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Configuring and embedding Frontend Plugins

The action should be called on by a frontend-plugin. We've already addressed the configuration of a simple frontend-plugin in chapter 4 in the section Configuring the plugin. For the purpose of our example a rudimentary plugin is enough. To place a plugin from the backend on a page, two steps are necessary: The plugin must be registered as a content type (plugin) and its behavior must be configured. Both steps are resolved by two Extbase API-methods. These calls are located in two different files.

In the file EXT:sjr_offers/ext_tables.php you have to register every plugin as a content element with TYPO3 using the static method registerPlugin().

\TYPO3\CMS\Extbase\Utility\ExtensionUtility::registerPlugin(
     $_EXTKEY,
     'List',
     'The Inventory List'
);

The method registerPlugin() expects three arguments. The first argument is the extension key (sjr_offers in our example). This key is the same as the directory name of the extension. The second parameter is a freely selectable name of the plugin (a short, meaningful name in UpperCamelCase). The plugin name plays a significant role in the allocation of GET- and POST parameters to the appropriate plugin: https://example.org/index.php?id=123&ts_sjroffers_list[offer]=3. The third argument is the label by which the plugin appears in the list of plugin in the backend. Now the plugin is made available in the backend, we can add a plugin with the name _Offers_ to our example.

For the second step we have to configure the behaviour of the plugin in the file EXT:sjr_offers/ext_localconf.php with the static method configurePlugin(). Beside the actions that have to be called on by the plugin, you also have to specify which content will be stored in cache.

<?php
if (!defined ('TYPO3_MODE')) die ('Access denied.');

\TYPO3\CMS\Extbase\Utility\ExtensionUtility::configurePlugin(
     $_EXTKEY,
     'List',
     ['Inventory' => 'list']
);

The method expects 4 arguments. The first argument is, just like the one used in the registration process, the extension key. With the second argument, the plugin name, Extbase can assign the configuration to the appropriate plugin.

The third argument is an array which contains all controller-action combinations which the plugin is authorized to execute. The specification ['Offer' => 'index'] authorizes the plugin to perform the method indexAction() in \MyVendor\SjrOffers\Controller\OfferController. Be aware that the name of the controller is written without the suffix Controller and the name of the action method without the suffix Action.

The fourth, optional argument is also an array which is composed as the previous one. This one however contains the Controller-Action combinations which are _not_ stored in cache. These are especially those actions that issue a form. The methods createAction() or the updateAction() shouldn't be explicitly used here, because they don't produce any result code that must be stored in cache.