Neos 7.0

This major release of Neos comes with some great new features, bugfixes and a lot of modernisation of the existing code base. As usual, we worked hard to keep this release as backwards compatible as possible but, since it’s a major release, some of the changes might require manual adjustments. So please make sure to carefully read the upgrade instructions below. Neos 7 also increases the minimal required PHP version to 7.3.

Note: Version 6 has been skipped so that future releases are in sync with the Flow versioning scheme.

The last minor release before 7.0 was 5.3.

New Features

Faster and more extensible routing

With version 7 Neos leverages the full power of the latest Routing features and moves most of the logic of the LinkingService::createNodeUri() into the infamous FrontendNodeRoutePartHandler. This results in a greatly improved performance for the frontend routing because information about the current context can be shared between routes and cached independently from the content.

Furthermore the handler has been extended by a nodeType option that allows custom routes to be applied for the specified node type exclusively.

Example Routes.yaml:

With that, the custom.html suffix will only work if the resolved nodes implements the Some.Package:SomeDocument node type. In this example, the custom route will set a custom argument that can be accessed from Fusion in order to implement a dynamic representation of the node for example (see docs.neos.io).

Related issue: #3020

NodeType presets

Many developers are familiar with the Sitegeist.Silhouettes package that allows integrators to specify presets that can be used across multiple node type definitions. This feature is now part of the core functionality and it can be used to centralize recurring configurations:

Example Settings.yaml

Neos:
  Neos:
    nodeTypes:
      presets:
        properties:

          'rte':

            'plaintext':
              type: string
              ui:
                inlineEditable: true

            'rich':
              type: 'string'
              ui:
                inlineEditable: true
                inline:
                  editorOptions:
                    autoparagraph: true
                    formatting:
                      em: true
                      strong: true

Example NodeTypes.yaml

'Some.Package:SomeNodeType':
  # ...
  properties:
    'title':
      options:
        preset: 'rte.plaintext'
      defaultValue: 'Title'
    'description':
      options:
        preset: 'rte.basicText'

Related issue: #3090

Atomic Fusion

Two years ago Martin introduced their JSX inspired packages around “Atomic Fusion” in a blog post Blog post. It was very popular from the start and is considered best practice in the meantime and the Neos.Demo package has already been reworked to demonstrate some of the possibilities of AFX. While Fluid still plays an important role, especially in the Neos backend, version 7 marks an important step towards a unified, Fusion based templating system:

Include AFX in the development collection

The neos/fusion-afx package is now part of the Neos development collection making it much easier to implement changes that need synchronous alterations in AFX and Fusion and reducing the number of version constraints we’ll have to deal with.

As a consequence, the package makes a huge version jump from 1.4 to 7.0,

Related issue: #2878

SiteKickstarter creates AFX based packages

We made the Site Kickstarter more versatile. Now you can easily add a custom generator package and kickstart different sorts of sites with one package:

  • Add possibility to use more than one template for the site kickstarter

  • Replace AFX template with the fluid template

  • Add the generator selection to the backend module for site packages

  • Removed the old generic generator service

Related issue: #3074

Improved AFX parser exception message

Previously, only AFX exceptions were converted to fusion exceptions, which hid valuable information about the user’s error source. This change will also catch for AFX parser exceptions and convert those to Fusion Exceptions.

Before:

<p> Opening-bracket for closing of tag "p" expected.

Now:

Error during AFX-parsing: <p> Opening-bracket for closing of tag “p” expected.

Related issue: #3235

Configurable default backend module

Up to now, after logging into the Neos backend a user would always end up in the “Content module”. While this makes sense most of the time, it made it impossible to deny a user access to this module.

With Neos 7 a new privilege target Neos.Neos.Ui:Backend.Module.Content has been added that is granted to the default Neos.Neos:AbstractEditor. Users without that privilege won’t have access to the default content module.

Furthermore it’s now possible to define the default module that is shown after login via the Neos.Neos.moduleConfiguration.preferredStartModules setting:

Neos:
  Neos:
    moduleConfiguration:
      preferredStartModules: ['content', 'management/custom']

After login the user will be redirected to the first accessible module.

Related issue: #2351

StaticResource Eel Helper

A new Eel helper has been added that allows for easy rendering of static resource URIs:

<!-- create static resource uri -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href={StaticResource.uri('Neos.Demo', 'Public/Styles/Main.css')} media="all" />

And, since it sometimes make sense to inline the contents of a static resource, this is possible as well:

<!-- get static resource content -->
<style>{StaticResource.content('Neos.Demo', 'Public/Styles/Main.css')}</style>

Related issue: #2175

Respect language plurals also in XliffService

Neos now supports plurals in the localized UI labels. Previously the value had to be generic such as “{0} change(s) applied”. Now two individual labels, such as “one change applied” and “{0} changes applied” can be specified.

Related issue: #2786

Lazy loading images

Image tags rendered with the Neos.Neos:ImageTag fusion prototype (or the ImageViewHelper from the Neos.Media package) will now be rendered with the loading attribute set to “lazy” by default leveraging the power of modern browsers to defer loading of images until they are visible. See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/img#attr-loading

Related issue: #3084

Description and icon for Asset sources

The Neos\Media\Domain\Model\AssetSource\AssetSourceInterface has been extended by the two methods getIconUri() and getDescription(). Custom asset sources implementing this interface have to be adjusted accordingly.

Related issue: #3211

Remove default prototype generator

The default plugin and content prototype generators have been disabled and deprecated with version 5. Now the implementations were removed from the source.

The feature to define a custom prototype generator in the node type definition via options.fusion.prototypeGenerator still exists of course!

Related issues: #2487, #3210

Add third parameter “sortFlags” for FlowQuery sort()

Now you are able the pass a third parameter to the sort() method. According to the sort flags of arsort() the sort options are:

'SORT_REGULAR'
'SORT_NUMERIC'
'SORT_STRING'
'SORT_LOCALE_STRING'
'SORT_NATURAL'
'SORT_FLAG_CASE' (use as last option with SORT_STRING, SORT_LOCALE_STRING, or SORT_NATURAL)

A single sort option can be supplied as a string. Multiple sort options are supplied as an array. Omitting the third parameter leaves FlowQuery sort() in SORT_REGULAR sort mode.

Related issue: #2989

See https://www.neos.io/download-and-extend/upgrade-instructions-5-3-7-0.html

As this is a major release, a few breaking changes have been made. All of them can be found in the ChangeLog, but everything important should be listed above and in the upgrade instructions.

In case you have any problems with this guide, please get in touch with us via discuss.neos.io or on Slack.

Note

Additionally, all changes in Flow 7.0 apply; see the release notes to further information. See http://flowframework.readthedocs.org/en/7.0/TheDefinitiveGuide/PartV/ReleaseNotes/700.html