Site Management, Updates, Upgrades, and Administration

Introduced in version 9.2

The most notable new feature in TYPO3 version 9.2 is the Site Handling functionality. Already introduced in version 9.1, the Site Management module in the backend of TYPO3 now contains a new sub-module “Configuration”. This enables integrators and site administrators to add and modify a global configuration for one or multiple sites.

A site configuration has a unique (human-readable) identifier and configuration values such as the root page ID, the base path (entry point), language definitions, etc. By storing the settings in a YAML file under “typo3conf/sites/site-identifier/”, it is easy to maintain the configuration in a version control system such as Git for example.

The Site Handling functionality already supports configurations such as domains, languages, error-handling and will be extended further until the the v9 LTS release later this year.

Documentation

Introduced in version 9.1

The new main module "Site Management"completes the existing modules "Web", "File", "Admin Tools" and "System" and aims to become the central place for all site-related configuration tasks, e.g. languages, domains and routing.

The first sub-module of "Site Management" is the new "Redirects" Module.

Documentation

Introduced in version 9.1

There are several methods how a request to a web server or the web application is processed. The first request to a resource does not always result in a HTML page for example. Redirecting the user to a specific different resource (e.g. a file or page) is not unusual.

A new backend module named "Redirects" has been introduced in TYPO3 version 9.1. As the name suggests, it allows TYPO3 integrators and editors to configure redirects for their website. The redirects can be limited to a specific domain and the HTTP response code can easily be configured. On top of that, the source path can be enabled to be represented as a regular expression and a redirect to HTTPS can be enforced if required.

Redirects are an important part of every SEO strategy and often used for marketing campaigns to implement a short, meaningful URL, which possibly does not match the page structure in TYPO3.

This new module makes the old redirect feature obsolete and therefore, the option to configure a redirect, when a domain was added to a specific page or page branch, has been removed.

Documentation

Introduced in version 9.0

The well-known “Install Tool” represents an important component in every TYPO3 instance. Every integrator and developer knows, that it provides much more than some functions to install TYPO3. It is also used to configure TYPO3, run system and environment checks, test the setup and even update the instance to a new core version with a click of a button. 

Therefore, “Install Tool” is not the right terminology and the component deserves a new name as a logical consequence: System Maintenance Area. 

Besides an improved look and feel, which integrates the System Maintenance Area smoothly into the backend of TYPO3, it is split into four modules: “Maintenance”, “Settings”, “Upgrade” and “Environment”. Some long-term users of TYPO3 might find this a little bit unfamiliar at first, but the benefits are obvious and make perfect sense. The constantly growing number of features provided by the module require a clear, logical and distinct separation into these categories. As a result, users will find the desired functions more quickly. 

As a matter of fact, everything that impacts TYPO3’s global settings (also known as the system-wide configuration and stored in the “LocalConfiguration.php” file) belongs to the System Maintenance Area. It is not surprising that the configuration of extensions have been moved from the Extension Manager to this module, too. 

No further explanation is needed to understand that only selected users should access the System Maintenance Area. For this group of experts, we have introduced a new role called System Maintainers. Backend users with administrator privileges can be promoted to have this role. As a consequence, they can access the System Maintenance Area directly from the backend without providing a password. Everyone else requires access credentials (the previously known “Install Tool password”).

Documentation

Introduced in version 9.0

One of the challenges in every major TYPO3 upgrade (for example from v8 to v9) is the fact that the new version may contain breaking changes. Some competitive content management systems simply do not officially support an upgrade, but suggest to re-build the website from scratch using the new major version. 

TYPO3 has a reputation of being upgradable, even across major versions. This was not always straightforward, but has been improved significantly and often heavily depends on third-party extensions. 

The new extension scanner, which is already part of the System Maintenance Area in TYPO3 v9, provides a detailed overview of what needs to be done to accomplish a successful migration to the next version of TYPO3. If extensions use deprecated API calls, the extension scanner suggests documentation on how to migrate this specific piece of code. 

We understand how important an upgrade from one major version to the next is. This process should be as simple as possible with a minimum of effort (in particular from one LTS to the latest LTS release) and we will continue to work hard to pave the way.

Documentation

Introduced in version 11.2

System locales are used to localize various formats across the system. Locales are generated on the server and are basically conventions on how to use date and time formatting, currency display, etc.

In older versions of the CMS, when setting up a new site for their instance, TYPO3 integrators had to enter the locale identifier by hand. To make it faster to set up a site and its languages, TYPO3 v11.2 now detects which locales are available on the system and lists them in a dropdown box.

Integrators can now easily select the appropriate item from the list making it a time saver and less prone to error.

Introduced in version 11.0

Redirects typically aim to forward your website visitors from an old to a new destination—for example, a page. In many cases, these redirects are only required for a certain amount of time. Site administrators can now configure TYPO3 to automatically remove redirects based on specific criteria, for example, their age, domain, or hit count. Backend users (e.g., editors with appropriate access privileges) can mark redirects as “protected” to prevent their deletion.

Documentation

Introduced in version 10.4

The mechanism for handling user permissions in TYPO3 is known as the most powerful and technically matured access control method you can get from an open-source enterprise CMS. At the same time, backend user accounts are, without question, one of the most important data sets in a TYPO3 system. Managing user accounts, user groups, and their permissions is not easy, if you don’t have a clear and well-curated overview of the data.

We’ve improved the backend user module to make it easier for integrators to manage users and user groups. The updated user detail view now shows:

• User data such as real name, email address
• User start/stop date
• All groups, subgroups, permissions
• DB and file mounts
• Read/write access to tables
• And more!

Documentation

Introduced in version 10.2

Configured as a Scheduler task, TYPO3’s Link Validator aims to detect broken links throughout the system. This indispensable feature has been extended further and now supports pages, files and even external links. External links can also be validated on-the-fly now.

Documentation

Introduced in version 10.1

The Redirects backend module was introduced with TYPO3 v9 and lets site administrators add and configure redirects. The source path can be an arbitrary name or it can be represented as a regular expression. This provides great functionality but what if a redirect has the same name as a page URL? Configuration mistakes like this happen and TYPO3 now offers a simple solution to detect conflicting redirects: a CLI command that shows a list of clashes (if any exist). This command can also be configured as a scheduler task, and the results are shown in the backend under “SYSTEM ➜ Reports”.

Documentation

Introduced in version 10.1

Supporting backend users in their daily work and making TYPO3 as robust and user-friendly as possible has always been very high on our list. Sometimes it is necessary to change the URL path of a page (the so-called “slug”) and backend users can easily do that in TYPO3 if they have the appropriate access permissions. However, such an action usually results in a “page not found” error if a visitor to the site tries to access a page using the old slug. TYPO3 version 10.1 now features an intelligent solution: It automatically updates the relevant slugs for all sub-pages and can create redirects from the old to the new URL. Backend users are informed about these actions and can easily roll back the changes with a click of a button.

Documentation