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Database Structure

This chapter lists the various tables related to FAL and highlights some of their important fields.

sys_file

This table is used to store basic information about each file. Some important fields:

storage

Id of the storage where the file is stored.

type

The type of the file represented by an integer defined in \TYPO3\CMS\Core\Resource\AbstractFile.

Possible values:

  • 0 = unknown

  • 1 = text

  • 2 = image

  • 3 = audio

  • 4 = video

  • 5 = application

identifier

A string which should uniquely identify a file within its storage. Duplicate identifiers are possible, but will create a confusion. For the local file system driver, the identifier is the path to the file, relative to the storage root (starting with a slash and using a slash as directory delimiter).

name

The name of the file. For the local file system driver, this will be the current name of the file in the file system.

sha1

A hash of the file's content. This is used to detect whether a file has changed or not.

metadata

Foreign side of the "sys_file_metadata" relation. Always "0" in the database, but necessary for the TCA of the "sys_file".

sys_file_metadata

This table is used to store metadata about each file. It has a one-to-one relationship with table "sys_file". Contrary to the basic information stored in "sys_file", the content of the table "sys_file_metadata" can be translated.

Most fields are really just additional information. The most important one is:

file

Id of the sys_file record of the file the metadata is related to.

The "sys_file_metadata" table is extended by system extension "filemetadata". In particular, it adds the necessary definitions to categorize files with system categories.

sys_file_reference

This table is used to store all references between files and whatever other records they are used in, typically pages and content elements. The most important fields are:

uid_local

Id of the file.

uid_foreign

Id of the related record.

tablenames

Name of the table containing the related record.

fieldname

Name of the field of the related record where the relation was created.

table_local

Always "sys_file".

title

When a file is referenced, normally its title is used (for whatever purpose, like displaying a caption for example). However it is possible to define a title in the reference, which will be used instead of the original file's title.

The fields "description", "alternative" and "downloadname" obey the same principle.

sys_file_processedfile

This table is similar to "sys_file", but for "temporary" files, like image previews. This table does not have a TCA representation, as it is only written for using direct SQL queries in the source code.

sys_file_collection

FAL offers the possibility to create File Collections, which can then be used for various purposes. By default, they can be used with the "File links" content element.

The most important fields are:

type

The type of the Collection. A Collection can be based on hand-picked files, a folder or categories.

files

The list of selected files. The relationship between files and their Collection is also stored in "sys_file_reference".

storage

The chosen storage, for folder-type Collections.

folder

The chosen folder, for folder-type Collections.

category

The chosen categories, for category-type Collections.

sys_file_storage

This table is used to store the Storages available in the installation. The most important fields are:

driver

The type of Driver used for the storage.

configuration

The Storage configuration with regards to its Driver. This is a FlexForm field and the current options depend on the selected Driver.

sys_filemounts

File Mounts are not specifically part of the FAL (they existed long before), but their definition is based on Storages. Each File Mount is related to a specific storage. The most important fields are:

base

Id of the storage the File Mount is related to.

path

Folder which will actually be mounted (absolute path, considering that / is the root of the selected Storage).