T3CON24 Recap - Best Practices in TYPO3 Content Management

At T3Con 2024, two experienced practitioners co-presented the session, Content Administration in TYPO3: Best Practices, sharing valuable insights into managing large-scale TYPO3 installations at German universities. The session focused on real-world best practices, challenges, and solutions in content management for higher education institutions.

The Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) faces unique challenges in managing its extensive digital ecosystem. Their experience offers valuable insights into large-scale TYPO3 implementation in higher education.

As with any large-scale system, continuous improvement is essential. Discussing their upcoming version upgrade, Müller shared: "We're now facing the jump from Version 9 to 12. Now we just have to keep our fingers crossed that everything goes well with this big connection jump in the next few days." The upgrade represents more than just a version change, bringing significant improvements to key functionality:  "Our calendar will be completely replaced by Calendarize, and the extensive course database will be moved to IntuStudy-Finder... Our previous grid elements will be replaced by containers."

Managing such a large user base inevitably leads to recurring issues. Müller frankly discussed their biggest challenges: "Our number one user error is incorrect linking - external linking instead of internal linking. In the worst case, the preview URL is still linked externally. And we can only combat this through education in the training areas."

Beyond basic functionality, compliance remains a key concern. On accessibility, she noted: "Alternative texts and headings with hierarchies are simply ignored. Yet website accessibility will only become legally mandatory from mid-2025."

To address these challenges, HHU has developed a comprehensive training strategy.  Describing their training program, Müller explained: "Our basic training is designed for 15 to 20 participants and lasts three hours. The fundamental content elements are presented in two blocks, each followed by a practical section."

While smaller in scale than some institutions, Oldenburg maintains a focused and efficient digital presence. Burggräf provided context about their institution: "We have far fewer students, about 15,000 students in about 100 degree programs... We have one instance essentially, which is called ul.de and olmhock.de, and basically everything is in there."

One of Oldenburg's notable achievements has been their sophisticated authentication system implementation. On this innovative approach, Burggräf shared: "We have a combination of single sign-on system... The beautiful thing is, if someone was already logged into our e-learning system, they click through but are immediately directed to the backend because they don't need to enter their password again. That's real single sign-on."

Beyond their own technical implementations, Oldenburg demonstrates strong commitment to the broader TYPO3 ecosystem. Burggräf emphasized their community involvement: "I belong to the TYPO3 Academic Committee... one of our missions is that we enable extension development with united forces. In this case, we joined together with several universities and said we would like to support exactly this GDPR development of PowerMail."

This collaborative spirit extends to practical support for development initiatives. He elaborated on their collaborative funding approach: "Everyone then got a bill for over 1,000 euros. And now the result is there and it's available to the community. And that's our philosophy."

Burggräf concluded with a powerful call to action: "I wish that we would bundle our forces — that universities and the public sector would come together to say where our needs are. By combining our know-how and other resources, we can achieve much more with TYPO3."

Frank Schmidt, the session moderator aptly summarized: "Better final words couldn't have been spoken, for a community, getting involved, give and take, everything included."

This session demonstrated how educational institutions can effectively manage complex web presences while contributing to the broader TYPO3 ecosystem, showcasing the power of community-driven open source development. As noted during the Q&A, there's potential for even broader collaboration across different sectors, with one participant suggesting: "We as TYPO3 Academic Committee are a group of universities... maybe there would be the idea to establish something like what we have... for communities or whatever else."

Did you enjoy this recap? If you would like to relive all the exciting moments from T3CON24, be sure to check our our recap of the entire conference! 

Official T3CON24 Recap