Target groups and main principles

As mentioned earlier, the form extension can be seen as a framework which allows editors, integrators, and developers to create and manage all kind of forms. For this task, different interfaces and techniques are available.

Conceptually, EXT:form always tries to consider the form editor first. The requirements for the form editor differ between the defined target groups. On the one hand, as an integrator, you may want to manage HTML class attributes. On the other hand, as a developer you may want to use the form editor as a kick starter for complex form definitions, and you may want to edit all possible (technical) properties you can think of.

The form extension tries to find a compromise for such cases. Since the form editor is mainly used by backend editors, only simple, nontechnical properties are displayed and editable. However, EXT:form allows you to easily extend the form editor by writing some YAML configurations.

If this is not enough for your specific project, EXT:form provides a way to integrate your own JavaScript code by utilizing the JavaScript API. Thus, it should be possible to meet all your requirements.

Your forms can be created and defined globally in the form module and/ or loaded from extensions. Within the Mail form content element, one of those forms can be referenced.

Furthermore, certain aspects of a form can be overridden in the plugin. This concept allows you to reuse the same form on different pages with the same, or a different, configuration.

The following explanations will show you that there are many ways to manipulate the form framework in different contexts.

Those explanations are partly contradictory, depending on your use case. It is up to you how you want to use the form framework. Be creative and share your solution with the TYPO3 community!

This chapter attempts to describe the basics of the form framework. Check out the reference and the example sections to get a deeper understanding of the framework.