[TYPO3-project-4-3] Announcing TYPO3 4.3.0beta1

[Dan Osipov]

Whoo hoo!

So 2 more betas and 2 release clients, all in two months (for end of 
November release)? Thats optimistic!

Dan Osipov
Calkins Media
http://danosipov.com/blog/

Oliver Hader wrote:
> The TYPO3 Core Team is proud to announce the first beta release of TYPO3
> version 4.3. This version also serves as the "feature freeze" and locks
> down the development of new features. Get a short overview of the most
> important changes.
> 
> So, what's new in this release?
> 
> *General*
> 
> Integrated advanced Frontend Editing
> 
> The Frontend Editing functionality was not touched for ages and had an
> outdated look and feel. The advanced Frontend Editing modernizes the
> whole application by using a JavaScript approach and opens possibilities
> to extend and customize the user interface. This also speeds up the
> editing process since transactions are performed in the background using
> AJAX. However, the current state of the advanced Frontend Editing still
> has bugs that must be solved with the next two beta releases. Any help
> by the community to polish this great feature is highly appreciated.
> 
> Integrated System Scheduler
> 
> A scheduling engine that allows extensions to schedule events has been
> integrated. Events can be triggered at a single time or on a recurring
> basis. The scheduler is executed through a cronjob that dispatches event
> handling back to the extension that registered the event.
> 
> Integrated a new module for System Reports
> 
> For monitoring system events, a reporting module has been added. The
> reports module is delivered with common tests to check the health of a
> system. These tests include whether basic system requirements are met
> and whether installed extensions need to be updated. Extensions can hook
> into the reporting mechanism and provide their own tests as well.
> 
> Integrated Salted Passwords
> 
> Passwords in TYPO3 are stored using a regular MD5 hash. With knowledge
> of that hash value, an attacker may be able to recalculate the original
> password by using rainbow hash tables. The Salted Passwords extension
> adds a random value - the salt - to the stored hash which drastically
> reduces the chance of rainbow attacks. This feature can be used by
> installing the system extension 'saltedpasswords'. Furthermore, a secure
> channel must be available to transfer the password data. The HTTPS
> protocol is one option and if that is not available the RSAAuth
> extension can be used instead.
> 
> Improved Extbase and Fluid
> 
> A lot of work has been done in this release for the "Extbase" MVC
> framework and the "Fluid" templating engine. An enormous number of
> bugfixes and enhancements have been added. The persistence layer was
> rewritten, many view helpers were revised or newly integrated, seamless
> interaction with the page cache was added, and support for backend
> modules was introduced. Backend module support is potentially unstable
> for the time being but will become more stable in future beta releases.
> 
> Optimized performance
> 
> In the last few months there have been many initiatives to optimize the
> overall performance of TYPO3. This list gives a short overview of the
> enhancemen
> 
> * The frontend's time tracking functionality is no longer loaded when
> the admin panel is enabled.
> * Caches have been introduced to prevent repeatedly parsing the same XML
> data or and repeatedly walking the same pagetree rootline.
> * Extensions that are only used in the backend are no no longer loaded
> in the frontend.
> * The deprecation log can be disabled on production websites.
> 
> Integrated Error and Exception Handling
> 
> Continuing with the goal of easing the transition between TYPO3 v4 and
> TYPO3 v5, the error and exception handling of FLOW3 was backported. This
> new feature allows one to have custom error and exception messages.
> 
> Localization of hardcoded phrases
> 
> Many phrases that were hardcoded and thus only available in English have
> been changed to use a localization file now. The localized versions of
> these new labels will be available on the translation server as soon as
> they are processed by the translation team.
> 
> Third party libraries
> 
> This release comes with updated JavaScript libraries. We now ship with
> Ext JS 3.0 final.
> 
> *Backend improvements*
> 
> Possibility to hide Versioning & Workspaces
> 
> The "Versioning Management" system extension is removed from the list of
> required extensions that are loaded by default. Thus, it's possible to
> hide these user interface elements when the feature is not used at all
> on a website.
> 
> Improved behavior in backend forms
> 
> Record selection can now be enhanced by a suggest wizard that searches
> available records and shows the search results while typing. Regular
> text areas without the rich text editor are now dynamically resizable.
> 
> *Frontend improvements*
> 
> Integrated new Media Content Element
> 
> A new media content element has been integrated and allows simple,
> configurable handling of audio and video data. It is also possible to
> use this element with external sources like YouTube. The Media Content
> Element is delivered with default audio and video players but can also
> be configured to use third-party players.
> 
> *Next steps to climb the TYPO3 4.3 hill*
> 
> Please test this beta release as much as possible, especially the new
> features from the first three alpha releases and those described above!
> If you're using one of the new features in a project already and
> discover bugs, please report them immediately to bugs.typo3.org [1]!
> 
> If you're upgrading from a previous TYPO3 version, please be sure to
> execute the database analyzer and update wizard in the TYPO3 Install Tool.
> 
> Since we are now in the beta phase, no more features will be integrated
> and we will continue with bug fixing only. During the next few weeks, we
> will release two more beta version to deliver a more stable product.
> After that we will turn to the release candidate and the final version
> of TYPO3 4.3. This means that you can expect the final version to be
> ready by the end of November 2009.
> 
> For a detailed overview of the features planned for TYPO3 4.3 and their
> progress, have a look at the TYPO3 v4 Development Page [2], the
> bugtracker, and the ChangeLog. The list of pending documentation [3] in
> the wiki describes the new properties and tells how they can be used.
> 
> You can download the packages at http://typo3.org/download/packages/ [4].
> 
> MD5 checksums:
> 
> 5b448c752f3bc505feed958620d74f34  dummy-4.3.0beta1.tar.gz
> cd7e8bf53c34d2faed5dc5ba978e5658  dummy-4.3.0beta1.zip
> d1ab8b268e5838bee868a1d065c7b291  typo3_src-4.3.0beta1.tar.gz
> 7a5e34c853da450aa54e6e8e4c46c0c7  typo3_src-4.3.0beta1.zip
> f1a7f5c91a3600fe1370c22f491bb39e  typo3_src+dummy-4.3.0beta1.zip
> 
> 
> Rock on!
> Olly
> 
> 
> Links:
> [1] http://bugs.typo3.org/
> [2] http://forge.typo3.org/wiki/typo3v4-core
> [3] http://wiki.typo3.org/Pending_Documentation
> [4] http://typo3.org/download/packages/
> 
> Article as HTML:
> [*] http://news.typo3.org/news/article/typo3-43-beta-1/