by Marcus Lelle

Contao 5.5 - Five back end boosters and much more

At the Contao conference, we were already able to look over Leo's shoulder at some of the features in the keynote.

Now Contao version 5.5 is here and it is packed with features, especially in the back end.

The core team and many other developers have processed almost 200 pull requests. This time there are some big blocks in which a lot of work has gone into.

Contao 5.5 will be provided with updates until August 2025. Version 5.3 will also continue to receive updates as an LTS version.

You can find out which Contao versions are currently supported in the Contao release plan.

Template Studio

While the back end turbo was activated in version 5.4, the Twig turbo has now been activated with the Template Studio.

This feature is equally interesting for users and developers.

The Template Studio allows you to structure and edit Twig templates in the backend. It relieves you of a large part of the logic behind the folder structure and template inheritance. The auto-completion for block and use opens up all the possibilities of available blocks and components and guides you more quickly to your goal.

Both PHP and Twig templates are still displayed in the "Templates" menu item. However, editing Twig templates in the back end is now done exclusively in the Template Studio. You can still edit PHP templates in the "Templates" menu item.

Pull Requests: #7833, #7831, #7684, #7683, #7672, #7658, #7643, #7598, #7589, #7587,

Back end search

The back end now has a system-wide search function that searches for your search term in content elements, articles, pages, files and much more and shows you the corresponding results.

One click takes you to the place you want to view or edit.

To activate the search, you need to set up a real cron job at server level. You can find more information on this in the manual.

Pull Requests: #7863, #7842, #7838, #7837, #7835, #7811, #7796, #7761, #7738, #7721, #7675, #7640, #7634, #7627, #7607, #7601, #7592

Passkeys

Another building block in the effort to make Contao easy to operate securely: You can now also log in to the back end with passkeys.

Pull Request: #7571

Context menu

Instead of numerous buttons on the right-hand side of the list view, you can now use the right mouse button or the three horizontal dots to call up a menu to access all operations.

This paves the way for further functions, as the clarity will not suffer as a result of additional buttons.

Pull Request: #7816

Accessibility

For the accessibility of Contao in the front and back end, further great functions have been added.

You can now assign subtitles to videos and also specify what type they are, e.g. closed captions or audio description.

Pull Request: #7604

All form fields can now be provided with the autocomplete attribute. This means that the correct value from the data stored in the browser can be used immediately when filling in the form.

You can view the correct input purposes here for correct preallocation.

Pull Request: #7473

You can now assign a title to YouTube and Vimeo videos.

Pull Request: #7572

Redundant title attributes have been removed in both the back end and front end.

Pull Request: #7839

The search and filter menus above each list view have been revised. Instead of floating, flex is now used. The order of the keyboard navigation has been significantly improved.

The filtering states are now better visualized. Mootools chosen has now been replaced by the modern choices.js.

Pull Request: #7594

UX

If you edit several elements at once, Contao will now automatically show you more information about what they are.

Selected times remain highlighted in color. This increases clarity.

Pull Request: #7613, #7576, #7610

The Symfony UX color picker replaces the old MooTools color picker.

Pull Request: #7792

DX

With debug mode activated, you will now receive more information about your Contao installation. For example, you can see all supported image formats on your server.

In the front end, you can identify pages and articles and click on them directly in the backend.

Pull Request: #7586

Much more

You can read about all the changes in detail in the changelog. Christian Feneberg has also created another video on Contao 5.5 (in German language) that is well worth watching.

Compatibility

Contao 5.5 is compatible with

  • Symfony 6.4 and 7
  • PHP 8.2+
  • Monolog 3
  • Doctrine 3
  • TinyMCE 5, 6 and 7

See also: Tickets | Compare changes | Changelog

Marcus Lelle

About Marcus Lelle

Marcus has taken on the project coordination of Contao, trying to untie the Gordian knot. Since 2003 he is self-employed as BIADES and since 2005 he is project manager and numbers person at ANTWORT:INTERNET in Berlin. Through his spare time he is accompanied by Jupe, Pete and Bob as well as his family.

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