Parsing, Storing and Executing TypoScript

Parsing TypoScript

This means that the TypoScript text content is transformed into a PHP array structure by following the rules of the TypoScript syntax. But still the meaning of the parsed content is not evaluated.

During parsing, syntax errors may occur when the input TypoScript text content does not follow the rules of the TypoScript syntax. The parser is however very forgiving in that case and it only registers an error internally while it will continue to parse the TypoScript code. Syntax errors can therefore be seen only with a tool that analyzes the syntax - like the syntax highlighter does.

The \TYPO3\CMS\Core\TypoScript\Parser\TypoScriptParser class is used to parse TypoScript content. Please see the section The TypoScript Parser API in this document for details.

Storing parsed TypoScript

When TypoScript has been parsed it is stored in a PHP array (which is often serialized and cached in the database afterward).

Consider the following TypoScript:

asdf = qwerty
asdf {
  zxcvbnm = uiop
  backgroundColor = blue
  backgroundColor.transparency = 95%
}

After being parsed, it will be turned into a PHP array looking like (with the print_r() PHP function):

Array
(
  [asdf] => qwerty
  [asdf.] => Array
  (
    [zxcvbnm] => uiop
    [backgroundColor] => blue
    [backgroundColor.] => Array
    (
      [transparency] => 95%
    )
  )
)

This is stored in the internal variable $this->setup.

This means you could fetch the value ("blue") of the property "backgroundColor" with the following code:

$this->setup['asdf.']['backgroundColor']

One could say that TypoScript offers a text-based interface for getting values into a multidimensional PHP array from a simple text field or file. This can be very useful if you need to take that kind of input from users without giving them direct access to PHP code, which is the very reason why TypoScript came into existence.

Executing TypoScript

Since TypoScript itself contains only information you cannot "execute" it. The closest you come to "executing" TypoScript is when you take the PHP array with the parsed TypoScript structure and pass it to a PHP function which then performs whatever actions according to the values found in the array.