Pass through / virtual field

Table of contents:

Introduction

There are three columns config types that do similar things but still have subtle differences between them. These are the none type, the passthrough type and the user type.

Characteristics of passthrough:

  • A value sent to the DataHandler is kept as is and put into the database field. However, the default TYPO3 backend forms never send data for a passthrough field.

  • Unlike the field type none, the field type passthrough must have a database field.

  • The TYPO3 backend forms do not render anything for passthrough fields by default. But they can be combined with a custom renderType to display something. A field of type user is better suited for such use cases, though.

  • Values of passthrough fields are usually not rendered at other places in the backend.

  • Field updates by the DataHandler get logged and the history/undo function will work with such values.

The passthrough field can be useful, if:

  • A field needs no rendering, but some data handling using hooks of the DataHandler.

  • The passthrough type is used by TYPO3 core to handle meta data on records rows that are not shown as fields if editing records and only have data logic attached to it. An example is the l18n_diffsource field whose data is rendered differently in FormEngine at other places if editing a record but still updated and handled by the DataHandler.

Typical usages of the field type passthrough is a field that only needs data evaluation on the DataHandler side, but no rendering definition. The DataHandler does not evaluate the value in any way by default.

Since there is no rendering mode for this field type it is specifically fitted for direct API usage with the DataHandler.

Examples

This field is found in a number of tables, for instance the "pages" table. It is used by the system extension "impexp" to store some information.

'tx_impexp_origuid' => [
    'config' => [
        'type' => 'passthrough'
    ],
],