Breaking: #82572 - RDCT functionality removed 

See forge#82572

Description 

The short-link / redirect functionality based on the GET parameter RDCT of TYPO3 Frontend requests has been removed from TYPO3.

Along, all functionality related to evaluating RDCT is not evaluated anymore.

The following PHP methods have been removed:

  • TypoScriptFrontendController->sendRedirect()
  • TypoScriptFrontendController->updateMD5paramsRecord()
  • GeneralUtility::makeRedirectUrl()

The eighth property of the constructor of TypoScriptFrontendController is not evaluated anymore, also the public property TSFE->RDCT is removed as it is not set anymore.

The corresponding database table cache_md5params has been dropped.

Substitution logic can be found in the TER extension rdct.

Impact 

When calling TYPO3 Frontend via index.php&RDCT=myhash the RDCT GET parameter is not evaluated anymore.

Calling $TSFE->sendRedirect(), $TSFE->updateMD5paramsRecord() and GeneralUtility::makeRedirectUrl() will result in a fatal PHP error.

Accessing the now non-existent property $TSFE->RDCT will trigger a PHP notice, as well as setting up a new instance of TypoScriptFrontendController with an eighth parameter.

Accessing the database table cache_md5params will also lead to unexpected results as this table does not exist in new installations anymore.

Affected Installations 

Any TYPO3 instance handling data via the cache_md5params database table or creating short links via &RDCT hashes.

Migration 

The TER extension rdct contains all previous functionality handled via a simple hook. An upgrade wizard within the Install Tool will check if the database table is filled and downloads the extension from TER.

It is recommended to use a third-party short-url or redirect extension which provides a richer feature set.