From forum thread to core patch: How the TYPO3 community creates real improvements

Sometimes the value of a community is not shown in big announcements or release notes. But in what happens between the lines. In a normal forum thread. Over months. Without anyone planning for it to become something bigger.

I have been following this story in the Community Hub for TYPO3 from the very beginning. And it shows better than any explanation why it's worth asking questions not just in Slack or by email, but where others can benefit from them.

A question that got everything rolling

In October 2024, a TYPO3 integrator asked a question in the forum. The indexed_search in TYPO3 v13 had two problems: The total number of hits was no longer displayed, and the paginator showed all page numbers for many results instead of a compact navigation with ellipsis.

Anyone who works with TYPO3 knows this: a problem arises, you search, find nothing useful, and eventually build a workaround. It was no different here. No exotic special requests. The number of hits was standard in earlier versions and has been removed in v13. And a compact page navigation with many results could have been expected from a core extension.

First answers, first solutions

Within a few days, experienced community members came forward with concrete workarounds. A developer analyzed the SearchController, explained the technical background and provided a template-based solution for the missing number of hits. At the same time, reference was made to the appropriate Forge ticket and it was recommended to become active there.

The result: just a few days after the first post, the number of hits in the core was fixed and displayed correctly again from TYPO3 13.4 onwards. The Paginator problem remained open.

16 months later: The workaround becomes a core feature

The thread did not fall asleep. Over the months, further solutions were added. One integrator shared a Fluid-based solution, another a JavaScript variant. Both worked, but were individual workarounds.

In January 2026, a developer from the community took up the issue. He first built a clean XClass solution that used the SlidingWindowPaginator already available in the core. The decisive step followed shortly afterwards: the XClass became a core patch.

But not just one. Based on the feedback from the forum and the discussion in the code review, two patches were created that benefit all TYPO3 users. Both were merged into the TYPO3 core on February 23 and 24, 2026. Just in time before the feature freeze for TYPO3 v14 on March 31, 2026.

What happened here

This story is not an isolated case. But it shows in a nutshell how open source works at its best:

1. Someone asks a question. Not a developer, not a core contributor. An integrator with a specific problem.
2. The community helps. First with workarounds and explanations, then with better and better solutions.
3. A developer takes up the issue and puts it where it belongs: in the core.
4. Reviewers and mergers from the core team check, test and integrate the changes.

It took 16 months from the first forum post to the merged patch. That sounds long. But during this time, the problem was documented, discussed, examined from different perspectives and finally solved in the cleanest way possible. And the decisive factor: The entire process is traceable. Anyone can read the thread, follow the development step by step and learn from it. In a chat, this story would have disappeared long ago.

Read the whole story

The complete thread with all posts, workarounds and the development towards the core patches can be found here:

V13 indexed_search: Paginator and hits

Do you have a similar problem? Ask the question.

In the worst case, you'll get a workaround. In the best case, it will be a core patch.