TYPO3 13 LTS is out - Official Release-Party @sitegeist

Our CEO Sven Ditz took over the welcoming address before the exciting content of the new version began. The evening's keynote speaker was none other than Benni Mack, head of the TYPO3 Core Team. What followed was an inspiring evening full of news, professional exchange and, of course, lots of pizza! 🍕😋

In his keynote, Benni highlighted some of the outstanding features of the new version. One of the most striking is the long-term support (LTS), which guarantees free maintenance and security updates until December 31, 2027. Those who want to rely on version 13 in the long term can even plan until 2031 with the extended LTS. TYPO3 therefore offers a reliable basis for future projects and developments.

Particularly exciting for developers: the new version supports PHP 8.2 and Symfony 7, which significantly improves compatibility and security. The native image formats WebP and AVIF are now also directly supported without the need for additional extensions.

Video credits: Paul Ditz

One of the main objectives during development was to simplify the work for Backend users and developers. Recurring tasks have been optimized to make project setup faster and more efficient. Another highlight is the support for more than 60 languages, including right-to-left languages such as Arabic. These enhancements make TYPO3 even more accessible and globally usable.

The introduction of Dark Mode for Backend was one of the most requested features - and TYPO3 version 13 delivers! But it's not just about aesthetics: the developers have optimized the entire user interface and significantly improved accessibility in the process. An automatic accessibility checker ensures that Backend is accessible to a larger user group.

The page tree display has also been renewed and enables significantly faster editing, especially for extensive websites with thousands of pages.

Another highlight of the evening was the presentation by Nikita, who heads the Contentblocks team. He proudly announced the official release of Contentblocks 1.0! This extension makes it possible to design content in TYPO3 in a modular and flexible way, similar to its predecessor Mask.

Nikita reported that the project was started many years ago, but has only taken shape in the last two years. Thanks to the integration of TCA and the new Record API, developers can now access database entries more easily and efficiently. Another major advantage of the new version is that it requires significantly less code and therefore simplifies maintenance. 🔧

Special feature: In future, there will be a graphical user interface (GUI) that makes it easier for developers to create new inhaltstypes. This is a great relief for everyone who uses Contentblocks regularly. 🎨

Simon also had some exciting news to share: Fluid Components, the templating engine from TYPO3, is getting its first major update since 2016 with version 13! Simon called it the "Don't Panic" release - the new features don't break any existing templates, but add useful functions and improve the code under the hood. Take heart!

One of the most helpful changes is that it's now finally possible to include Fluid code within the <f:comment> ViewHelper without it being interpreted. This significantly simplifies working with comments in templates. In addition, several new ViewHelpers have been introduced, along with other improvements—some of which have even been backported to older TYPO3 versions.

In particular, the focus on code cleanup and the continuous improvement of Fluid Components ensure that templating in TYPO3 will be even more stable and powerful in the future. 🔥

After the keynote, we moved on to the relaxed part of the evening: Around 50 guests, mainly TYPO3 developers, took the opportunity to chat over pizza and drinks. It was a perfect opportunity to talk about projects and challenges in a relaxed atmosphere.

For all those who were unable to attend live, the consolation is that the entire event was streamed on YouTube and is still available. So the next TYPO3 release is worth another trip to Hamburg!

TYPO3 Version 13 LTS marks a significant milestone for CMS. With numerous new features, an optimized user interface and long-term support, it offers enormous advantages for both developers and editors. Anyone who has not yet upgraded to the new version should definitely consider doing so now.