and notes created in the backend.

Backend users with the appropriate permissions can add a dashboard that shows an overview of System Notes, neatly organized by categories such as instructions, notes, ToDos, etc. Alternatively, you can select single widgets of specific categories.

The new System Notes widgets are not the only improvement in this area. Editors often want to know which pages have recently received updates. TYPO3 now offers a dashboard widget that lists the latest changed pages.

TYPO3’s template engine Fluid has been part of TYPO3 CMS for many years. Recently, the Fluid team released version 4 with a clear goal in mind: no breaking changes to public APIs.

Although transitioning from Fluid version 2 to version 4 should be straightforward, we encourage TYPO3 integrators and developers to review the deprecation log and prepare their code for Fluid version 5, especially if they use custom ViewHelpers.

In addition to improved code quality, Fluid version 4 has proper support for boolean attributes and a set of new ViewHelpers. Some features have even been backported to version 2 to make the upgrade process seamless.

Read more about the new Fluid version in the article Recent Improvements in Fluid by Simon Praetorius and in the release notes at GitHub.

TYPO3’s ExpressionBuilder introduces a new method for constructing "if-then-else" expressions, which are automatically translated into either IF or CASE statements based on the database engine in use. Additionally, a new method has been added to cast expression results to text-like data types. This casting feature is particularly useful for converting non-text values into text within complex expression chains.

These two enhancements enable extension developers to create more sophisticated database queries while abstracting away the need to handle vendor-specific implementations. This streamlines the development process, allowing developers to focus on query logic without worrying about compatibility across different database systems.

TYPO3 version 13.3 marks the feature freeze for the v13 release cycle. This means that no new features are planned until the LTS release in October 2024. Until then, the TYPO3 Core team and contributors focus on testing, polishing, and refining the source code and user interface. We will, however, complete and improve the features we added recently.

Besides some finishing touches on the Content Blocks functionality, we have made a firm commitment to integrate backend user permission presets, for example. This function will allow TYPO3 integrators and developers to create reusable presets, manage them in version control systems, and easily apply them to new or existing backend user groups.

TYPO3 version 13.3 marks the last release before TYPO3 v13 LTS (long-term support) in October 2024. Now is a perfect time for extension developers to review and test their extensions and update the code base to support TYPO3 v13.

We would like to encourage extension developers to review the changes and improvements we made and to ensure that their extensions are v13 compatible. The more extensions meet this criteria, the more likely the LTS-release will be accepted and installed by the community. You can help to maximize the adoption rate of the upcoming TYPO3 v13 LTS release by publishing a compatible extension before the release.

TYPO3 v13 requires at least PHP version 8.2, which will receive security updates until December 2025.

We will support each TYPO3 sprint release (v13.0 to v13.3) until the next minor version is published. The long-term support version TYPO3 v13 LTS (aka version 13.4) will receive bug fixes until 30 April 2026, and we will provide security patches for TYPO3 v13 LTS until 31 October 2027.

Read more about the requirements and dependencies on get.typo3.org.

You will find all the details about the release and how to download and install TYPO3 at get.typo3.org. Detailed installation instructions are documented in the Installation Guide. We recommend using Composer to set up your TYPO3 environment.

The release of TYPO3 version 13.4 — the long-term support release TYPO3 v13 LTS — is scheduled in about four weeks, on 15 October 2024. As outlined above, we are still working on a few tasks to finalize and complete planned features.

Keep an eye on release party announcements and similar events. There will likely be online events, demos, talks, and parties (virtual and in real life) to celebrate the release of our newest TYPO3 flagship sailing on the CMS ocean.