TYPO3 v11 LTS: Editors will love the new version

The new TYPO3 version 11 LTS is now available and fits perfectly with our company’s theme. Why? When, after team building, the question of possible names for the teams arose, we agreed on “space travel” as our theme. Since then, our teams at F7 have been called Apollo, Gravity, Sputnik and Voyager. What does all this have to do with the new TYPO3 version? The releases leading up to the LTS also had fitting themes:

• Version 11.0 (22 December 2020): “Ready for Liftoff”
• Version 11.1 (23 February 2021): “Shields up”
• Version 11.2 (4 May 2021): “Escape the Orbit”
• Version 11.3 (13 July 2021): “Outside the Milky Way”
• Version 11.4 (7 September 2021): “Into New Galaxies”

In this article, I’d like to give you an overview of what’s changing in this version, particularly for backend users.
 

Bootstrap 5 in the TYPO3 Backend

As part of a visual refresh, the TYPO3 backend has been updated from Bootstrap 3 to 5. Bootstrap is now arguably one of the best-known front-end frameworks, and we too have been successfully using Bootstrap features in many of our projects for years. With Bootstrap 5, you won’t need to get used to a new user interface, but you will probably notice a few minor changes.

Resizing the Navigation Area

The navigation area, which displays the page tree or directory list, has had a fixed width since TYPO3 version 8. In TYPO3 installations with long page titles and deeply nested page trees, the names in this area were cut off due to the fixed width, which has sometimes made work unnecessarily difficult up to now.

The area has been redesigned in TYPO3 version 11, so you can now adjust the width again.

Multi-factor Au­then­tic­a­tion (MFA)

Once you have logged into the TYPO3 backend, depending on your permissions, you can, amongst other things, edit the website’s content or access sensitive information. The higher your permissions and the more sensitive the data, the more important it is to ensure the best possible protection for your user account.

The multi-factor authentication integrated from TYPO3 version 11 onwards therefore provides an additional level of security by adding a further factor to the login process, making it significantly more difficult to gain unauthorised access. A typical service already integrated into TYPO3 is, for example, the time-based one-time password (TOTP).

You can configure multi-factor authentication in your user settings. If you want to secure your site particularly well, you can also make its use mandatory in various forms.

Deep Linking in the Backend

Deep links are nothing out of the ordinary in the frontend. You can bookmark these links in your browser or send them to your colleagues. This option is now also available when working in the TYPO3 backend. On all pages where deep linking is possible, you can click the Share button to open a context menu. In addition to the function for creating a TYPO3 internal bookmark, you can copy the link to the current backend page to your clipboard. You can then send the link to colleagues.

The link’s destination isn’t limited to a module or a page, but can, for example, lead directly to a specific content element. When the link is opened, you land at the right place. Quick and straightforward.

I have no doubt that we’ll all love this feature, as it makes communication and working in the backend much more efficient.

Simplified Multiple Selection in the File List

Each item in the file list has a tick box on the left-hand side. You can tick and untick items, toggle the selection, and easily perform actions such as editing metadata or deleting a file. In earlier versions of TYPO3, it was necessary to first move the items to the TYPO3 clipboard before working with multiple files at the same time.

Download multiple Files or Folders as a ZIP Archive

The buttons for performing various actions appear as soon as you select the first item. In addition to the familiar functions for editing metadata and deleting files, it is now also possible to download multiple files or even entire folders in one go as a ZIP archive.

Search in the Folder Directory

The folder directory has also undergone a visual and functional overhaul. By using the same technologies as in the site tree, both modules now have a consistent look and feel in the navigation area. One advantage this brings for you is the integration of the search function familiar from the site tree, which allows you to filter the folder list. When searching the file list, the search even takes file names into account.

Working in the List View

Selectable Columns

As you may already be familiar with from the single-view mode of tables in older versions of TYPO3, you can now select which columns should be displayed in the list of all tables. The updated user interface makes it much easier to add and remove columns.

Filter in the Column selection

The column selection in the record and file lists now features a filter at the top. This makes it easier to find the columns you wish to add or remove, which is particularly useful for tables with many columns.

Advanced View

The List module features an advanced view that provides access to additional functions, such as displaying further details or viewing the change history. These functions are less frequently used actions that previously had to be enabled via a checkbox, which then applied the advanced view to all tables. In TYPO3 version 11, this checkbox has been removed and you can access the functions directly via the button with the three vertical dots.

Data Download

The export function has long been part of TYPO3, but in version 11, the download button is displayed more prominently in the header of each table. In addition to the existing option to perform a simple CSV download, you can now customise the export. A dialogue box allows you to configure the file name and format (CSV or JSON) as well as other settings.

Week numbers in the Date picker

Sometimes it’s the small changes that you hardly notice, but which can be very useful, and I believe this is exactly such a change: the DateTimePicker in the TYPO3 backend now also displays week numbers in the calendar.

Language selection in the Page module

One of the many reasons why you might use TYPO3 as a content management system is the ability to offer your website visitors content in multiple languages. Multilingualism in TYPO3 offers many configuration and maintenance options, but until now there has been a minor flaw in the backend, particularly when dealing with many languages, which has been rectified in version 11. In the “Page” backend module, you can select which language or translation of a page and its content you wish to edit. In earlier versions of TYPO3, selecting the default language would also display all other languages. To simplify the workflow, the selected language now displays only the content elements of that specific language. With the newly introduced “All Languages” option, you can still access all content elements in all languages if required.

Indexed Search: Cleaning up Search results

The “Indexed Search” feature included in TYPO3 has a new configuration option from version 11 onwards: if this option is enabled and you update a page or its content, the page and its content will be removed from the search index to ensure that outdated information is no longer returned in search results.

We have previously compiled a comparison of several onsite search engines for TYPO3 for you.

End of free Support for TYPO3 Version 9

With the release of version 11, free support for the version before last – TYPO3 version 9 LTS – also comes to an end; from now on, support for this version will only be available via the paid ELTS service. You can find out more about this option in our blog article “Extended Long Term Support – An alternative to the TYPO3 update?”

Are you "Ready for Liftoff“?

Some of our customers already have TYPO3 websites based on the new version, and many others have already commissioned or requested updates.

Does your website also use TYPO3 and need an update, or are you even planning a relaunch? Contact us to start benefiting from the new features in TYPO3 Version 11 soon!