What is TYPO3? Features, examples and templates for your website

Since its first beta version in 2000, non-profit or­gan­isa­tion TYPO3 has been a very prominent content man­age­ment system (CMS), par­tic­u­larly in Europe. It’s changed a lot since then and nowadays, TYPO3 features many new templates, plugins, ad­di­tion­al features, and more. The large community presence is helping to ensure that this CMS remains com­pet­it­ive going forwards, too. The timing seems perfect to examine the CMS TYPO3 a little more closely.

TYPO3 in profile

In 2012, this content man­age­ment system was of­fi­cially released under the name TYPO3 CMS. This decision by the TYPO3 As­so­ci­ation was, among other reasons, a response to a split within the de­vel­op­ment team, which led to the creation of ‘TYPO3 Neos’. Over time, Neos evolved into a CMS that sig­ni­fic­antly diverges from the original TYPO3. Despite the new name of ‘TYPO3 CMS’, we still mainly only use the handle TYPO3. WordPress, Joomla and Drupal rank alongside TYPO3, with over 400,000 in­stall­a­tions, as one of the most popular CMS programs worldwide.

TYPO3 is an open-source software that users can edit using templates to create their personal web design. The operation is then carried out via the web browser. The program can be down­loaded for free here.

Unlike most CMS platforms, TYPO3 requires you to manage the content for your website’s user interface using a specific con­fig­ur­a­tion language called Ty­po­Script—a task that can be par­tic­u­larly chal­len­ging for beginners.

TYPO3 is con­sidered one of the most secure content man­age­ment systems available and is known for its ex­cep­tion­al flex­ib­il­ity as well as its large and active community. Numerous TYPO3 ex­ten­sions, such as templates, plugins, and much more, are typically available for free. Ad­di­tion­ally, the community provides support through a wealth of online forums and tutorials. There are now also pro­fes­sion­al service providers offering TYPO3 support.

Video: What is TYPO3?

TYPO3 features at a glance

TYPO3 makes it possible to create web presences of all kinds and sizes. Due to its im­press­ive func­tion­al­ity, TYPO3 can cater for even the most specific needs in web design. The following is a brief overview of the most important TYPO3 features:

• Multiple editors can con­trib­ute to web content. This can be easily con­trolled and adjusted, thanks to the Workflow function, which also saves all drafts in its history, allowing you to restore older versions easily.
• Changes to content and layout can be tested in work­spaces. A workspace is a specially designed working en­vir­on­ment that simulates the front end of the site.
• It’s possible to set detailed in­struc­tions for who has access to which areas of your website, both front end and back end. Numerous settings allow you to modify the access rights of in­di­vidu­al users, editors, ad­min­is­trat­ors or par­tic­u­lar groups.
• There are no re­stric­tions on the man­age­ment of multiple in­de­pend­ent sites. In­stall­a­tions only need to be made once for all sites.
• There are over 6,000 ex­ten­sions and ap­plic­a­tions to choose from. The Ex­ten­sions Manager makes them easy to locate and install.
• Making a web presence or several websites available in different languages is simple. There are more than 50 loc­al­isa­tions available for this.
• Both the front and back end are re­spons­ive. It is also possible to set special previews for the front end for mobile devices.

How to install TYPO3 quick guide

Anyone in­ter­ested in this free content system can find the most up to date version on the project’s official website. Before you busy yourself with how to install TYPO3, you should first make sure that you have the correct software and hardware setup. TYPO3 makes certain demands of a web server that need to be fulfilled before an in­stall­a­tion takes place. This is to ensure that there are no problems with in­stall­a­tion and future use.

Re­quire­ments for using TYPO3

TYPO3 is one of the SMS systems that spans across many platforms. When it comes to selecting an operating system you have free rein, as the TYPO3 As­so­ci­ation offers various in­stall­a­tion packages for Windows, macOS, and Unix/Linux. Even when it comes to the issue of web server software, the decision lies with you. While Apache is the optimal solution suggested by the de­vel­op­ment team, TYPO3 projects can also be run using NGINX, Microsoft IIS, or other ap­plic­a­tions that have a PHP module. The com­pon­ents of the content man­age­ment system are based on this scripting language, which is why the in­stall­a­tion of an up-to-date version of PHP is among the pre­requis­ites of TYPO3:

• TYPO3 v10: PHP 7.2–7.4
• TYPO3 v12: PHP 8.1 or higher
• TYPO3 v13: PHP 8.2 or 8.3

In the con­figured PHP en­vir­on­ment, it is crucial to have a memory limit of at least 256 MB (re­com­men­ded: more for stable per­form­ance) and to ensure that the globals setting is disabled. Ad­di­tion­ally, the allowed duration for script execution (max_execution_time) must be at least 240 seconds to ensure suf­fi­cient time for complex scripts to run.

