Book Image

Mastering TypoScript: TYPO3 Website, Template, and Extension Development

Book Image

Mastering TypoScript: TYPO3 Website, Template, and Extension Development

Overview of this book

Free, open-source, flexible, and scalable, TYPO3 is one of the most powerful PHP content management systems. It is well suited for creating intranets and extranets for the enterprise. While providing an easy-to-use web interface for non-technical authors and editors of content, its messaging and workflow system enable shared authoring and collaboration. TYPO3 provides flexible and powerful interfaces for both content editors and administrators, giving them full control of the core aspects the system. However for developers who need to customize the system, TYPO3 offers a powerful configuration language called TypoScript. Good knowledge of TypoScript is really a prerequisite for implementing complex applications with TYPO3 and gives developers full control over the configuration of TYPO3 and its template engine. TypoScript enables the complete output template to be created and manipulated, giving you full control over the layout of the site. TypoScript also allows you to integrate dynamic contents, JavaScript-based menus, Flash, Graphics, etc. with ease. You have maximum control over the design of the website and can control all options that would otherwise be addressed by HTML-simple text output, formatting, and much more. TypoScript also allows you to generate graphics at run time and display different content dynamically.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Mastering TypoScript: TYPO3 Website, Template, and Extension Development
Credits
About the Author
Preface

Chapter 11. Extensions

TYPO3 can be extended very simply using extensions. These extensions are code bundles that contain modules, TypoScript, and the like and offer a particular functionality. If you want to integrate a guestbook into your website quickly, you don't have to program it yourself in TYPO3; just access the guestbook extension. TYPO3 has had this convenient option of simple extensions since version 3.5.x. (It is no coincidence that TYPO3 became really popular with exactly that version.) In this chapter we will first show you how to install and update extensions. In the second part we will introduce some of the most important extensions and show you how to configure them. Finally we will give you a demonstration of how to build your own extension and some important points you should take care of.

Building Extensions

Let's start with some basic advice for building extensions. Once you get familiar with TYPO3 extensions, you will notice that there is a ready-made solution for just...