4.2.3

Fix bug when changing the PHP execution time limit, fix code example in the documentation.

4.2.2

Bugfix release: show add task button again.

4.2.1

This release contains a single bugfix related to information stored by the StoreDataStep (which got duplicated). NOTE: this is unrelated to the features introduced in 4.2.0 (just a shame to stumble upon it just one day after a major release ;-) ).

4.2.0

This release introduces the following new features:

• Introduce ImporterAware interface which allows user functions to access Importer object
• Add the possibility to query reference nodes using XPath (nodepath property)
• Allow storage of arbitrary data in the Data object (new extraData member variable)

It is the last release to be compatible with TYPO3 8.7.

4.1.3

Fixed bug with using uidRepository as singleton, updated documentation with information about usage of MM and multipleValuesSeparator properties together (TLDR: don't).

4.1.2

This release contains the following bug fixes:

• some comparisons were made safer
• a crash was fixed in the view helper displaying input errors when adding a synchronization task
• some functional tests were corrected (leftovers from postponed features)
• the import process now aborts when the external data cannot be read at all (or there's some problem with the connector)

Furthermore a special type of exception (\Cobweb\ExternalImport\Exception\CriticalFailureException) was introduced, which can be thrown from inside user functions or hooks and that will cause the import process to abort (refer to the documentation for more details).

(Note: no public 4.1.1 version, I bungled it)

4.1.0

This major release of External Import brings many changes and improvements.

TYPO3 compatibility

First and foremost the extension now supports TYPO3 9. It also still supports TYPO3 8, but support for TYPO3 7 was dropped.

New features

• The most important new feature is the ability to preview the import process. This can be done in the BE module and on the command line. You can choose until which step you want to run the process and the output will be data relevant to the given step (e.g. the raw data if you preview the ReadDataStep, the transformed/mapped data if you stop at the TransformDataStep, etc.).
• Configuration groups can be created, enabling several import configurations to be executed in a single run. Within the group, imports are executed in order of priority.
• It is possible to pick up values from multi-dimensional arrays, using new properties arrayPath and arrayPathSeparator.
• It it also possible to map fields to several values deeper in the data structure. Check the documentation for the substructureFields property.
• The debug flag can be set for a single run on the command line. Furthermore, the verbose flag will trigger display of debug data on the standard output.
• The Log module displays a call context information for every entry (e.g. manual call, scheduler run, etc.). It also displays information about the time the import run took.

Other improvements

Apart from many bug fixes and new unit and functional tests, one important improvement is that the Log module now loads data via AJAX. This avoids the timeouts that could occur when the number of log entries was important.

Breaking change

There is a single breaking change in this release: specific permissions have been added to BE user groups to allow users to manually run imports or to define Scheduler tasks. In previous versions both of these actions were automatically available as soon as the user had modify rights to the related tables. This is not true anymore and permission must be given on top of having access to the related tables.

4.0.2

Small bug fix release with just two corrections:

• adapted composer dependencies to match those declared in ext_emconf.php
• made the sync warning window sticky (so that it stays during longer import runs)

4.0.1

This is a bugfix release with the following improvements:

• External Import can now handle moved records (this happens when importing into the "pid" field and that value changes)
• the backend module will show when a Scheduler synchronisation task is disabled
• a notice was added when a synchronisation is manually launched to warn users against leaving the window

4.0.0

This major release comes with TYPO3 CMS v8 compatibility and many other features, the main ones being:

• the possibility to add custom steps at any point in the process, individually for each configuration
• transformation properties are now ordered and can be called multiple times (this is useful for user functions)
• a new "default" property when no matching occurs during mapping foreign keys
• importing a whole page tree (this is an important bugfix)
• a command-line controller (only for TYPO3 CMS v8)

Some properties were renamed (for complete consistency in naming conventions). Some important methods were also renamed, often to shorter and more logical names.

On top of this the code was very strongly refactored and quite a few classes covered by unit or functional tests (more could still be done, but this is already a big improvement). The loading of configurations was also streamlined.

As a result of this important work, quite a few methods got deprecated. Except in a very few specific cases, this release is backwards-compatible with versions 3.0.x, but you should still carefully read the Installation chapter of the manual before upgrading.

Compatibility with TYPO3 CMS v8 was long awaited and I am sorry for the delay. It took me a long time to get this extension where I wanted, with a much healthier code base to ensure its future. Thanks for the patience and for the few beta testers along the way.