What is Typo3?

Typo3 is an enterprise content management system based on the scripting language PHP and the database MySQL, however it is designed to run with other databases via the database abstraction layer (DBAL). Initiated  by Kasper Skaarhoj, it is available for free and licensed under the GNU General Public License.  Typo3 has become one of the most popular and widespread CMS on the market with several tens of thousands installations worldwide.

There are two operating modes in Typo3: the frontend, which is the website visible to the users and the backend, from where Typo3 can be administered. The backend runs in every modern browser, which means that no extra software is required.

Typo3 was designed with maximum flexibility in mind. It is built modularly thanks to which it is fully flexible and extensible. There are over 2000 extensions freely available, and there is an amazing variety of different ways to extend a Typo3 powered web site. The extensions reside in the Typo3 Extension Repository (TER). Extension programming is facilitated by an API that is made available by the Typo3 core.

There are extensions for anything one can think of. This list shows some of the most popular:

• News section
• HtmlArea, a rich text editor
• Front end login box
• Forum
• phpMyAdmin, a third party tool to administer the database
• Guestbook
• Shop System
• AwStats, a sophisticated page hit counter