Breaking: #98377 - Fluid StandaloneView does not create an Extbase Request anymore

See forge#98377

Description

In our efforts to further speed up, streamline and separate Fluid from Extbase, the \TYPO3\CMS\Fluid\View\StandaloneView has been changed to no longer create a Extbase Request anymore.

StandaloneView is typically not used in Extbase context, creating an Extbase Request at this point was a very unfortunate architectural flaw leading to a not wanted context switch.

Not having an Extbase Request within StandaloneView anymore can have impact on behavior of some Fluid ViewHelpers.

Impact

Common usages of StandaloneView are a frontend related FLUIDTEMPLATE content object, plus various usages in non-Extbase extensions like rendering eMails or similar. Within FLUIDTEMPLATE, the current non-Extbase PSR-7 ServerRequest is actively set to StandaloneView, custom extension usages may need to $view->setRequest($request) explicitly.

Some ViewHelpers that rely on Extbase functionality throw exceptions when a Request is not set, or if the Request is not an Extbase Request. Those will refuse to work for instance when used in a template triggered by a FLUIDTEMPLATE content object.

Most notably, all f:form ViewHelpers are affected of this, plus eventually custom ViewHelpers that access Extbase specific Request methods.

Affected installations

Instances with extensions using StandaloneView in their code may need attention, and frontend rendering using FLUIDTEMPLATE content objects may need adaptions if Extbase-only ViewHelpers like f:form are used.

Migration

Avoiding f:form in non-Extbase context

The f:form ViewHelpers are Extbase specific: They especially take care of handling Extbase internal fields like __referrer and similar. The casual solution is to switch these usages away from those ViewHelpers, and use the HTML counterparts directly, for instance using <input ...> instead of <f:form.input ...>.

Custom StandaloneView code

Extensions that instantiate StandaloneView may want to $view->setRequest($request) to hand over the current request to the view, since the request is no longer initialized automatically. This is needed for ViewHelpers that rely on $renderingContext->getRequest().

Custom ViewHelpers

Custom ViewHelpers used in StandaloneView that call methods from Extbase TYPO3\CMS\Extbase\Mvc\Request which are not part of Psr\Http\Message\ServerRequestInterface will throw fatal PHP errors.

Possible solutions:

  • Create an Extbase Request within a controller and setRequest() it to the view instance as quick solution.

  • Properly boot Extbase using the Extbase Bootstrap to have a fully initialized Extbase Request in the View.

  • Avoid using Extbase specific methods within the ViewHelper by checking if the incoming request implements Extbase TYPO3\CMS\Extbase\Mvc\RequestInterface. This allows creating "hybrid" ViewHelpers that work in both contexts.

  • Avoid using Extbase specific methods within the ViewHelper by fetching data from the given Psr\Http\Message\ServerRequestInterface Request, or it's attached core attributes.