Attention

TYPO3 v8 has reached its end-of-life March 31st, 2020 and is not maintained by the community anymore. Looking for a stable version? Use the version switch on the top left.

There is no further ELTS support. It is recommended that you upgrade your project and use a supported version of TYPO3.

Naming Conventions

Based on the extension key of an extension these naming conventions should be followed:

Extension key

  • Lowercase "alnum" + underscores.

  • Assigned by the TYPO3 Extension Repository.

Example:

cool_shop

Tip

If you study the naming conventions above closely you will find that they are complicated due to varying rules for underscores in key names. Sometimes the underscores are stripped off, sometimes not.

The best practice you can follow is to avoid using underscores in your extensions keys at all! That will make the rules simpler. This is highly encouraged.

See also

Database tables and fields

  • Prefix with "tx_[ key ]_" where key is without underscores!

Examples:

  • tx_coolshop_products

  • tx_coolshop_categories

General

Example

User-specific

Example

Backend module key (= modkey)

(Names are always without underscores!)

Name: The extension key name without underscores, prefixed "tx"

txcoolshop

Name: No underscores, prefixed "u"

uMyShop or umyshop or ...

Plugin key

The plugin key is registered in:

  • second parameter in registerPlugin() (Extbase)

  • or in addPlugin() (for non Extbase plugins)

The same plugin key is then used in the following:

  • second parameter in configurePlugin() (Extbase): MUST match registered plugin key exactly

  • the plugin signature

  • in TypoScript, e.g. plugin.tx_myexample_myplugin

  • in TCA

  • etc.

The plugin key can be freely chosen by the extension author, but you SHOULD follow these conventions:

  • do not use underscore

  • use UpperCamelCase, e.g. InventoryList

  • use alphanumeric characters

For the plugin key, Pi1, Pi2 etc. are often used, but it can be named differently.

The plugin key used in registerPlugin() and configurePlugin() MUST match.

Plugin signature

The plugin signature is automatically created by TYPO3 from the extension key and plugin key.

For this, all underscores in extension key are omitted and all characters lowercased. The extkey and plugin key are separated by an underscore (_):

extkey_pluginkey

The plugin signature is used in:

  • the database field tt_content.list_type

  • when defining a FlexForm to be used for the plugin in addPiFlexFormValue()

Examples:

Assume the following:

  • extkey is my_extension

  • plugin key is InventoryList

The derived name for the "plugin signature" is:

  • myextension_inventorylist This is used in tt_content.list_type and as first parameter of addPiFlexFormValue().

Class name

Class names SHOULD be in UpperCamelCase.

Examples:

  • CodeCompletionController

  • AjaxController

See also

This follows PSR-1 conventions.

More information

You may also want to refer to the TYPO3 Core Coding Guidelines for more on general naming conventions in TYPO3.

Note on "old" extensions

Some the "classic" extensions from before the extension structure came about do not comply with these naming conventions. That is an exception made for backwards compatibility. The assignment of new keys from the TYPO3 Extension Repository will make sure that any of these old names are not accidentially reassigned to new extensions.

Further, some of the classic plugins (tt_board, tt_guest etc) users the "user_" prefix for their classes as well.