Best practices

Following are some good practices for creating custom content element types and plugins and for customizing content elements for usage in the backend.

Coding / structure

• Use a sitepackage extension to maintain your site customization (such as backend layouts, custom content elements etc.)

• How you structure your extensions depends a little on the use case and if they will be reused in several projects and / or made public. If you create one extension for every custom content element, you may want to think about whether they might be merged into one extension.

• Do not use deprecated functionality. Read the Core Changelog to check for deprecations and breaking changes between TYPO3 versions.

• Some naming conventions are described in the chapter Naming conventions.

• Read (or skim) the Coding Guidelines.

Backend usability

• Make it easier for your editors by hiding the following by configuration

  • content elements that should not be used in the "Content Element Wizard"

  • fields that should not be filled out in the backend forms.