Contao news

Contao version 3.3.beta1 is available. Please do not use beta versions for productional websites! Download the release to check whether your website or custom extension needs adaptation.

Here are some of the highlight features in the new version. For a complete list, please read the changelog or check out the closed tickets of the release milestone (see the links at the end of the announcement).

Markdown content element

The markdown content element allows to enter markdown text, which is converted to HTML code in the front end automatically. The parser supports the extended syntax.

Overwriting default templates

So far, the module templates (mod_) and content element templates (ce_) were fixed. In Contao 3.3 you can overwrite the default templates if required, meaning you can e.g. use a ce_text_custom template instead of the default ce_text template on a per element basis.

File content versioning

In Contao 3.3, all text files marked as editable will be versioned if they are modified in the file manager, which means content modifications will be recorded and can be compared and restored. So far, only the file meta data was under version control.

SCSS and LESS integration

From now on, it is also possible to include .scss and .less files as external style sheets in the page layout. The Combiner handles these file types and automatically converts them into CSS code. You can see the feature in action on the example website.

Unresponsive layout builder

Since Contao 3.0, the integrated layout builder (layout.css) has created a responsive page layout by default. In Contao 3.3, the style sheet has been split into two files, layout.css and responsive.css, so the responsive behavior can be disabled.

TinyMCE 4

With the new release we have also updated the TinyMCE text editor to its current major version 4. The editor is installed into a separate directory and does not overwrite an existing TinyMCE 3.5 installation, so you can continue to use it if required.

Debug mode adjustments

The debug mode will only be activated in the front end if there is a back end user logged in. Regular visitors will always see the website without debug output.

In addition, the style sheets are no longer combined into one file if the debug mode is active, so you can better inspect them with the developer console of the browser.

New command line tools

With the system/bin/automator and system/bin/filesync scripts, you can run the maintenance jobs and the file synchronization on the command line if required. More information is available with the -h flag.

Configurable assets versions

So far, the versions of the assets installed have been stored as constants such as MOOTOOLS or JQUERY_UI. To be able to use a different version than the ones included in the Contao core distribution, the assets versions are now stored in the global $GLOBALS['TL_ASSETS'] array.

Front end preview as member

Analogous to switching a back end user, you can now open the front end preview as a particluar member. The selected member is being logged in automatically.

Also see: GitHub tickets | GitHub compare view | Contao changelog | Release overview