Breaking: #97312 - Remove context sensitive help

See forge#97312

Description

The arguments for removing context sensitive help were:

  • The help was not really context sensitive, it only relied on tablename and fieldname, if a field was used for different purposes in different content types, the CSH always showed the same help
  • There was outdated information in CSH (e.g. Screenshots form TYPO3 4.x) and nobody is available to update the information
  • Some CSH descriptions explained the same content with different words which is confusing (e.g. tt_content - CType > Title: "Type" > CSH Tooltip: "Select the kind of Page Content this element represents. New options will appear when you save the record.")
  • Many CSH texts did not provide useful additional information (e.g. tt_content - header > Title: "Header" > CSH Tooltip: "Enter header text for the Content Element.")
  • The available online documentation https://docs.typo3.org/ improved a lot and helps better than the CSH in most cases, as it is up to date
  • CSH was hidden for most users, as it was only available by clicking on a label (no hint that help was available without hovering the label by mouse, not available for keyboard users)
  • description is available for explanations when they are required. Adding relevant information as description will help everyone as it is visible.
  • The removal was already proposed in 2019 (see https://decisions.typo3.org/t/drop-context-sensitive-help-in-core/511) and most arguments against removal can be solved using the description or by linking to the official documentation
  • Removal of CSH also removed a lot of outdated files (and results in smaller footprint of the TYPO3 Core package)

The route help_cshmanual_popup has been removed.

Help buttons \Components\Buttons\Action\HelpButton only return an empty string and trigger a deprecation warning.

The CSH descriptions are not loaded any longer for tables.

All labels are adjusted to not contain <abbr> tags inside any longer.

The method cshItem() of \TYPO3\CMS\Backend\Utility\BackendUtility always returns an empty string and triggers a deprecation warning.

The TYPO3 Manual menu item has been removed and a link to the TYPO3 Online Documentation has been added to the menu.

The backend display related TCA option $GLOBALS['TCA'][my_table]['interface']['always_description'] is not evaluated anymore.

Impact

The context sensitive help is removed completely and only loading help items for SelectCheckboxElements is still supported.

Affected Installations

All installations that use CSH for own fields.

Migration

Important CSH texts need to be migrated to a TCA description, to make the information available for all users.

An example for a TCA description is the protected column in the sys_redirect TCA.

The TCA option ['interface']['always_description'] can be removed from any TCA definition.