Productive Analysis for Your Next TYPO3 Upgrade

Author

Published

June 13th, 2019

Thanks a lot to Sanjay from NITSAN for sharing!

At the most recent Developer Days 2018 and the TYPO3 Conference 2018, I spoke about TYPO3 Upgrades, looking at the process from different perspectives. I also showed how one of our most popular TYPO3 solutions, the TYPO3 Extensions Compatibility Report, EXT:ns_ext_compatibility, makes it easier to plan and execute upgrades. And I was glad to receive great applause and appreciation from the community!

Slides from my talks:

The challenge of TYPO3 Upgrades

“The TYPO3 core update always rocks - yet it’s the extension compatibility that causes problems.”

That’s why we built the extension TYPO3 Extensions Compatibility Report to make this easier.

What does the extension do?

Before upgrading a TYPO3 project to a major version (e.g., v7 to v9), we must conduct an in-depth technical analysis by checking compatibility and dependencies (with the TYPO3 core) of all installed extensions.

To do so, you must manually prepare a 3rd party TYPO3 extension compatibility report. This is a bit of a time-consuming task; you have to prepare a list of installed extensions and check each compatibility version one-by-one extension at the TYPO3 Extension Repository (TER) etc..

To save time and energy for the project planning and estimation, our team at NITSAN decided to develop a cool tool to generate an automatic extension compatibility report, and the result is wonderful - EXT:ns_ext_compatibility TYPO3 extension. The extension has more than 2000+ downloads from the TER and Packagist.

Major features of EXT:ns_ext_compatibility TYPO3 extension

TYPO3 system information
Statistical report of TYPO3 extensions
Server compatibility for your targeted TYPO3 version
TYPO3 extension’s compatibility report
Export/Download report
Automatic email notification of a new update of TYPO3 Core and extensions
Compatibility from TYPO3 4.x to 8.x
Supports composer

Did you know?

“TYPO3 is the only open source content management system with a vendor-level warranty.”

Overview

Extension Key	ns_ext_compatibility
Extension URL	https://extensions.typo3.org/extension/ns_ext_compatibility/
Documentation	https://www.nitsan.in/blog/post/t3ext-day-typo3-extensions-compatibility-report/
Support	https://github.com/nitsan-technologies/ns_ext_compatibility/issues
Version	1.1.4
Category	Backend Module
TYPO3 version	4.5.0 - 8.7.24

Let’s install it quickly!

With Composer

composer require nitsan/ns_ext_compatibility

With TER

Download and install through the Extension Manager from https://extensions.typo3.org/extension/ns_ext_compatibility/

How to generate a compatibility report?

Step 1: Once you have installed and configured the extension, Extensions Report will be added below the Admin tools module menu in your TYPO3 installation.

Step 2: Select the targeted TYPO3 version from the top-right corner dropdown. This should be the TYPO3 version to which you want to upgrade e.g. TYPO3 9.x.

Report 1: TYPO3 System Information

The report shows general information about your installed and configured TYPO3 core version like the current version, number of languages, pages, domains, etc.

Report 2: Extensions Statistics

In this chart, you can see interesting facts and figures about TYPO3 extensions e.g. how many extensions are installed and not-installed and the total number of extensions compatible with a particular TYPO3 version.

Report 3: Server Compatibility

Before upgrading, you should always check if the server holds all the compatibilities for your targeted TYPO3 version. In this report, the comparison of server’s compatibility between current and targeted TYPO3 version would be shown, i.e. if you want to upgrade TYPO3 v9, then you should have PHP 7.2.

Report 4: TYPO3 Extension Compatibility

The main report displays a matrix of TYPO3 extensions. This table shows if a particular extension is compatible or not, the state of extension, current and latest version information, type of extension e.g., from TER or custom etc.

Icon/Number	Action	Description
1	Compatible or Installed	The particular extension is compatible (or installed) with a particular TYPO3 version.
2	Non-Compatible or Not-Installed	The particular extension is not-compatible (or not-installed) with a particular TYPO3 version.
3	Extension Details	Open popup with detailed information about a particular extension (from TER) like description, last updated comment, last updated date, etc.
4	Extension Version Details	Open popup to display a version history.
5	Documentation	Open documentation mentioned at TER.
6	TER Extension	Open extension details at https://extensions.typo3.org

Report 5: Export/Download Report

It is a good practice to send a cool office-doc report to your customer instead of requiring them to catch up on it in the TYPO3 backend. You can also download a complete report in Excel format by clicking on the Export Report button at the top-right corner.

Update Extension Repository

Basically, this extension receives detailed data from the TYPO3 core’s Extension Module. So, you can grab all the extensions from TER with the following steps:

Step 1: Go to the Extension Manager.

Step 2: Select Get Extensions from the dropdown.

Step 3: Click on the Update now button.

Note:

It’s not compulsory to update this - If you don’t want to see the history and other details, just avoid this step.

Get automatic email updates for new versions

Do you want to receive automatic updates for new versions of TYPO3?

You may configure the following schedule so the system will send you an email whenever a particular new version will launch for TYPO3 core as well as TYPO3 extensions.

Step 1: Go to SYSTEM > Scheduler > Create a new scheduler with an update extension list.

Step 2: Also, setup new scheduler with TYPO3 Extensions Compatibility Report via email notification.

Now the system will automatically send you an email whenever a new version of TYPO3 or installed extensions becomes available.

Planning for a next major release v2.0

Our team is planning for and excited to release the next TYPO3 major version with the following features:

Check if a particular extension is used or not
Attach the excel sheet report to an email
API Integration with TYPO3 core’s scanner (errors, deprecations, logs, etc.,)
Generate a graphical report
Provide PHP information
UI/UX Improvements
Adding Support link at action column
Report: generates a list of basic security issues
Report: code review (PHP, TypoScript, Fluid)
Report: extension’s health (problems/issues)

Support and Feedback

We hope you like this extension that will definitely save you time and energy when you initialize your TYPO3 upgrade projects.

Are you facing any difficulties (or questions) analyzing or upgrading a TYPO3 project? We are happy to help you out - Just consult us!

We would be glad to receive your feedback, new feature requests, suggestions or bugs to improve EXT:ns_ext_compatibility at https://github.com/nitsan-technologies/ns_ext_compatibility/issues

Have a happy TYPO3 upgrade! :)

About the Author

Sanjay Chauhan

TYPO3 Technopreneur at NITSAN Technologies Pvt Ltd,Bhavnagar, India

Website Twitter LinkedIn Xing

Sanjay Chauhan is the Co-Founder of NITSAN (awarding winning TYPO3 agency) and Pioneer of T3Terminal (first-ever TYPO3 marketplace). Sanjay is a true TYPO3 fanatic going all the way back to 2010. He brings strong TYPO3 experience in building customer-business relationships and also has a wealth of knowledge in the technical field for our ventures in T3Terminal and TYPO3.

Being extremely passionate and obsessed with TYPO3 he writes regularly about TYPO3 sharing many tips and tricks and even his own personal innovations with TYPO3. Sanjay is a true fan & believer to share his TYPO3 knowledge and by doing so, he fulfills the motto of TYPO3 - Inspiring People To Share!

Apart from TYPO3 he loves reading, exploring new technologies, and playing cricket.