Major update mastered - University of Tübingen updated to TYPO3 Version 10 LTS

TYPO3 8 LTS to 10 LTS

With the update from version 8 LTS to version 10 LTS we started a very extensive and complex  project. 

The complex server infrastructure with numerous servers, as well as over 2.000 accesses for editors, 57.000 pages and about 224.000 page contents required a structured and coordinated project flow. In addition, all layout specifications had to be adhered to after the update, which was quite a challenge with a number of 40 different news presentations and 300 pages within a test page tree and could not be solved quickly in one day. Not even with a four-person team.

After months of preparation, we are all the more proud of a result that not only makes us happy but also the university.

New Features

As is so often the case, this update also included some new features for the client.

In order to comply with the legal regulation on official announcements, we have developed our own extension for displaying them on the website. Students and other interested parties can thus keep up to date and download such announcements for free at any time. 

In addition, TYPO3's Redirects module has been extended so that entire sections of a segment can now be redirected editorially, while retaining the old function completely.

As the extension originally used to display maps with the help of Open-Street-Map was no longer available for the latest version of TYPO3, we decided on our own small, data protection-compliant solution, which is now in use.

Are you also looking for an OSM solution for your TYPO3 project? Take a look at Open-Street-Map!

Open-Street-Map

Challenges

In the latest version of TYPO3, the core functionality Routing replaces the old extension realurl, to create readable paths in the URL. However, originally several URLs could lead to the same destination, which was no longer possible after the conversion. Together we decided to implement a set of redirects or 404 status messages to meet the original requirements of visitors and search engines.

A further challenge was the handling of translations in different languages of page content and other data sets, as TYPO3 10 sometimes handles localization differently than it used to.

What we are particularly proud of

The cooperation between the project teams of in2code and the University communication and IT department was structured and targeted by the weekly Jour fixes. Despite numerous communicative and technical challenges that COVID-19 has demanded from all colleges and universities since the beginning of the year, the project remained in the focus of the participants. The commitment and motivation of all parties involved as well as our long lasting experience in the area of websites for universities, migrations and updates helped us to achieve a successful result despite all obstacles. 

We are looking forward to future tasks and joint successes with the University of Tübingen.