Breaking: #88500 - RTE image handling functionality dropped

See forge#88500

Description

With the replacement of CKEditor as RTE instead of RTEHtmlArea in TYPO3 v8, the native and very incomplete functionality of having images within the RTE was unused.

It is still possible to use HTMLArea in further versions (if adopted), however the handling of images is removed.

This includes:

  • RTE processing mode ("ts_images")

  • SoftReference Index for handling inline images

  • Removed public method ImportExport->getRTEoriginalFilename()

  • Removed public method RteHtmlParser->TS_images_rte()

  • Removed CLI command "cleanup:rteimages" and relevant command class

  • The configuration option $GLOBALS['TYPO3_CONF_VARS']['BE']['RTE_imageStorageDir']

Impact

Images within an RTE field are not processed at all anymore, not part of the CLI.

Calling the CLI script, using the PHP methods or the PHP CLI command class directly within PHP, will result in a PHP E_ERROR error.

Accessing the configuration option will trigger a PHP E_NOTICE error, as it is silently removed, if customary set in LocalConfiguration.php.

Affected Installations

Any TYPO3 installation using images within CKEditor (with plugins) or still using RTEHtmlArea.

Any TYPO3 installation triggering the CLI command, handling RTE images via EXT:impexp or directly handling functionality from the CLI command PHP class.

Migration

If necessary, it is recommended to add this functionality to a custom extension where this functionality can live on. It is important however, that most of the added functionality of TYPO3 in the last years was not supported (image cropping inside RTE was not possible via the Image Cropper of FAL).

It is recommended to move all images within an RTE to proper relations, or to use extensions like rte_ckeditor_image from https://extensions.typo3.org.

If any fork of RTEHtmlArea is still used in TYPO3 v10.0, the image functionality for SoftRefParser, CLI command and the processing mode should be added there.