For the database, de­velopers recommend MySQL (version 5.7 or later, re­com­men­ded: 8.0 or higher). However, thanks to the standard DBAL (Database Ab­strac­tion Layer) extension, TYPO3 now also supports other database systems, such as Post­gr­eSQL (from version 10.0) and MariaDB (from version 10.2, re­com­men­ded: 10.4 or higher). Oracle is no longer of­fi­cially mentioned in current TYPO3 versions, while Microsoft SQL Server is supported up to version 2019.

In terms of hardware, TYPO3 has re­l­at­ively modest re­quire­ments—the necessary 200 MB of free web space and 256 MB of RAM are not sig­ni­fic­ant obstacles, though more RAM is strongly re­com­men­ded for larger projects.

In­stalling the TYPO3 CMS

There are two pos­sib­il­it­ies for in­stalling TYPO3:

1. Download the relevant in­stall­a­tion package and unpack it on your web server. Al­tern­at­ively, you can also open it on a local PC and then upload the unpacked files to the server. However, because the package is made up of thousands of files, this is not always re­com­men­ded.
2. Or you can also install TYPO3 with the help of extra tools like TYPO3Win­staller. This in­stall­a­tion assistant (for Windows) not only takes over the in­stall­a­tion and setup of the content man­age­ment system, but also ensures that the required versions of Apache, PHP, and MySQL are installed on the web server.

Once all of the required program files are on the web server, the in­stall­a­tion tool will carry out the rest of the in­stall­a­tion and con­fig­ur­a­tion process. The in­stall­a­tion tool can be found in the folder titled ‘typo3/install’. This can be launched via the browser of your choice by entering the exact directory path in the address bar. Follow the in­struc­tions of the TYPO3 tool to create databases and regulate access to them, for example setting up an ad­min­is­trat­or account for your TYPO3 project.

TYPO3 ex­ten­sions for greater func­tion­al­ity

Even in its basic version, TYPO3 delivers an excellent CMS package that can be used in so many different web projects. The core of the program, as well as the front and backend, can be adjusted and extended if required. For this reason, there are TYPO3 ex­ten­sions available for use – modules with specific functions and that can be in­teg­rated via specific in­ter­faces. This allows you to add useful features to the content man­age­ment system, e.g. security features – to do with the ac­cel­er­a­tion of backend passwords or the automatic blocking of certain IP addresses dis­play­ing unusual login behaviour, as examples. Fur­ther­more, there are also ex­ten­sions for the op­tim­isa­tion of user ad­min­is­tra­tion, the in­teg­ra­tion of specific in­ter­act­ive elements, or the im­ple­ment­a­tion of ad­di­tion­al formulas.

How are the ex­ten­sions developed for TYPO3?

Re­gard­less of the area of ap­plic­a­tion, PHP is the basis of every TYPO3 extension. As a result, being familiar with the script language is one of the most important re­quire­ments for setting up such TYPO3 ex­ten­sions. However, the content man­age­ment system offers two valuable and useful tools to make the de­vel­op­ment process a lot easier.

• The template engine Fluid helps to generate the extension in the user interface.
• Then the MVC framework Extbase acts as a template for the software ar­chi­tec­ture to keep the data from the pro­cessing and the present­a­tion separate.

In this way, the source code is made clearer and the removal of bugs becomes easier. On top of this, Extbase has a function that makes the re­gis­tra­tion of newly developed ex­ten­sions easier. If you’re looking to enter the world of TYPO3 extension de­vel­op­ment yourself in order to program your own extension, you should fa­mil­i­ar­ise yourself with Extension Builder. This enables the quick and straight­for­ward creation of a basic framework for the planned extension. All essential files are generated auto­mat­ic­ally, sig­ni­fic­antly reducing time and effort.

In­stalling TYPO3 ex­ten­sions

Once you have found useful plugins for your TYPO3 project you next need to install them. Before the in­stall­a­tion, make sure that the selected in­stall­a­tion is com­pat­ible with the version of the content man­age­ment system that you are using. You should also check the repu­ta­tion and re­li­ab­il­ity of the extension. You can do this by looking at the basic in­form­a­tion like the version’s history, the date of the last update, or the download numbers. To install the desired TYPO3 extension, you can refer back to the Extension Manager, which is a standard component of the program. The manager makes it possible to install and configure ex­ten­sions directly within TYPO3 itself; something which is always prefer­able to a manual in­stall­a­tion via an external package.

