The Leipzig University of Applied Sciences for Telecommunications (HfTL) offers modern and practical training and degree programmes in communications and information technology. It looks back on a long history: in 1953, the former engineering college of Deutsche Post was opened in Leipzig. It has been part of the Deutsche Bundespost Telekom since 1990 and became part of Deutsche Telekom following the privatisation of Deutsche Bundespost in 1995.
In Netresearch we have found a reliable partner for our TYPO3 content management system. During the entire project, Netresearch provided us with advice and support and we were able to generate valuable impulses for the further development of the website. We are looking forward to a further fruitful and cooperative partnership.
Torsten Büttner
Public Relations Officer
Leipzig University of Applied Sciences for Telecommunications
The Leipzig University of Telecommunications operates its own website to provide students and prospective students with comprehensive information on the degree programmes offered and the opportunities for further education.
Like many other universities, the HfTL relies on the TYPO3 content management system. As support for the 4.5 LTS version of TYPO3 in use is coming to an end and this can lead to considerable security gaps, we were commissioned to carry out a version upgrade to 6.2 LTS.
In addition, a responsive design was requested in order to better reach the young target group of the HfTL.
We started by reviewing the current system and checking it for updateability. The HfTL had a total of 60 TYPO3 extensions in use. The number of extensions has grown historically and resulted from changes to the website requirements in the meantime. After thorough analysis, we were able to remove more than 20 of them, thereby significantly improving the system's update capability.
The remaining extensions were checked again for compatibility with the new TYPO3 version. Some had to be replaced or upgraded to a new version. For example, we replaced the connected Digital Asset Management (DAM) with the TYPO3 standard implementation File Abstraction Layers (FAL).
All files were transferred from the old system. The previously used image gallery (and_shadowbox) is no longer being developed by the provider, which can also lead to security gaps. We have therefore replaced the extension with the TYPO3 standard element "Images" and migrated the existing data. This means that this area is also future-proof again.
The Powermail extension for the easy and user-friendly construction of forms was also upgraded from version 1 to version 2 and the forms and mails were migrated.
Once all the requirements for a smooth TYPO3 version upgrade had been met, we upgraded the system to the 6.2 LTS version.
The second part of the project consisted of introducing a responsive design. To do this, we adapted and optimised the existing design to Telekom's style guidelines. A total of three break points were added to optimise the display of content on different end devices. The responsive design was implemented using the CSS framework Bootstrap.
Outlook
As always, we strive for long-term cooperation with our customers. In the future, we will take over the maintenance, support and implementation of relevant security updates for HfTL. In addition, our developers drew up a list of usability optimisation suggestions during the programming phase, which we are now implementing at the customer's request.
