Installing and Updating MetaModels

General Information about Installation

MetaModels consists of several modules that need to be installed depending on the task at hand.

In the Contao Manager under Packages, entering metamodels/ will list all available MetaModels packages. The base package metamodels/core must be installed — in addition, further attributes and filters are necessary depending on the task. A checklist is available for getting started with MetaModels.

In addition to the individual packages, there are bundles that combine various packages for a simplified installation.

For getting started with MetaModels, the bundle metamodels/bundle_start is recommended — this installs the core as well as the most important attributes and filters.

There is also the bundle metamodels/bundle_all, which installs the multilingual packages in addition to bundle_start (note: the packages translatedselect and translatedtags are no longer included here since MM 2.1, as they should only be used for special cases).

The two bundles are only intended for evaluation or first steps — in a live system, only the core and the necessary attributes and filters should be installed as separate packages.

Additional modules such as “register filter”, “perimeter search”, “rating” etc. must be added as separate packages — see Extensions.

Version Overview

C 6.x + MM 3.0 + PHP 8.x - currently in planning…
C 5.7 + MM 2.5 + PHP 8.3 - currently in development and testing with Contao 5.7
C 5.3 + MM 2.4 + PHP 8.2 - access via “EAP”
C 4.13 + MM 2.3 + PHP 8.1
C 4.9 + MM 2.2 + PHP 7.4
C 4.4 + MM 2.1 + PHP 7.2/7.4
C 3.5 + MM 2.0 + PHP 5.6

Installation of MM 2.4 for Contao 5.3 and PHP 8

MetaModels 2.4 brings full compatibility with Contao 5.3 and PHP 8.2. MM 2.4 is an adaptation of version 2.3 to the new Contao and PHP version and of course brings all changes and features from MM 2.3.

The installation requirements for MetaModels 2.4 are:

a running Contao 5.3.x (LTS)
PHP 8.2 or higher
MySQL 5.5.5 or higher (InnoDB), MariaDB (including “strict mode”)
memory_limit 512MB or more (recommended)
until release, access key via the EAP — MM Core is already freely available
for smaller projects, Package “Basic 1” is available

Higher versions of Contao and/or PHP may be possible but are not officially supported.

For an upgrade or new installation, note the changes and new features of MM 2.4 as well as the workflow with the schema manager and XLIFF translations Symfony Translation.

Changes and Features in MM 2.4

Installation of MM 2.3 for Contao 4.13 and PHP 8

MetaModels 2.3 brings full compatibility with Contao 4.13 and PHP 8.1. MM 2.3 is an adaptation of version 2.2 to the new Contao and PHP version and of course brings all changes and features from MM 2.2.

With the new schema manager and XLIFF files, the workflow with MM needs to be adjusted — see schema manager and Symfony Translation.

The installation requirements for MetaModels 2.3 are:

a running Contao 4.13.x (LTS)
PHP 8.1 or higher
MySQL 5.5.5 or higher (InnoDB), MariaDB (including “strict mode”)
memory_limit 512MB or more (recommended)
until release, access key via the EAP — MM Core is already freely available

Higher versions of Contao and/or PHP may be possible but are not officially supported.

We have compiled an overview page with the changes and features for MM 2.3 — please note the checklist when upgrading.

Changes and Features in MM 2.3

The MM team also supports the work on DC_General with work and funding, which is responsible among other things for the displays in the backend in MM and brings many great features.

Notes and Instructions for Older Contao and MM Versions

Switching from metamodels/bundle_* to Separate Modules

When switching, e.g. from 2.0 to a newer version or for a new installation, it is a good opportunity to install only the attributes and filters that are necessary for the project. If, for example, metamodels/bundle_start or metamodels/bundle_all was previously in use, you can use the following SQL commands to query the actually used attributes and filters:

-- Attributes
SELECT type FROM `tl_metamodel_attribute` GROUP BY type ORDER BY type
-- Attribute "levensthein" was renamed to "levenshtein"

-- Filters
SELECT type FROM `tl_metamodel_filtersetting` GROUP BY type ORDER BY type
-- Filter rules "conditionand, conditionor, customsql, idlist, simplelookup" are included in MM Core
-- Filter rule "checkbox_published" is in the Checkbox attribute

The resulting list can then be installed via the Contao Manager or the console, and unused modules can be left out.

Testing Special Packages

In addition to the currently available and released MetaModels packages, there are sometimes packages with bug fixes or new features that can/must be tested — for example, for the MetaModels core, this could be a package hotfix/2.1.25. The packages can be seen on Github in the corresponding repository (e.g. MetaModels/core) under the ‘branches’ tab. The designation shown there, such as hotfix/2.1.25, must be prefixed with dev- and suffixed with as 2.1.25.

An overview of the entries in composer.json here.

To test such a package, it must be explicitly specified in the Contao Manager with

dev-hotfix/2.1.25 as 2.1.25

or in composer.json

"metamodels/core": "dev-hotfix/2.1.25 as 2.1.25"

with its version.

Then run an update via the Contao Manager or on the console.

Since MetaModels is closely integrated with DC_General (DCG), testing often requires updating to a newer version here as well. The procedure is the same as for MetaModels, including the adjustment of the JSON entry with “as 2.1.x”.

The composer.json for implementing the packages for Core and DCG should have approximately the following entries in the “require” node (lines 8 and 10):

{
    "name": "local/website",
    "description": "A local website project",
    "type": "project",
    "license": "proprietary",
    "require": {
        "contao-community-alliance/composer-client": "~0.12",
        "contao-community-alliance/dc-general": "dev-hotfix/2.1.42 as 2.1.42",
        "metamodels/bundle_all": "^2.1",
        "metamodels/core": "dev-hotfix/2.1.25 as 2.1.25",
        ...
    },
    ...
}

To return to the original state, reset the packages to their original specification e.g. “^2.1” and run an update including the database.

It is important to provide feedback to the developer or the MetaModels team via Github after a test.

Two further options are installing a fork or a pull request (PR). The composer.json must be adjusted for installation.

For a fork (if necessary, enter your own Github oAuth token in the package manager settings), e.g.

{
    "name": "local/website",
    "description": "A local website project",
    "type": "project",
    "license": "proprietary",
    "require": {
        "contao-community-alliance/composer-client": "~0.12",
        "contao-community-alliance/dc-general": "^2.1",
        "metamodels/bundle_all": "^2.1",
        "byteworks/metamodelsattribute_multi": ">=1.0.5.0,<1.1-dev",
        ...
    },
    ...
    "repositories": [
        ...
        {
            "type": "vcs",
            "url": "https://github.com/byteworks-ch/contao-metamodelsattribute_multi.git"
        },
        {
            "type": "git",
            "url": "git@gitlab.com:MetaModels/filter_parent.git"
        }
    ],
    ...
}

or for a PR with the commit hash — which can be found on Github for the PR under the “Commits” tab.

{
    "name": "local/website",
    "description": "A local website project",
    "type": "project",
    "license": "proprietary",
    "require": {
        "contao-community-alliance/composer-client": "~0.12",
        "contao-community-alliance/dc-general": "^2.1",
        "metamodels/bundle_all": "^2.1",
        "metamodels/attribute_alias": "dev-master#a97ec461ae1254fa616811c3ce234515238fb3c7 as 2.1.42",
        ...