There is a new version of TYPO3 available, version 4.2.  There are lots of usability and performance improvements in this latest package. 

The main focus of the new 4.2 version is improving usability, but there are also many enhancements for system administrators and developers. Including bug fixes, there are nearly 650 enhancements in TYPO3 4.2.

What is very interesting about this version of TYPO3 is that it is one of the first CMS that have dropped full support for PHP 4 in a stable release.  TYPO3 and a number of other Web projects took the "goPHP5" pledge earlier this year and we watched it happen.  To run TYPO3 you will want need to make sure you have PHP 5.2 or greater on your Web server. 

TYPO3 version 4.2 can be downloaded from TYPO3.org. Technical documentation and the release notes can be found at typo3.org/development/articles/release-notes-42.

"The TYPO3 Core Team announces version 4.1.6 of the TYPO3 Enterprise Content Management System.

TYPO3 version 4.1.6 is ready for download. It is a maintenance release
of version 4.1 and therefore contains only bugfixes."

Complete Story

Joomla!'s announcement from June 15, 2007 that began Joomla! is moving to ensure the future of the project by committing to compliance with the GNU/GPL license was a bit shocking to many accustomed to the Mambo proprietary extension licensing exception.

TypoScript is a declarative programming language that offers developers, administrators, and designers full control over the configuration of TYPO3 and its template engine. Only with a good command of TypoScript can you leverage the powerful capabilities of the TYPO3 engine, to customize and control all aspects of your TYPO3 sites. If you're serious about TYPO3 as your content platform, you need to master TypoScript.

Focus on Usability and Performance Improvements, in addition the new release contains dozens of smaller features, system enhancements, and bug fixes. This version focuses clearly on usability in every aspect of the system as the one goal that has been set by the Development Team for all 4.x releases.

Release Notes: http://typo3.org/development/articles/release-notes-41/

News Release

A new "bugfix" for TYPO3 has been released. Some of the major fixes in TYPO3 4.0.3 are for:

• Internet Explorer 7 compatibility
• Some minor fixes to the Extension Manager
• Some small tweaks for PHP5 were made
• Some fixes for the Tools>User Admin Module “SU” mode
• A security enhancement prevents image access through thumbs.php.
• and much more...

The original TYPO3 announcement including links to release notes and downloads is available at TYPO3.org.

Wyatt Barnett in his Sitepoint article, "I've Never Met a Boxed CMS I Like" makes some very valid points about content management systems straight out of the box. Take note that he isn't just talking about commercial products but also open source systems. His first complaint about "boxed" CMS:

The first issue is that the very nature of a CMS is not easily boxable, without creating an application that tries to do everything for everyone and fails at doing most things particularly well. The tasks required for content management are generic, but every organization has a far different focus when it comes to how that content should be managed and how it thinks about that content. I have lost days of meetings trying to help subject matter experts understand that an article, according to this system, is really a page. Trying to make a generic application to handle this for all comers is a very, very tricky prospect.

Sadly, his post doesn't really offer a solution. I assume building your own CMS is the only alternative to the boxed version. But I have to ask, who really has the time? I think there are some obvious reasons you see so many capable software developers are using open source software such as Wordpress, TYPO3, e107, Alfresco, and Drupal for their Web presence.

"Ingo Renner has written a nice article about extension keys, maintaining them and pass them to others. Here is an extract of that article right from his blog."

Complete Story

"A Cross-Site-Scripting (XSS) problem has been discovered in indexed search."

Complete Story

TYPO3 4.0.1 was released to address some bugs as well as make some slight improvements over last April's 4.0 release. The Enterprise content management system contains the following new features and improvements in 4.0.1:

• Compatibility
  • Parameters for showpic can now be disabled
  • FORM submit buttons with images are now valid XHTML
• Installation/Upgrade
  • The TYPO3 upgrade wizard better clarifies the upgrade process and functionality
  • typo3temp/ subdirectories are created automatically now
• DBAL
  • Improved support for Oracle
  • Updated AdoDB to 4.90
• Backend Skin
  • BE admin module provides better support for skins
  • The BE now correctly highlights the current page in IE6.
• Bugfixes
  • Corrected some HTTP status codes
  • Charset for mails works now

The original announcement for TYPO3 4.0.1 can be found here. The page for downloading the new version can be reached by clicking here. Finally, for an additional list of new features that were included in 4.0 you can visit here.

I'm not a TYPO3 user, so I would be glad to hear from any readers who wish to leave comments about this new version of TYPO3 or TYPO3 in general.