TSFE

What is TSFE?

TSFE is short for \TYPO3\CMS\Frontend\Controller\TypoScriptFrontendController, a class which exists in the system extension EXT:frontend.

As the name implies: A responsibility of TSFE is page rendering. It also handles reading from and writing to the page cache. For more details it is best to look into the source code.

There are several contexts in which the term TSFE is used:

  • PHP: It is passed as request attribute frontend.controller

  • PHP: It was and is available as global array $GLOBALS['TSFE'] in PHP.

  • TypoScript: TypoScript function TSFE which can be used to access public properties in TSFE.

The TypoScript part is covered in the TypoScript Reference: TSFE. In this section we focus on the PHP part and give an overview, in which way the TSFE class can be used.

Accessing TSFE

Attention

Some of the former public properties and methods have been changed to protected or marked as internal. Often, accessing TSFE is no longer necessary, and there are better alternatives.

Access $GLOBALS['TSFE'] directly only as a last resort, usage is strongly discouraged, if not absolutely necessary.

From the source:

When calling a frontend page, an instance of this object is available as $GLOBALS['TSFE'], even though the Core development strives to get rid of this in the future.

If access to the \TYPO3\CMS\Frontend\Controller\TypoScriptFrontendController instance is necessary, use the request attribute frontend.controller:

$frontendController = $request->getAttribute('frontend.controller');

See also

Getting the PSR-7 request object

TSFE is not available in all contexts. In particular, it is only available in frontend contexts, not in the backend or CLI.

Initializing $GLOBALS['TSFE'] in the backend is sometimes done in code examples found online. This is not recommended. TSFE is not initialized in the backend context by the Core (and there is usually no need to do this).

From the PHP documentation:

As of PHP 8.1.0, $GLOBALS is now a read-only copy of the global symbol table. That is, global variables cannot be modified via its copy.

https://www.php.net/manual/en/reserved.variables.globals.php

Howtos

Following are some examples which use TSFE and alternatives to using TSFE, where available:

Access ContentObjectRenderer

Access the \TYPO3\CMS\Frontend\ContentObject\ContentObjectRenderer (often referred to as "cObj"):

// !!! discouraged
$cObj = $GLOBALS['TSFE']->cObj;

Obtain TSFE from request attribute 'frontend.controller':

$frontendController = $request->getAttribute('frontend.controller');
$cObj = $frontendController->cObj;

In the case of user function (for example, a non-Extbase plugin) via setter injection:

public function setContentObjectRenderer(ContentObjectRenderer $cObj): void
{
    $this->cObj = $cObj;
}

Access current page ID

Access the current page ID:

// !!! discouraged
$pageId = $GLOBALS['TSFE']->id;

Can be done using the 'routing' request attribute:

$pageArguments = $request->getAttribute('routing');
$pageId = $pageArguments->getPageId();

Access language settings

In order to get current language settings, such as the current language ID, obtain \TYPO3\CMS\Core\Site\Entity\SiteLanguage object from the request attribute 'language':

// !!! outdated
$languageId = $GLOBALS['TSFE']->sys_language_uid;

/** @var \TYPO3\CMS\Core\Site\Entity\SiteLanguage $language */
$language = $request->getAttribute('language');
$languageId = $language->getLanguageId();

If the request is not available, accessing language settings can be done using the language aspect.

Get the language of the current page as integer:

$languageId = (int) $context->getPropertyFromAspect('language', 'id');

Access frontend user information

// !!! discouraged
$feUser = $GLOBALS['TSFE']->fe_user;

Use the frontend.user:

/** @var \TYPO3\CMS\Frontend\Authentication\FrontendUserAuthentication $frontendUser */
$frontendUser = $request->getAttribute('frontend.user');

Some information via frontend and backend users con be obtained via the user aspect. For example:

// return whether a frontend user is logged in
$context->getPropertyFromAspect('frontend.user', 'isLoggedIn');

Get current base URL

It used to be possible to get the base URL configuration (from TypoScript config.baseURL) with the TSFE baseURL property. The property is now protected and deprecated since TYPO3 v12. Already in earlier version, site configuration should be used to get the base URL of the current site.

// !!! deprecated
$GLOBALS['TSFE']->baseURL

/** @var \TYPO3\CMS\Core\Site\Entity\Site $site */
$site = $request->getAttribute('site');
// array
$siteConfiguration = $site->getConfiguration();
$baseUrl = $siteConfiguration['base'];