Patrick Broens: Latest blog entries http://patrickbroens.nl/ Latest blog entries from patrickbroens.nl en Patrick Broens: Latest blog entries http://patrickbroens.nl/typo3conf/ext/tt_news/ext_icon.gif http://patrickbroens.nl/ 18 16 Latest blog entries from patrickbroens.nl TYPO3 - get.content.right http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:16:00 +0200 Survey the right way! http://patrickbroens.nl//blog/article/survey-the-right-way/ While working for an advertising agency in Amsterdam more than 7 years ago, I started to write my... Sharable Content Object Reference Model) which is used in e-learning systems a lot. It defines communications between client side content and a host system called the run-time environment, but also defines how content may be packaged into a transferable ZIP file called "Package Interchange Format". The last part is very interesting, because you can transfer content from one e-learning system, like Moodle, to another, like Blackboard, without converting the data. For tests there is a similar specification called the IMS Question and Test Interoperability specification (QTI). It defines a standard format for the representation of assessment content and results, supporting the exchange of this material between authoring and delivery systems, repositories and other learning management systems. It allows assessment materials to be authored and delivered on multiple systems interchangeably. It is, therefore, designed to facilitate interoperability between systems. I love specifications. It makes the world a bit easier (if there wasn't a company called Microsoft who ruined the HTML specification). And the main advantage of the QTI specification is they have thought about, well, (almost) everything. So I don't have to invent the wheel again. Because most of the TYPO3 users are from Germany, some of you will be wondering what SCORM and QTI is all about. In the Netherlands e-learning systems, which are compliant to these specifications, are used a lot in educational institutions like universities. But when talking to Germans related to universities it seems they haven't heard of it, or worse, not using it. The American Army is using it. Or better, Shell is using it for their internal education worldwide. But I'm drifting. I was talking about pbsurvey. During the next months I will continue (I already did some work) work on a completely new version. But with a different extension key. Mads Brunn was so kind to hand over the extension key 'survey' to me a year (or two) ago. Survey will be based on the QTI 2.1 specification and the combination Extbase/Fluid. It will be ready for the future.]]> TYPO3 patrick@patrickbroens.nl Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:16:00 +0200 Grab your towel, we almost have a liftoff of the FORM project http://patrickbroens.nl//blog/article/grab-your-towel-we-almost-have-a-liftoff-of-the-form-project/ The past few months I've been working on the TYPO3 Core FORM project. And I'm proud to say it is... http://forge.typo3.org/projects/typo3v4-form/. At the beginning of May we will start a testing period, but you are very welcome to post any bug to the bugtracker on Forge already. Comments, positive or negative can be send to my email address.]]> TYPO3 ExtJS patrick@patrickbroens.nl Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:32:00 +0200 No job, new opportunities http://patrickbroens.nl//blog/article/no-job-new-opportunities/ The last few days I have been posting a countdown on Twitter and my Facebook account. Some people... But why? Simply because I think it is time for a change. I've worked for companies the last 19 years and thought it was time to start my own. A few reasons were related to this. First of all I got tired of all the travelling I had to do. The last 10 years my travelling time to the company was 2 hours, door to door, not counting all the train delays I had. That is 4 hours on a 8 hour working day. Secondly, and most important, I want to spend more time for the TYPO3 Core. Since 2006 I'm a member of the TYPO3 Core Team, and I always had the feeling there was not much time left for it. I once even thought about quiting the TYPO3 Core Team membership, but luckily I never did. I still want to be involved in, what I think, the best CMS there is on this planet. I'm still learning a lot, especially with all the new technologies we are facing every day. And I love the TYPO3 community. A lot of people I consider as my friends. It might be possible the gossip starts here. ?Why did he leave Netcreators??. Don't! The reasons I've mentioned before are the reasons. I've had a very good time at Netcreators. It's a company with a heart for TYPO3 and very nice collegues. TYPO3 would not be so big in The Netherlands if there was no Netcreators.

So, now what?

