dont copy files to uploads/pics/ in TYPO3

there are some reasons why TYPO3 copies every file into the well known uploads/pics/ folder that you “reference” in the backend in content elements. after copying the file there, it´s (ordinarily) protected from being deleted by the newb user or changes. if the editors changes stuff, the file is copied again after save with the _01 appendix. that leads to a bunch of issues like orphan files. theres some solution for that, but it is best to prevent that for good — if you like.

$TCA['tt_content']['columns']['image']['config']['internal_type'] = 'file';

that put into extTables.php or so sets that the file is used as is. the file is linked to where the user did upload it and no file reference is created.

use php5-xcache

if you run ordinary setups for php think about using the xcache opcode cache. it will make your TYPO3 backend and frontend faster.

while this knowledge is wide spread, i´d like to express my feelings about a very responsive t3 backend after giving more meat to the xcache size. put 80Ms there. xcache comes with a nice admin log which shows the cache hits and misses, here are the explanations.

the t3 backend (the newer the better) is lightning fast even on larger installations (hundreds of editors) due to high cache count of necessary php files. uhm, and before i forget: of course the database server must be cool, too — or you will wait for the queries to be finished and thus all the php engine speed would idle around.

tt_news and the t3lib_SpriteManager

as of TYPO3 4.4 the SpriteManager appeared, tt_news (3.0.1) starts creating lines in the deprecated log. it´s one line changed in tt_news´ ext_tables.php file.

$ICON_TYPES['news'] = array('icon' => t3lib_extMgm::extRelPath($_EXTKEY).'res/gfx/ext_icon_ttnews_folder.gif');

must be changed to:

t3lib_SpriteManager::addTcaTypeIcon('pages', 'contains-news', '../typo3conf/ext/tt_news/res/gfx/ext_icon_ttnews_folder.gif');

this is obviously part of the deprecation message thus a no-brainer. but this way you can avoid even the first appearance of this message o.O

replyto with the standard mailform ce in TYPO3

if you want the standard mailform content element in TYPO3 to send emails not from the ugly www-data@server.com sender but the writer´s email adress and name you just need to use explicitly labelled fields as follows:

  • from_name
  • from_email

This will do the trick. But there´s even more. If you need to provide a reply-to attribute you can do this by using these fields (which may be hidden):

  • replyto_name
  • replyto_from

Well, nowadays i´d recommend sophisticated mail form extensions like powermail but if you happen to edit a project that might help :)

tooltips with ext:contagged

for some reason the very good extension contagged does not provide the dropdown to select what type of term the current item is. so all my entries in the sysfolder “terms” have type 0.

the little tweak in the userTS changes all newly created terms to be a tooltip:

TCAdefaults.tx_contagged_terms.term_type = tooltip

a small UPDATE in mysql made the already existing terms to tooltips as well. a post before i saved how to have only contagged items in this sysfolder.

to avoid editor´s overkill when just creating a little tooltip i also remove some fields from the very flexible contagged terms item in PageTS:


TCEFORM.tx_contagged_terms {
 image.disabled = 1
 imagecaption.disabled = 1
 imagetitle.disabled = 1
 imagealt.disabled = 1
 exclude.disabled = 1
 term_type.disabled = 1
 term_replace.disabled = 1
 desc_short.disabled = 1
 starttime.disabled = 1
 endtime.disabled = 1
 fe_group.disabled = 1
 sys_language_uid.disabled = 1
}

i also do hide fe_group access dropdown and the system´s language selector thus making the backend experience more simple.

keep TYPO3 sysfolders clean

just a small hint to restrict the creation of new elements inside a page (eg. a sysfolder) so that this sysfolder will only hold tt_news entries or sys_templates or whatever. you put that code into the pageTS of the sysfolder/page:

mod.web_list.allowedNewTables := addToList(sys_template)

if you´d like to only contain tt_news entries and tt_news categories you´d put addToList(tt_news,tt_news_cat) into the TS and then these are the only elements to create new inside that folder. if you want the sysfolder to hold only entries for the nifty contagged extension, you use addToList(tx_contagged_terms). here´s more on contagged as tool tip manager.

15 ways to point out TYPO3 is your drug

  1. You mostly guess whether a page you surf on was made using TYPO3, and you always check, what year is stated in the header comment
  2. You leave the “admin” account active on your systems, but remove all privileges and set the password to something like “hackme&bugoff!”
  3. You have at least one system on which the sys_template´s uid went over 250
  4. You have subscribed to more than 50% of the newsgroups on lists.typo3.org
  5. Your conditional sentences have virtual squared brackets around it
  6. You try to convince your customer to make use of even the table content element
  7. You usually sleep tight on your TYPO3 pillow
  8. Your vision is #69A550 and #FF8700
  9. You categorically do not apply with a company that misspells TYPO3
  10. You try to solve real world problems with TypoScript
  11. You have or at least have had once an account password set to “joh316″
  12. You wave aside the giggly idea of writing an own TYPO3-like cms from scratch
  13. You clear all the cache, if you come to the conclusion your servers idle too much (not at peak times, of course)
  14. You smile when it comes to stdWrap
  15. You always have the extension kickstarter installed, just for the case

i´d like to you read your drug test cases – no blood, no hair, no police :-)

t3 version 4.4alpha backend without css and js

just solved another mystery that was dazzling my mind on a small project regarding TYPO3 version 4.4 alpha2 where the frontend worked like expected but the project code (that was updated from version 4.2.6) showed an ugly distorted backend.

all styles and javascript functions were gone!

i cleared any temporary data collection, checked rewrites, paths, everything was ok. i reloaded the sources :-) but it did not change anything. but when i started to delete all those extension corpses in typo3conf/ext/ i got one idea. extension pmktextarea integrated okay in backend in former t3 installations… and as i saw, it still did and somehow seemed to overwrite essential js for the backend. deleted the folder, cleared the TEMP* files in typo3conf/ and reloaded the backend. worked. phewww…