TYPO3 Camp Munich 2024
This year the TYPO3 Camp Munich took place from September 13th - 15th. We met for the warm-up event at the CVJM Haus, where we were treated to drinks and delicious chili con or sin carne. Later in the evening, cocktails were served, which could either be purchased or exchanged for an Association membership.
Most of the camp was a very rainy affair this year. So the next morning, more or less soaked through, we met at the FAT CAT, where breakfast awaited us in the form of very appealing sandwiches and lovingly prepared coffee. We then got straight down to session planning.
This year, the organizing team was pleased to receive a large number of session and talk proposals. It didn't take long for the schedule for Saturday and Sunday to be almost completely filled on the first day of the event.
As in the previous year, the social event took place in the Paulaner Brauhaus with the usual hearty food.
Here is an excerpt from the sessions and talks:
End-to-end tests with Playwright
Testing websites in the frontend, for example after an upgrade has been carried out or a new feature has been added, can be time-consuming, especially for large websites, and there is a risk of overlooking something.
Volker Kemeter showed us how the open source software Playwright can be used to automatically run predefined tests to check the site in the frontend. Playwright also has a code generator with which you can very easily define your own tests, for example to call up key pages, check cookie banners, send test emails or forms, run through the navigation, but also to check the website for W3C conformity or accessibility and many other aspects.
TYPO3 v13 for integrators
Wolfgang Wagner once again gave us a good introduction to three of the most important new features of TYPO3 v13: Site Sets, the new content object PAGEVIEW and Content Blocks (even if the latter have not yet made it into the core).
With Site Sets it is possible to provide a preconfigured site set definition from Site Settings, TypoScript but also PageTSConfig in a site package or an extension, which can be applied per site configuration (per root page) via the backend module "Site Management">"Sites". As before, constants can also be defined or overwritten here via the constants editor. However, these no longer end up in the sys_template table, but in a YAML file directly in the extension or site package. This means that the TypoScript can disappear completely from the database.
The new PAGEVIEW content object makes it even easier to output Fluid templates and integrate backend layouts, as it requires less configuration. In addition, more standard variables can be accessed in the Fluid template. To take advantage of the object, however, some conventions must be observed, such as a slightly different directory structure.
The content blocks facilitate and accelerate the creation of individual content elements, page or data record types. This is particularly interesting for those who are just getting to grips with TYPO3. Here, too, the creation works with YAML files. A TCA configuration is then automatically generated from these.
Upgrade TYPO3 v4 to v12
Patricia Ottmar proved to us that the foolhardy attempt to upgrade a TYPO3 v4 installation to v12 can succeed. Using a case study, she showed us the steps she took (or simply skipped) "because we can" ;-). It is important to memorize the necessary upgrade wizards and execute them in sequence, but self-written wizards can also be very helpful. The upgrade wizard for the step from v4 to v6 is particularly important, as it adapts the file references for the file abstraction layer introduced in v6.2, creates the required data records and moves files to the fileadmin directory.
To make upgrading as easy as possible, she recommended using only as many third-party extensions as absolutely necessary from the outset and not forgetting the upgrade wizards for these extensions. She also gave us alternatives and migration tools for frequently used extensions that are not available for current versions of TYPO3, such as tt_news and gridelements. Last but not least, she gave us tips for upgrading our own site packages or extensions and mentioned helpful tools such as rector or fractor.