Some of you might know I've started a project 2 years ago to replace the TYPO3 FORM content object. This project came to a stop due to several reasons. And now it is back! The first 2 or 3 months I will spend most of my time on this project. After this period I will be available as a consultant and developer for all TYPO3 companies worldwide. If you want to hire me, don't hesitate, and contact me by mail, Skype or any other method mentioned on this website. ]]> Buzz patrick@patrickbroens.nl Wed, 01 Dec 2010 09:00:00 +0100 The FORM Project is not dead http://patrickbroens.nl//blog/article/the-form-project-is-not-dead/ Two years ago I've started the FORM project, which goal is to replace the FORM content object in... And how! As you might have read in another article on my website, I've quit my job and started my own company with TYPO3 consulting and development services. The first task on my list is to finish the FORM project, which means I'm working on it fulltime for the next 2 or 3 months. The first two milestones were completed during the previous work. This means it is already possible to generate forms out of Typoscript. "Typoscript, you say?" Yes, Typoscript. In my opinion content objects of the TYPO3 Core need to be able to be constructed out of Typoscript. It is the foundation of the TYPO3 Core. I've thrown away the old FORM content object Typoscript and started writing a complete new syntax, which is more like the rest of the Typoscript syntax for other content objects. From today I will continue with the rest of the milestones:
  • Milestone III - Form wizard GUI
  • Milestone IV - Generating Typoscript from wizard
  • Milestone V - Handling of incoming data
  • Milestone VI - Fine tuning, additions, tester's feedback
In the last few weeks I already did some prework on the Form wizard GUI. Currently I'm also rewriting the extension pbsurvey, which new version will have the extension key "survey". Survey also needs a drag and drop GUI in the backend, and I can reuse large parts from this. I will try to post as many news items as possible on the project page on Forge and on this website.]]> TYPO3 patrick@patrickbroens.nl Wed, 01 Dec 2010 08:59:00 +0100 TYPO3 and HTML5 http://patrickbroens.nl//blog/article/typo3-and-html5/ For all of you still in a winter sleep, HTML5 is booming. There was never a W3C Draft which got so...

Full HTML5 Support

TYPO3 4.4 comes with full support to run web sites in HTML5. This can simply be turned on by configuring the appropriate TypoScript option. Additionally, the TYPO3 Backend supports HTML5; it is now simple to add HTML5 elements to both Backend and Frontend. Full HTML5 support? Really? Well, yes and no. When you look at the changes the TYPO3 Core Team has made and the sentences above, only the doctype has been added. But since it was possible to write your own doctype since the beginning of TYPO3, you can say TYPO3, or Kasper, had a look into the future and made the support possible before there was even a word written down about HTML5. However, it is fairly simple to use the basics of HTML5 in your website using TYPO3. It's because of the TYPO3 template engine and Typoscript. When using your own HTML template with Typoscript or the template parser, it does not care which tags you use. This allows you to use the tags HEADER, FOOTER or NAV, which you can fill using the appropriate Typoscript settings. The problems begin when you want to do some advanced HTML5, using the core or extensions. The core extension css_styled_content needs to be rewritten to support most or all of the new features of HTML5, and I'm not even talking about the CANVAS tag here, which is beyond advanced. Content is nowadays put in a DIV tag, which is not bad, but in HTML5 this should be an ARTICLE. It's all about semantics. Which makes it more difficult, because all the content which belongs to this article, should be in the ARTICLE tag. Most of the content we put in a page is divided into several Text, Text with image or Table content objects and all of these objects make one article. Currently the web is not that much into semantics, but it will get more important with HTML5. And the given example is just a start on reconsidering the basics of content in TYPO3.

Extensions

Also extensions need to be adapted. On this website most of the content is coming from tt_news. When you have a look to the footer of the tt_news article, there is a date when the article was written. In HTML5 this date should be within a TIME tag, using the pubdate and datetime attributes. Currently tt_news can only output one date format at a time in an article. Usually this is the human readable format, like November 26th, 2010. The datetime attribute however needs another format like 2010-11-26.

The good news

Yesterday I received the TYPO3 Association Quarterly Report Q3/2010 by mail. Especially the part about the Content Rendering Group caught my eye;
This group thought its job was almost done until HTML5 entered the scene. Ben van 't Ende, originator of the group, attended the front end developers Fronteers conference in Amsterdam and returned awesomely inspired. The Content Rendering Group will be working on HTML5 output next year for the upcoming TYPO3 version 4.6.
Oh, I want to be a part of that!]]> (X)HTML TYPO3 patrick@patrickbroens.nl Wed, 01 Dec 2010 08:58:00 +0100