Acqal Experts Blog About TYPO3 and Other Hot Topics

T3BOARD09 FLOW3 Happenings

By: Michael Cannon

When refactoring TYPO3 4.X doesn't cut it, write 60,000 lines of code for a new framework and then cut it down to 35,000, as all that's really needed.

Tech Tuesday Went Snowboarding at T3BOARD09

By: Michael Cannon

Today's Tech Tuesday isn't technical at all, unless you count lean forward instead of back and carve, not kick when turning on a snowboard.

I'm enjoying a week of snowboarding at T3BOARD09 with about 150 fellow TYPO3 and snow enthusiasts. Every day, I'm tyring to put out T3BOARD09 photos.

While I'm taking a break, why not take one yourself. Tech Tuesday will be back to normal on April 1, 2009.

Sunday at T3BOARD09 in Laax, Switzerland

By: Michael Cannon

It's 9:44 PM here at Laax and the TYPO3 geeks are still going strong. Plenty of laptops, beer, dice, videos and cameras are out in force this evening.

Highlights

Kaspers's keynote video was amazing ala Mission Impossible.Last night after the TYPO3 Association General Assembly in Zurich, Kasper and crew put together an afterparty podcast. Yes, I'm the Loose Cannon.Thanks to Ingo Renner for getting TYPO3 accepted to Google Summer of Code.130 donors came together with nearly 6,000 Euros to purchase Kasper some serious top of the line snowboarding equipment. The excess funds by community...

TYPO3 Association General Assembly Notes for March 21, 2009

By: Michael Cannon

Here's a few notes from the TYPO3 Association General Assembly March 21, 2009 that I'd like to share. I've been told my notes are cryptic in the past, so if you'd like clarification, please leave a comment.

Member growth has been stagnating.Concerns are that TYPO3 Association has a bit of prima donna reputation because it seems that committee actions are behind closed doors and no one but insiders knows what's going on.The cause seems to be a lack of communication from the people making decisions being quite busy trying to build up a good foundation for current and future TYPO3 editions and...

The State of TYPO3 Training

By: Virgil Huston

I've been an instructional systems designer / trainer for more years that I care to think about. I've gotten pretty good at it and have some opinions on the state of TYPO3 training that may not be overly popular. This is an important topic and something Acqal is focusing on.

RBS 6 Nations

But, what is really important this weekend is: will Ireland get their first grand slam in 61 years in the RBS 6 Nations Championship? They are playing Wales, who achieved the grand slam last year. I'm counting on the boys in green to carry the day.

Back to Training

TYPO3 training materials are a lot like...

From Taipei to Zurich with TYPO3

By: Michael Cannon

I'm pretty high right now. Plus, I'm tired, cramped, sore and wondering about freedom that will come in 3 hours when the cabin doors open again. Ah, the pleasures of traveling on a modern airplane. All the conveniences of home, just in sizes not quite big enough to make you feel comfortable. I'm enroute to Zurich, Switzerland from Taiwan, for the TYPO3 Association General Assembly to meet with fellow movers and shakers of the TYPO3 community. I've attended all of the TYPO3 conferences in Germany to date, but this will my first time to attend the TYPO3 leadership sessions. It's during these...

Create Next Page Navigation with TypoScript

By: Michael Cannon

This TypoScript menu sample is a little different than most. Instead of a showing a menu that just list pages, this menu shows your end user Next page, Previous page and Up a level links.

As usual, put this code into your TypoScript template setup section and apply it to your template by calling lib.internalnav.

lib.internalnav = HMENUlib.internalnav { special = browse special { items = up|prev|next items.prevnextToSection = 1 up.fields.title = Up a level prev.fields.title = Previous page next.fields.title = Next page } 1 = TMENU 1.NO { linkWrap =...

Grow Business by Building Partnerships

By: Michael Cannon

Though Acqal was founded during a downward economy and weakening market, we're growing. Albeit slow growth, but it's positively getting better every month.

The biggest way we've been growing is by letting each of us at Acqal do what we do best and to do what we're interested in. Furthermore, if there's a skill set we're missing for a particular project, we call upon family, friends, peers and yes, outsourcers to fill that need.

As time goes by, certain people are called upon more than others and their skill set becomes ever more useful to become an Acqal offering.

Through our growth, we...

TYPO3 is the Best Enterprise Content Management System (CMS)

By: Virgil Huston

TYPO3 versus other CMS platforms is a constant discussion. This week, in Twitter discussions, the question was again asked: "Why is TYPO3 the CMS of choice in Europe and Drupal more popular in the US (for open source solutions - I have previously covered why no company ever should waste their money on a propritary CMS). The first reason is that TYPO3 was developed in Europe and first took hold there. US CMS developers were/are slow to take it up. Drupal was also developed by a European, but has a larger US presence.I know what my opinion is, TYPO3 is superior, I came to that conclusion...

Michael's New Linkou Apartment

By: Michael Cannon

Peichi and I just returned from Linkou, south of Taipei in Taiwan after signing a lease on a new apartments. We've been looking around for the past month for a new place to establish ourselves, start a family and grow our businesses.

Through a little click-through accident, we found Linkou and took a day trip down there. Though it's not much to look at initially, it's a really great little community and in a few years going to be on the metro line between Taoyuan Airport and Taipei Main Station.

Currently, from Linkou it's about 25 to 35-minutes form Taipei Main Station. The metro will cut...