In most cases, the extension that you are looking for can be found using the search function within the Extension Manager. All that you need is the complete and correct key, which for example you can find in the official re­pos­it­ory. To begin the in­stall­a­tion, simply click on the ‘Import and install’ button, which can be found next to the title of the selected extension. If the im­ple­ment­a­tion was a success, TYPO3 will inform you of this by dis­play­ing a brief dialog window.

TYPO3 Extension Re­pos­it­ory

For de­velopers who have pro­grammed a TYPO3 extension and wish to share it with the whole community, the TYPO3 Extension Re­pos­it­ory (TER) is the right platform for this. This central directory, which can be accessed via the official TYPO3 website of the content man­age­ment system, offers the pos­sib­il­ity of uploading plugins, templates, and so on to make them available for the entire TYPO3 user community. With the upload process, the developer also assigns (among other things) the afore­men­tioned extension key, that can be found through the Extension Manager and installed.

The TYPO3 Extension Re­pos­it­ory offers more than 1800 different ex­ten­sions, which makes it one of the most important portals for TYPO3 users. One of the directory’s par­tic­u­larly useful features is the in­teg­rated search function, which among other things, allows you to filter results based on de­vel­op­ment status, category, and TYPO3 com­pat­ib­il­ity.

An overview of the most popular TYPO3 ex­ten­sions

In order to demon­strate the ver­sat­il­ity of the Extension Re­pos­it­ory, we have compiled a clear and precise table of some of the most in­ter­est­ing and useful TYPO3 ex­ten­sions:

Get the design you want with TYPO3 templates

TYPO3 is a simple way of giving your TYPO3 project the layout and design that you desire. When it comes to optical design, instead of having to start from scratch, you can use handy templates to create a basic framework, upon which content can be built. The selected structure can also be changed at a later point or also com­pletely scrapped – in this case, the content will simply be trans­ferred and in­teg­rated into the new system.

Many pro­gram­mers have made it their mission to develop TYPO3 templates and make them available to users. Either they make the templates available for download on their own site or else on the websites of providers that spe­cial­ise in the sale of such things. However, keep in mind that the price should not ne­ces­sar­ily be used to gauge the quality of the website template.

What to look out for when selecting a TYPO3 template

When searching for TYPO3 templates for your web project, you will encounter both free, as well as fee-based options. Some sites offer various templates, whereas others will only have the one. However, prices and choices should not decide whether or not you download a template. Much more important are the optical com­pon­ents of a template.

Next, you should ask yourself whether the design and layout of the envisaged template fit both your vision and more im­port­antly your web project (not only them­at­ic­ally but also func­tion­ally). For instance, consider using an un­mod­i­fied template because it provides your website with a long-desired nav­ig­a­tion structure. However, if this structure detracts from the actual content or is poorly suited to it, it can quickly result in an un­in­ten­ded de­valu­ation of your project. If a template contains only a few elements of interest to you, then you should weigh up whether the sub­sequent necessary ad­just­ment work is worth your time and money. Fur­ther­more, consider the following things before down­load­ing a TYPO3 template:

• Re­spons­ive web design: Use a TYPO3 re­spons­ive template from the very start. Having such a flexible template as a basis means that your website will fit auto­mat­ic­ally to the display size of different devices. This allows desktop users and those with a tablet or smart­phone to have the optimal user ex­per­i­ence, without you having to create and manage an ad­di­tion­al mobile version of your project.
• Com­pat­ib­il­ity: Before selecting a template for your project, it’s essential to ensure it is com­pat­ible with your TYPO3 version. Typically, providers include com­pat­ib­il­ity details in the template de­scrip­tion, spe­cify­ing the versions it supports. If this in­form­a­tion is missing, carefully evaluate whether you’re willing to risk the template not working, es­pe­cially if it’s a paid option. For those who plan to update TYPO3 regularly, it’s advisable to look for templates that stay com­pat­ible with the latest versions of the content man­age­ment system.
• Licensing: TYPO3 templates come with a variety of licenses, which can sig­ni­fic­antly impact how they can be used. Whether the license is com­mer­cial or free, it’s crucial to verify that the terms align with your intended use. In some instances, modifying the template or using it for com­mer­cial purposes may be pro­hib­ited. More often than not, you will be required to provide at­tri­bu­tion, such as a link to the developer or provider.
• Re­li­ab­il­ity: Down­load­ing TYPO3 templates comes with the usual risks as­so­ci­ated with online activ­it­ies. Choosing an un­re­li­able provider could result in in­ad­vert­ently down­load­ing not only the desired template but also unwanted software such as adware or even harmful malware. Dubious providers in this field are not always easy to spot, so a degree of caution is necessary when dealing with new service providers. Look for in­dic­at­ors of trust­wor­thi­ness in an es­tab­lished and reliable provider, such as positive user reviews, clear contact in­form­a­tion, and available support options. Other good signs include the avail­ab­il­ity of demo versions and example screen­shots for the TYPO3 templates being offered.

