Contao 5.5.0 released

Back end login via passkey

You can now also set up passwordless login via passkey. You can find the setting in the “Security” menu item. There, click on “Add passkey” and your password manager or authenticator app will provide a passkey. Then enter a name and click on “Save”.

You can now log in to the back end using a passkey. To do this, use the “Log in with a passkey” button when logging in.

Back end search

Long desired and now finally integrated in Contao: the back end search. To activate the search, you need to set up a real cronjob at server level. You can find more information about this in the manual.

As soon as the first indexing is completed, the search function is available.

Template Studio

The previous template management in the back end was designed for HTML templates and does not offer optimal support for Twig templates. The Template Studio is now available to make it easier for you to manage Twig templates in future.

With just a few clicks, you can create templates, generate variants and track where something has been extended or overwritten.

But that's not all: the Template Studio offers a practical autocomplete function and alerts you to errors in the code.

Context menu

The new context menu offers you a quick and easy way to access all actions. You can open the menu with a right-click or by clicking on the three dots at the end of the line.

Thanks to the context menu, the number of icons is reduced so that only the most important icons are visible. This maintains clarity and makes it easier to use, especially for Contao newcomers.

Accessibility

Contao attaches great importance to accessibility. For this reason, Contao 5.5 has again incorporated numerous optimizations.

Adding voice files to videos

Language files .vtt can now be added to the video element. You can also use the file manager to specify the language of the file and the type of text track.

Autocomplete attributes for form fields

There is now an additional input field for the autocomplete attributes in the form fields. This supports the browser's autocomplete function in automatically filling in the appropriate data in the respective fields. A list of possible values can be found in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Title attribute for YouTube and Vimeo elements

By adding a title attribute with a short, meaningful description to the <iframe>, screen readers, for example, can more easily recognize the content and purpose of the embedded video. They know immediately that it is a video and what it is about.

Revised search and filter menu

First, the layout was modernized to display: flex. At the same time, a problem with the tab order was fixed. The icons for applying and resetting the filter have been enlarged to improve usability. In addition, the reset button is displayed as inactive if there is no active filter.

User Experience (UX)

Here, too, there have been small improvements that make working with Contao easier.

If you use the “edit multiple” function, you previously had to make sure to select a corresponding title field to distinguish the data records. This is no longer necessary, as the title of the data record is displayed by default.

In addition, all selected lines are now highlighted in color in the multiple selection, not just the selected checkbox.

Debug mode

Further Contao-specific information has been added to the Symfony Profiler. For example, you can now see which page you are on and open the page directly in the back end with one click.

Bye bye MooTools scripts

In the back end, the MooTools script “Chosen” has been replaced by “Choices.js”. In addition, the old MooTools color picker has been updated with the Symfony UX solution. Even though these are not new features, it is still important for future development to get rid of the outdated MooTools.

Further improvements in the changelog

You can find a complete list of all changes in the changelog at the end of this blog post. The official release article on contao.org is also worth reading and the Contao Academy YouTube video is well worth watching.

Contao Manager 1.9.0

There is also a new version of the Contao Manager. The focus was placed on the protection of your indispensable helper. Passkeys and two-factor authentication have been introduced, the manager has also been given a user administration with user roles and the components have been updated. You can find more detailed information in the article on contao.org.