Contao Open Source CMS (fka TYPOlight) > Discover > View the detailed Contao feature list

Contao Open Source CMS Features

Contao has an intuitive user interface that uses Ajax and Web 2.0 technologies for optimal usability. Multiple back end languages and themes, a powerful permission system, versioning and undo management, advanced search and sorting options or the Live Update Service are just a few of many features that make Contao stand out from other CMS. The Contao front end is 100% template based and generates accessible XHTML strict output that meets the W3C/WAI requirements. Search engine friendly URLs, GZip support, a PDF export function, multi-language support and many more allow you to build contemporary websites without being a programmer.

Advanced
editing features

Contao provides advanced editing features like copying or moving records via clipboard, editing multiple records at once or restoring prior versions. Editors can format texts with the built-in rich text editor TinyMCE, which also includes a multilingual spellchecker.

Powerful
site structure

Contao supports different page types (e.g. regular or redirect pages) and multiple websites in one tree. You have full control over whether a page is hidden, password protected, cached or indexed for searching and you can publish them either manually or timed.

Fine-grained
permission system

Contao has a powerful permission system that allows you to control the access to each and every form field in the back end. Access rights can be granted on user or on group level and will be aggregated if a user is assigned to more than one group.

Flexible
form generator

With the Contao form generator you can generate any kind of web form, which will be validated automatically and either sent via e-mail or stored in the database. Uploaded files will be sent as attachment and can optionally be stored in a folder on the server.

Full-text
search engine

Contao comes with a full-text search engine that supports phrase searching, wildcard searching and AND/OR searching. The search index is built automatically and optionally even includes protected pages. The results are cached and can be split into multiple pages.

Built-in
CSS framework

Contao comes with a cross-browser CSS framework that supports static and liquid layouts and automatically creates layout sections and columns from the page layouts you define. Existing style sheets can easily be imported and maintained in the Contao back end.

Built-in
file manager

Contao supports file uploads via FTP in addition to the built-in file manager. It automatically generates image thumbnails and file previews and allows you to edit uploaded files with the source editor. Files and folders can by copied, moved, edited, renamed and deleted.

Built-in
news/blog module

The Contao news/blog module is part of the core distribution. It supports multiple news archives and categories, featured news, user comments and easy syndication via RSS or Atom feeds. Each news item can have an image attached and multiple enclosures.

Built-in
calendar module

The Contao calendar module is part of the core distribution. It supports multiple calendars, all-day events, open-end events, multi-day events, repeated events and easy syndication via RSS or Atom feeds. It includes multiple views like calendar, mini-calendar or event list.

Built-in
newsletter module

The Contao newsletter module is part of the core distribution. It supports subscription via double-opt in, HTML and plain text formats, importing recipients from a CSV file and listing sent newsletters on the website. Newsletters sent to members can be personalized.

Wide choice of
additional modules

The Contao Extension Repository contains hundreds of additional modules that add even more functionality to the CMS. You can browse the Extension Repository and install, update or remove modules directly in the back end with only a few mouse clicks.

Accessible
front and back end

Contao does not treat accessibility as just an additional feature and generates accessible XHTML strict output that meets the W3C/WAI requirements in the front end and the back end. The system degrades gracefully if JavaScript is not available or not enabled.

Easy
live update

Installing updates can be time consuming, even you are running only a small number of Contao websites. The Contao Live Update Service is a commercial add-on which allows you to update your installation with only a few clicks in the back end.

Ajax
and PHP 5

Ajax and PHP 5 are modern Web 2.0 technologies which you can find in a lot of contemporary applications. Contao has a solid codebase that is built on the new object-oriented programming features of PHP 5.2 and the MooTools JavaScript framework.