An overview of free and fee-based TYPO3 templates

The search for a template is often more com­plic­ated than ori­gin­ally en­vi­sioned. It is not unusual for one to find the perfect solution, only for it to turn out that it is not actually com­pat­ible with your version of TYPO3. In other cases, the entire package might be the perfect fit; except that the price of the template exceeds your budget. It’s important to approach the matter with patience and avoid rushing into the first seemingly suitable solution you come across. This is the only way to ensure that you find a TYPO3 template that meets all your ex­pect­a­tions and can be used long term. Below is an overview of the es­tab­lished and reputable providers.

typo3.org – Extension Re­pos­it­ory (free)

The pre­vi­ously mentioned TYPO3 Extension Re­pos­it­ory also in­tro­duces us to a number of templates. While the re­pos­it­ory doesn’t actually offer the pos­sib­il­ity of choosing an extension category, it does have a filter option that can help you search for the template you need. The templates in question come from a variety of de­velopers who use this platform to make their products available to the user community. Along with a short de­scrip­tion, the most important basic details for each TYPO3 template will also be written. These include the current version of the template, the com­pat­ible TYPO3 versions, whether the template is dependent on other ex­ten­sions to function, as well as the name of the developer re­spons­ible for the template.

Sometimes it is also possible to access a manual, which alongside a detailed in­tro­duc­tion, offers in­form­a­tion relating to the licensing. When down­load­ing a TYPO3 template you will have the choice between a T3X package and a ZIP archive – both formats can load the content man­age­ment system as standard.

t3Bootstrap.de/en (fee-based)

A template of par­tic­u­lar note is the t3Bootstrap template from Wap­pler­Sys­tems, which as the name suggests, is based on the CSS Framework Bootstrap. This template is primarily aimed at TYPO3 users who are creating their own template but do not wish to work with the standard engine. Along with a series of basic com­pon­ents – like a grid system, sidebar menu, ty­po­graph­ies, and a function for re­spons­ive images – you also have access to a template maker that makes the creation of basic com­pon­ents for your project so much easier. Al­tern­at­ively, thanks to the finished bootstrap elements, the TYPO3 re­spons­ive template can also be used, unchanged, for content man­age­ment.

In order to be able to use t3Bootstrap, you need to acquire one of the licenses on offer. One of the re­l­at­ively cheap private user licenses is usually suf­fi­cient for a basic website. If you wish to use the TYPO3 template for your company website, then you will need the in­di­vidu­al com­mer­cial license. Wap­pler­Sys­tems offers a multi-project license for unlimited com­mer­cial use. Non-profit or­gan­isa­tions can use the template free of charge, on the one condition that they set a backlink.

sebkln.de/en

The web developer Sebastian Klein has also created a template for TYPO3 that you can use as a basis for your own templates. Apart from the t3Bootstrap template, his template (named ‘ba­setem­plate’) contains no in­teg­rated frontend solution like Bootstrap. Instead, it has a simple HTML structure that aims to make the use of TYPO3 FLUID templates that little bit easier. For this purpose, the template has a logical file structure, a basic Ty­po­Script setup, as well as a basic con­fig­ur­a­tion of the TYPO3 module (TSconfig). All settings can be adjusted without com­plic­a­tion if required. You can find the free ba­setem­plate, in three versions: ba­setem­plate62 (for TYPO3 6.2), ba­setem­plate7 (for TYPO3 7.6), and ba­setem­plate8 (for TYPO3 v8 LTS), available for download on GitHub GitHub profile ‘sebkln’: TYPO3 templates and ex­ten­sions.

