--- title: "Site handling basics" manual: "TYPO3 Explained" version: "12.4" permalink: "https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/t3coreapi:sitehandling-basics@12.4" source: "ApiOverview/SiteHandling/Basics.rst" rendered: "2026-10-21T15:29:37+00:00" --- # Site handling basics {#sitehandling-basics} TYPO3 site handling and configuration is the starting point for creating new websites. The corresponding modules are found in the TYPO3 backend in the section **Site Management**. A site configuration consists of the following parts: - Base URL configurations: the domain(s) to access my site. - [Language configuration](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/t3coreapi:sitehandling-addinglanguages@12.4): the languages of my site. - [Error handling](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/t3coreapi:sitehandling-errorhandling@12.4): error behavior of my site (for example, configuration of custom 404 pages). - [Static routes](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/t3coreapi:sitehandling-staticroutes@12.4): static routes of my site (for example, `robots.txt` on a per site base). - Routing configuration: How shall routing behave for this site. When creating a new page on root level via the TYPO3 backend, a very basic site configuration is generated on the fly. It prevents immediate errors due to missing configuration and can also serve as a starting point for all further actions. Most parts of the site configuration can be edited via the graphical interface in the backend module **Sites**. ![](../../Images/AutomaticScreenshots/SiteHandling/SiteHandlingSiteModule.png) > [!TIP] > **Hint** > > While the editing mask for a site looks like a "normal" TYPO3 editing form, > it is not. In contrast to other forms, the site configuration is stored in > the file system and not in database tables. ## Site configuration storage {#site-storage} When creating a new site configuration, a folder is created in the file system, located at `/config/sites//`. The site configuration is stored in a file called `config.yaml`. > [!NOTE] > If you are using a Classic mode installation, the location is > `typo3conf/sites/config.yaml`. > [!TIP] > Add this folder to your version control system. ## The configuration file {#site-configuration-file} The following part explains the configuration file and options: **config/sites/\/config.yaml | typo3conf/sites/\/config.yaml** ```yaml rootPageId: 12 base: 'https://example.org/' websiteTitle: Example languages: - title: English enabled: true locale: en_US.UTF-8 base: / websiteTitle: '' navigationTitle: English flag: gb languageId: 0 - title: 'danish' enabled: true locale: da_DK.UTF-8 base: /da/ websiteTitle: '' navigationTitle: Dansk fallbackType: strict fallbacks: '' flag: dk languageId: 1 - title: Deutsch enabled: true locale: de_DE.UTF-8 base: 'https://example.net/' websiteTitle: '' navigationTitle: Deutsch fallbackType: fallback fallbacks: '1,0' flag: de languageId: 2 errorHandling: - errorCode: '404' errorHandler: Page errorContentSource: 't3://page?uid=8' - errorCode: '403' errorHandler: Fluid errorFluidTemplate: 'EXT:my_extension/Resources/Private/Templates/ErrorPages/403.html' errorFluidTemplatesRootPath: 'EXT:my_extension/Resources/Private/Templates/ErrorPages' errorFluidLayoutsRootPath: 'EXT:my_extension/Resources/Private/Layouts/ErrorPages' errorFluidPartialsRootPath: 'EXT:my_extension/Resources/Private/Partials/ErrorPages' - errorCode: '0' errorHandler: PHP errorPhpClassFQCN: MyVendor\ExtensionName\ErrorHandlers\GenericErrorhandler routes: route: robots.txt type: staticText content: | Sitemap: https://example.org/sitemap.xml User-agent: * Allow: / Disallow: /forbidden/ ``` Most settings can also be edited via the **Site Management > Sites** backend module, except for custom settings and additional routing configuration. ### Site identifier {#sitehandling-basics-site-identifier} The site identifier is the name of the folder in `/config/sites/` that contains your configuration file(s). When choosing an identifier, be sure to use ASCII, but you may also use `-`, `_` and `.` for convenience. ### Root page ID {#root-page-id} Root pages are identified by one of these two properties: - They are direct descendants of PID 0 (the root root page of TYPO3). - They have the **Use as Root Page** property in `pages` set to true. > [!NOTE] > The same root page ID **should not** be used in multiple site configurations. > This may lead to misbehavior, since always the last defined site with this > root page ID is used by TYPO3. > > > > Starting with TYPO3 v12.1 the Sites module warns you if the > same root page ID is used multiple times. ### websiteTitle {#sitehandling-basics-websitetitle} The title of the website which is used in `` tag in the frontend. ### base {#base} The base is the base domain on which a website runs. It accepts either a fully qualified URL or a relative segment "/" to react to any domain name. It is possible to set a site base prefix to `/site1`, `/site2` or even `example.com` instead of entering a full URI. This allows a site base as `example.com` with http and https protocols to be detected, although it is recommended to redirect HTTP to HTTPS, either at the webserver level, via a `.htaccess` rewrite rule or by adding a redirect in TYPO3. Please note: when the domain is an [Internationalized Domain Name (IDN)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationalized_domain_name) containing non-Latin characters, the base must be provided in an ASCII-Compatible Encoded (ACE) format (also known as "[Punycode](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punycode)"). You can use a [converter](https://www.punycoder.com/) to get the ACE format of the domain name. > [!NOTE] > This flexibility introduces side effects if you have multiple sites with > mixed configuration settings as site base: > > - Site 1: `/mysite/` > - Site 2: `example.com` > > It is unspecific when a URL like `example.com/mysite/` is detected, > and can lead to side effects. > > In this case, the site administrator must set unique site base prefixes. ### languages {#languages} Available languages for a site can be specified here. These settings determine both the availability of the language and the behavior. For a detailed description see [Language configuration](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/t3coreapi:sitehandling-addinglanguages@12.4). ### errorHandling {#errorhandling} The error handling section describes how to handle error status codes for this website. It allows you to configure custom redirects, rendering templates, and more. For a detailed description, see [error handling](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/t3coreapi:sitehandling-errorhandling@12.4). ### routes {#routes} The routes section is used to add static routes to a site, for example a `robots.txt` or `humans.txt` file that depends on the current site (an does not contain the same content for the whole TYPO3 installation). Read more at [static routes](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/t3coreapi:sitehandling-staticroutes@12.4). ### routeEnhancers {#routeenhancers} While page routing works out of the box without any further settings, route enhancers allow configuring routing for TYPO3 extensions. Read more at [Advanced routing configuration (for extensions)](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/t3coreapi:routing-advanced-routing-configuration@12.4).