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Tca-Service

Creating a new Content-Element

We will create a RTE (Rich-Text-Editor) content-element in this example.

To understand how to render this content-element using the custom CType rendering event instead of the typical TypoScript configuration, it's recommended to check that out here: Frontend-Rendering-Engine — FRE.

Creation of the new TCA field called fd_rte.

fd is a simple shortcut for field.

Create the EXT:site_backend/Configuration/TCA/Overrides/tt_content.php file and add the following snippet:

<?php

use Site\Core\Form\Fields;
use TYPO3\CMS\Core\Utility\ExtensionManagementUtility;

// Adds custom fields to the 'tt_content' table
ExtensionManagementUtility::addTCAcolumns('tt_content', [
    'fd_rte' => Fields\Rte::make('Label of the RTE'),
]);

to configure the new fd_rte field with a valid TCA array-configuration.

After the Label of the RTE (first argument) one can also pass an optional array which will be handled as a normal TCA configuration. It'll overwrite the default configuration of a TcaService-Field.

newContentElement-Wizard registration

Go into EXT:site_backend/Configuration/TCA/Overrides/ and create a new file prefixed with ce_, e.g. ce_rte.php.

Note: Files must start with "ce_" inside the above path to make the TcaService detect and automatically load them — site-core will automatically add a new tab inside the wizard called "Elements" to render the detected elements and displays them.

Add the following code to the new created ce_rte.php file:

<?php

use Site\Core\Service\TcaService;

/**
 * Technically the same as
 * doing something like this:
 *
 * $GLOBALS['TCA']['tt_content']['types']['ce_rte']['showitem'] = 'fd_rte';
 *
 * just the fact that you would need to write all other default tabs such as general palette etc. either
 * by yourself or appending to the provided by TYPO3 one.
 */

TcaService::showFields(basename(__FILE__, '.php'), '
    ce_rte,
');

/**
 * TcaService::showFields provides by default a custom configured Content-Element tab and renders by default all
 * TYPO3 default tabs such as general, appearance, frame etc.
 * In addition, the second argument will only rendered inside the Content-Element tab.
 */

You can remove the comments. Just added for explanation what the actual functionality behind showFields is.

To make site-core use the newContentElement-Wizard hook provided by TYPO3, add the following snippet into your EXT:site_backend/Configuration/TCA/Overrides/tt_content.php file:

// Loads all in this __DIR__ configured CTypes starting with 'ce_'.
TcaService::loadCEs(__DIR__);

The newContentElement-Wizard should look like this now:

The newContentElement-Wizard

The TcaService::showFields method will render your pre-defined TCA fields, which you've defined before inside the EXT:site_backend/Configuration/TCA/Overrides/tt_content.php file.

Creating a new ce_rte should look like this now:

View of creating a new ce_rte
Last update: 2021-12-28