OnePage Template for TYPO3 CMS (free)

If you are looking for an onpage layout for your web presence and are working with TYPO3 6.2, then the t3onepage template is an excellent choice. The TYPO3 template from Max­imili­an Mayer contains the right Ty­po­Script and the cor­res­pond­ing module basis in order to allow you to present your content on a single page. The package made up of fonts, icons, JavaS­cript snippets, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), is available under a free MIT license, and can be utilised and modified for both private and com­mer­cial aims (provided license and copyright are indicated). The free template can be down­loaded from Github.

How do you create a TYPO3 template?

Apart from the option of making use of the finished templates, there is also, of course, the pos­sib­il­ity of creating your own TYPO3 template. This gives you maximum control over the layout and design of your web presence. In order to do this, you need to have the necessary skills for HTML, CSS, and JavaS­cript. It is possible to make the creation of a basic framework like this easier by using the likes of Bootstrap, ZURB Found­a­tion, or HTML5 Boil­er­plate. This then means that you don’t have to start right from scratch. Also, an al­tern­at­ive to creating templates via HTML template, you can also create yours with TYPO3 internal con­fig­ur­a­tion language Ty­po­Script. Although for this to happen, a certain amount of time for fa­mil­i­ar­isa­tion is required. It is re­com­men­ded to create your own template in the form of a TYPO3 extension. This allows you to easily embed the template using the Extension Manager.

What are the steps involved in a TYPO3 update?

When upgrading to a new TYPO3 version, various tasks are on the agenda. Whether it’s a minor update (e.g., from 13.2.1 to 13.2.2) or a major update (e.g., from 12.x to 13.x), you should first create a backup of the current TYPO3 in­stall­a­tion and the database. If com­plic­a­tions arise during the update process, this allows you to quickly revert to the previous version. Before switching to the new version, it is also essential to update the reference index. For major TYPO3 updates that require the use of the Upgrade Wizard, the following ad­di­tion­al steps are necessary:

• Con­vert­ing global to local ex­ten­sions: Globally installed ex­ten­sions should be converted to local ex­ten­sions to avoid com­pat­ib­il­ity issues.
• Running the Database Analyzer: This helps identify and resolve potential issues in the database structure.
• Clearing the cache table and deleting temporary cache files: This removes outdated and un­ne­ces­sary data.
• Deleting user settings in the backend: Old settings may be in­com­pat­ible and should therefore be reset.
• Reading the ChangeLog and the NEWS.md file of the new TYPO3 update: These files contain important in­form­a­tion about changes and new features.
• Updating ex­ten­sions and the language module (language): All used ex­ten­sions and language packages should be updated to the latest version to ensure com­pat­ib­il­ity.

In most cases, upgrading to a new TYPO3 version is re­l­at­ively straight­for­ward. However, the extent of necessary ad­just­ments depends on the variety of ex­ten­sions and the specific versions in use. Given the potential com­plex­ity, many hosting providers offer TYPO3 update services to simplify the process.

Im­press­ive examples of what you can do with TYPO3

TYPO3 is par­tic­u­larly popular in Europe. To see what can be achieved using this CMS, here are a number of famous or­gan­isa­tions across Europe who use TYPO3 for their website:

• Deutscher Fußball-Bund (the German national football as­so­ci­ation)
• France’s national carrier Air France
• Germany’s national carrier Deutsche Lufthansa
• Subway’s European internet presence
• In­ter­na­tion­ally-re­cog­nised elec­tron­ics brand Philips

If you’d like to see TYPO3 in action, you can try a demo version in your browser.

Pros and cons of TYPO3

Compared to other content man­age­ment systems, TYPO3 is less user-friendly. For those with ab­so­lutely no CMS ex­per­i­ence, it may take a while longer to get to grips with TYPO3’s operation and many different functions than with some of the other options.

On the other hand, this is an enorm­ously flexible CMS that offers endless pos­sib­il­it­ies (with the right know-how). The diverse range of ex­ten­sions allows you to equip your TYPO3 website with a large variety of different features, while the workflow tool makes or­gan­ising col­lab­or­a­tion between several editors and admins easy.

The ease of loc­al­isa­tion for many languages gives TYPO3 an advantage over WordPress and it’s also easy to manage several websites on the CMS. When it comes to troubleshoot­ing, tutorials, or just new updates, the large community on TYPO3 is on hand to help. While ad­mit­tedly complex, TYPO3 is a com­pre­hens­ive CMS, offering almost limitless web design op­por­tun­it­ies.