---
title: "Breaking: #78899 - Remove methods, hook and property in FormEngine"
manual: "TYPO3 Core Changelog"
version: "main"
permalink: "https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/changelog:breaking-78899"
source: "Changelog/8.6/Breaking-78899-RemoveMethodsHookAndPropertyInFormEngine.rst"
typo3-version: "8.6"
typo3-major: 8
type: "breaking"
issue: 78899
forge: "https://forge.typo3.org/issues/78899"
tags: ["Backend", "PHP-API", "TCA"]
rendered: "2026-09-17T12:41:04+00:00"
---

# Breaking: #78899 - Remove methods, hook and property in FormEngine {#breaking-78899-remove-methods-hook-and-property-in-formengine}

See [forge#78899](https://forge.typo3.org/issues/78899)

## Description {#description}

The following methods have been removed:

-   `TYPO3\CMS\Backend\Form\Element\AbstractFormElement->dbFileIcons()`
-   `TYPO3\CMS\Backend\Form\Element\AbstractFormElement->getClipboardElements()`
-   `TYPO3\CMS\Backend\Form\Container\SingleFieldContainer->getMergeBehaviourIcon()`
-   `TYPO3\CMS\Backend\Form\Container\SingleFieldContainer->renderDefaultLanguageDiff()`
-   `TYPO3\CMS\Backend\Form\Container\SingleFieldContainer->renderDefaultLanguageContent()`
-   `TYPO3\CMS\Backend\Form\Container\AbstractContainer->previewFieldValue()`

The following property has been removed:

-   `TYPO3\CMS\Backend\Form\Element\AbstractFormElement->clipboard`

The following hook interface has been removed and registered hooks in `dbFileIcons` are no longer called:

-   `\TYPO3\CMS\Backend\Form\DatabaseFileIconsHookInterface`

TCA wizards registered as `userFunc` no longer receive the element HTML by reference, so they can no longer change
given HTML string of a given element.

## Impact {#impact}

Using above methods, properties and hooks will result in fatal PHP errors or fail silently.

## Affected Installations {#affected-installations}

Check extensions for usages of above methods and especially implementations of the hook interface.

## Migration {#migration}

The methods have been partially moved to the `TcaGroup` data provider and merged to the two
FormEngine elements `GroupElement` and `SelectMultipleSideBySideElement`. Those can be
changed and extended via FormEngine's internal `NodeFactory` and data provider resolvers.