Contents
- Contao 5 focuses on standards and gets rid of the old
- Contao 4.9 LTS has reached the end of its lifetime
- Contao 5.3 at a glance
- All articles about Contao 5.3 from the worldwide web
- For LTS lovers
- How does Contao 5.3 work?
- Extensions and Contao 5.3
- Contao Themes & Templates
- Update from Contao 4.13 to Contao 5.3
- trakked is ready for Contao 5.3
- Contao 5.3 is a great Contao version!
This article was last updated at 15:50, Thursday 29 February 2024.
Contao 5 focuses on standards and gets rid of the old
The new major version Contao 5.0 was released on August 18, 2022. The declared aim was to get rid of as much old ballast as possible, the so-called BC layers.
There inevitably comes a point in software development when maintaining old code takes up a lot of time and slows down the development of new features. It was therefore important for the core developers to tidy up in order to drive the further development of Contao. Over 3,500 files and almost 400,000 lines of code were adapted. In addition, a total of around 70,000 lines of legacy code were removed.
However, this had the consequence that old extensions, which worked without problems and without great effort with Contao 4, were suddenly no longer compatible with Contao 5. More on this later.
One and a half years have now passed since the release of Contao 5.0. If you haven't worked with Contao 5 before, you as a user and developer can expect numerous new features that you simply don't want to miss anymore!
When switching to Contao 5, however, there are a few little things you might stumble across! Firstly, the usual order of the icons for editing subpages and the article has changed. Secondly, the layout width is no longer limited (you can find a solution to this in our blog). In addition, you will now find the menu items for "Pages" and "Files" listed in the "Content" section.
However, for experienced Contao users who can move their mouse to the right position in their sleep, this can be a bit of a challenge.
Contao 4.9 LTS has reached the end of its lifetime
Already? Yes, Contao 4.9 was released on February 18, 2020 and is now 4 years old. And that's a very long time in the world of software development.
So if you are still using Contao 4.9, plan an update as soon as possible. Because from now on there will be no more bug fixes or security updates. If a bug or security vulnerability is found, it will no longer be fixed.
Contao 5.3 at a glance
- Release: 16.02.2024
- 195 pull requests merged and 30 issues closed
- 1692 changed files
- Symfony 6.4 LTS
- min. PHP 8.1
- Changelog for Contao 5.3
All articles about Contao 4.13 from the worldwide web
- Official Contao announcement
- The most important new features (YouTube)
- Other articles about the new version:
For LTS lovers
If you are upgrading directly from 4.13 to 5.3, you might be interested in the new features of the previous versions.
- Official Contao 5.0 announcement
Video about the new features in Contao 5.0
Blog post on trakked about Contao 5.0
Changelog for Contao 5.0 - Official Contao 5.1 announcement
Video about the new features in Contao 5.1
Blog post on trakked about Contao 5.1
Changelog for Contao 5.1 - Official Contao 5.2 announcement
Video about the new features in Contao 5.2
Blog post on trakked about Contao 5.2
Changelog for Contao 5.2 - Video with a collection of over 100 new features
between Contao 4.13 and Contao 5.2
How does Contao 5.3 work?
The documentation team has also done a great job here and most of the new feature are already described in the official Contao manual:
For users
- Nested content elements
- Sticky tab navigation list
- Description list
- Newsletter with new responsive template
- "Forgot password" now directly in the login module
- Access rights for frontend modules
- Crawler settings in the backend
- Own content security policies per starting point
- Standard maintenance template is automatically translated
- Strict-Transport-Security header
- Automatic login for cross-domain preview links
- DNS mapping migration
For developers
- Automatic controller detection
- Content Security Policy (CSP) framework
- onpalette_callback
- Content URL generator
- Enum support for DCAs and models
Extensions and Contao 5.3
As already described in the first part of the article, numerous BC layers have been removed. This means that many extensions have to be made fit for Contao 5.
Here, too, a lot has happened since the first 5 version and many popular extensions are now compatible with Contao 5.
For some extensions (such as Isotope), however, it will still take some time before they are compatible with Contao 5. So if you are planning to update to Contao 5.3 in the next few weeks, check the compatibility of your packages in advance. If your extension is not yet available for Contao 5, please contact the developer and support them financially in the further development.
Contao Themes & Templates
A lot has changed here too. With the introduction of Contao 5.2 and the Contao Manager 1.8, themes can now be installed directly via the Contao Manager.
In addition, many providers have already made their themes compatible with Contao 5.3.
- All RockSolid themes and RockSolid extensions
- The two themes SOLO and SIRIUS by Erdmann & Freunde
Update from Contao 4.13 to Contao 5.3
Important to know: Make sure that you first update to the latest available Contao 4.13 and only then to Contao 5.3. This ensures that all necessary migrations and schema adjustments are made to the database.
The update itself can be carried out via the Contao Manager. To do this, change the version conditions of Contao from 4.13.* to 5.3.*.
How to update Contao and what you have to consider when updating from Contao 4.13 to 5.3 can also be found in the documentation.
Christian is already writing a blog post to make the transition from Contao 4.13 to Contao 5.3 easier for you. He will explain the various steps involved in the update, how to avoid possible stumbling blocks and share his experience with you. The article will be published at the end of March, we will inform you as usual via newsletter and social media.
trakked is ready for Contao 5.3
With the release of Contao 5, a new Contao Manager version has also been released. As usual, trakked will automatically perform the Contao Manager update for you.
Of course, all known features are also available for Contao 5.3 in trakked.
Contao 5.3 is a great Contao version!
For me it is clear that it is the best Contao version ever and makes my daily work easier. I also wouldn't want to miss the improvements in the back end.
If you have written about Contao 5 yourself or want to share your joy, please leave us a comment.
About Contao 5.3 LTS
The first stable version of Contao 5.3 has been released on February 16, 2024, replacing Contao 4.13 as the long term support version. As an LTS version, 5.3 will be provided with bug fixes until February 14, 2027 and security-related updates until February 14, 2028.
