TYPO3 Extension Development: Developer's guide to creating feature rich extensions using the TYPO3 API

233 Pages·2008·1.95 MB·English

by  Dmitry Dulepov

TYPO3 Extension Development
Developer's guide to creating feature-rich extensions
using the TYPO3 API
Dmitry Dulepov

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
TYPO3 Extension Development
Copyright © 2008 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written
permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in
critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of
the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold
without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author(s), Packt Publishing,
nor its dealers or distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to
be caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all the
companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals.
However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
First published: September 2008
Production Reference: 1190908
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
32 Lincoln Road
Olton
Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK.
ISBN 978-1-847192-12-7
www.packtpub.com
Cover Image by Vinayak Chittar ([email protected])
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Credits
Author Project Manager
Dmitry Dulepov Abhijeet Deobhakta
Reviewer Project Coordinator
Ingo Renner Rajashree Hamine
Acquisition Editor Indexers
Adil Ahmed Rekha Nair
Monica Ajmera
Development Editor
Nikhil Bangera Proofreader
Angie Butcher
Technical Editor
Dhiraj Bellani Production Coordinators
Aparna Bhagat
Copy Editor Rajni Thorat
Sumathi Sridhar
Cover Designer
Editorial Team Leader Aparna Bhagat
Mithil Kulkarni
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About the Author
Dmitry Dulepov is a TYPO3 core team member and developer of several popular
extensions (such as RealURL, TemplaVoila, comments, ratings, and others). He is
known by his active support of the TYPO3 community through TYPO3 mailing
lists. In 2008 Dmitry won the contest to appear on the first TYPO3 playing cards. He
runs a popular blog where he regularly publishes original tips and articles about
various TYPO3 features. In addition to his continuous TYPO3 core and extension
development, Dmitry provides support for the TYPO3 translation team on behalf of
the core team.
The author would like to thank everyone who helped with the book.
This includes but is not limited to:

• Packt Publishing, for their very prompt answering of
every question and giving helpful comments.

• Ingo Renner, who reviewed the book and made really
good additions, notes, and corrections.

• My colleagues from Netcreators BV, especially to Ben van 't
Ende, who always said that the book is important and
Michiel Roos, who gave me some ideas during our work
together on a TYPO3 project.

• My wife and kids, who understood the importance of this
work and supported me in this work; my cats, who reminded
me to make breaks and stretch by jumping on my knees in
the least expected moments.

• To the TYPO3 community, who helped me to understand
typically met issues with TYPO3 extension development.

The author is sure that the book will be useful to the reader and
hopes to see more great extensions from the readers of the
book soon.
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About the Reviewer
Ingo Renner has been active in the TYPO3 project for about five years now. He
started contributing to the project with a table-less template for the popular news
extension "tt_news". Since then he has been active in many other areas including
the content rendering group, digital asset management project, and the core team.
Besides that, he's also known as a co-development leader for tt_news, current
maintainer of tt_address, and lead developer for TYPO3's blog extension TIMTAB. In
2007, he joined the core team and was suddenly charged with the role of the release
manager for TYPO3 4.2 - TYPO3's recent release. In March 2008, he graduated from
the University of Applied Sciences, Darmstadt, with a Master of Science in
Computer Science.
Ingo is a freelancer specialized in TYPO3 core development and always looking for
interesting projects to improve the TYPO3 core.
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Table of Contents
Preface 1
Chapter 1: About TYPO3 API 5
Overview of TYPO3 API 5
PHP Classes and Files 6
t3lib_ 7
tslib_ 7
tx_ 8
ux_ 8
user_ 9
How Data Is Stored in TYPO3 9
Common TYPO3 API 10
Database API 11
Extension Management 15
Helper Functions (t3lib_div) 16
GET/POST Functions 16
String Functions 17
Array Functions 17
XML Processing 18
File, Directory, and URL Functions 19
Debug Functions 20
System Functions 20
TYPO3-Specific Functions 21
TYPO3 File References 22
Language Support 23
Reference Index 25
Hooks 26
Backend API 26
TCEforms 27
TCEmain 28
Record Manipulation 28
Table of Contents
Clearing Cache 31
Frontend API 32
TSFE 32
Content Objects 34
Plugin API 34
Summary 34
Chapter 2: Anatomy of TYPO3 Extension 35
TYPO3 Extension Categories 35
Category: Frontend 36
Category: Frontend plugins 36
Category: Backend 36
Category: Backend module 37
Category: Services 37
Category: Examples 37
Category: Templates 37
Category: Documentation 37
Category: Miscellaneous 38
Extension Files 38
Common Files 38
ext_emconf.php 38
ext_conf_template.txt 44
ext_tables.php 46
ext_tables.sql 49
ext_tables_static+adt.sql 50
ext_localconf.php 50
ext_icon.gif 51
tca.php 51
class.ext_update.php 53
Frontend Plugin Files 54
pi Files 55
TypoScript Templates 55
Backend Module and its Files 56
Module Function Files 57
Documentation Files 58
Summary 58
Chapter 3: Planning Extensions 59
Why is Planning Important? 59
How to Plan 60
Gathering Requirements 61
Implementation Planning 61
Documentation Planning 62
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Table of Contents
TYPO3-Specific Planning 62
Extension Keys 62
Database Structure 63
Field Names 63
Indexes 66
Database Relations 66
Planning Our Extension 67
Requirements 67
Functionality 67
Usability and Expandability 68
Technical 68
Extension key 69
Frontend Plugins 69
Backend Module 69
Other Classes 70
Extension Database Structure 70
Documentation 72
Summary 72
Chapter 4: Generating Extensions 73
Why Generation? 73
Preparing for Generation 73
Generation Steps 74
Entering an Extension key 75
Entering Extension Information 75
Set Up Languages 77
Creating New Database Tables 77
Extending Existing Tables 85
Creating Frontend Plugins 86
Creating Backend Modules 89
Integrating into Existing Modules 90
Adding Clickmenu Items 90
Creating Services 90
Static TypoScript Code 90
Adding TSConfig 92
Generating the Extension 92
Adjusting Extensions 94
Clean Up 94
Changing Fields 94
Hide Tables 94
Summary 95
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