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TYPE: "input"¶
The type "input" generates an <input>
field, possibly with additional
features applied.

A collection of simple input fields¶
Property details¶
size¶
Key
size
Datatype
integer
Description
Abstract value for the width of the <input>
field. To set the input
field to the full width of the form area, use the value 48. Default is
30.
Scope
Display
max¶
Key
max
Datatype
integer
Description
Value for the "maxlength" attribute of the <input>
field.
If the form element edits a varchar(40) field in the database you should also set this value to 40. Default is 256.
Scope
Display
eval¶
Key
eval
Datatype
list of keywords
Description
Configuration of field evaluation.
Some of these evaluation keywords will trigger a JavaScript pre- evaluation in the form. Other evaluations will be performed in the backend.
The evaluation functions will be executed in the list-order.
Keywords:
- alpha
Allows only a-zA-Z characters.
- alphanum
Same as "alpha" but allows also "0-9"
- alphanum_x
Same as "alphanum" but allows also "_" and "-" chars.
- date
The field will evaluate the input as a date, automatically converting the input to a UNIX-time in seconds. The display will be like "12-8-2003" while the database value stored will be "1060639200".
- datetime
The field will evaluate the input as a date with time (detailed to hours and minutes), automatically converting the input to a UNIX-time in seconds. The display will be like "16:32 12-8-2003" while the database value will be "1060698720".
- domainname
Allows a domain name such as "example.com" and automatically transforms the value to punicode if needed.
- double2
Converts the input to a floating point with 2 decimal positions, using the "." (period) as the decimal delimited (accepts also "," for the same).
- int
Evaluates the input to an integer.
- is_in
Will filter out any character in the input string which is not found in the string entered in the key "is_in" (see below).
- lower
Converts the string to lowercase (only A-Z plus a selected set of Western European special chars).
- md5
Will convert the input value to its md5-hash (the JavaScript
MD5()
function is found intypo3/sysext/backend/Resources/Public/JavaScript/md5.js
).- nospace
Removes all occurrences of space characters (chr(32))
- null
An empty value (string) will be stored as
NULL
in the database. (requires a proper sql definition)- num
Allows only 0-9 characters in the field.
- password
Will show "*******" in the field after entering the value and moving to another field. Thus passwords can be protected from display in the field.
Note
The value is visible while it is being entered!
- required
A non-empty value is required in the field (otherwise the form cannot be saved).
- time
The field will evaluate the input as a timestamp in seconds for the current day (with a precision of minutes). The display will be like "23:45" while the database will be "85500".
- timesec
The field will evaluate the input as a timestamp in seconds for the current day (with a precision of seconds). The display will be like "23:45:13" while the database will be "85513".
- trim
The value in the field will have white spaces around it trimmed away.
- tx_*
User defined form evaluations. See below.
- unique
Requires the field to be unique for the whole table. (Evaluated on the server only).
Note
When selecting on unique-fields, make sure to select using
AND pid>=0
since the field can contain duplicate values in other versions of records (always having PID = -1). This also means that if you are using versioning on a table where the unique-feature is used you cannot set the field to be truly unique in the database either!- uniqueInPid
Requires the field to be unique for the current PID (among other records on the same page). (Evaluated on the server only).
- upper
Converts to uppercase (only A-Z plus a selected set of Western European special chars).
- year
Evaluates the input to a year between 1970 and 2038. If you need any year, then use "int" evaluation instead.
All the above evaluations (unless noted) are done by JavaScript with
the functions found in the script typo3/sysext/backend/Resources/Public/JavaScript/jsfunc.evalfield.js
.
"(TCE)" means the evaluation is done in the TCE on the server. The class used for this is TYPO3CMSCoreDataHandlingDataHandler.
Example:
Setting the field to evaluate the input to a date returned to the database in UNIX-time (seconds):
'eval' => 'date',
Trimming the value for white space before storing in the database (important for varchar fields!):
'eval' => 'trim',
By this configuration the field will be stripped for any space characters, converted to lowercase, only accepted if filled in and on the server the value is required to be unique for all records from this table:
'eval' => 'nospace,lower,unique,required'
User-defined form evaluations:
You can supply your own form evaluations in an extension by creating a
class with two functions, one which returns the JavaScript code for
client side validation called returnFieldJS()
and one which does the
server side validation called evaluateFieldValue()
.
The function evaluateFieldValue() has 3 arguments:
$value :The field value to be evaluated.
$is_in : The "is_in" value of the field configuration from TCA (see below).
&$set : Boolean defining if the value is written to the database or not. Must be passed by reference and changed if needed.
Example:
class.tx_exampleextraevaluations_extraeval1.php:
<?php
class tx_exampleextraevaluations_extraeval1 {
function returnFieldJS() {
return '
return value + " [added by JS]";
';
}
function evaluateFieldValue($value, $is_in, &$set) {
return $value . ' [added by PHP]';
}
}
ext_localconf.php
<?php
// here we register "tx_exampleextraevaluations_extraeval1"
$TYPO3_CONF_VARS['SC_OPTIONS']['tce']['formevals']['tx_exampleextraevaluations_extraeval1'] = 'EXT:example_extraevaluations/class.tx_exampleextraevaluations_extraeval1.php';
Scope
Display / Proc.
format¶
Key
format
Datatype
string (keyword)
Description
When an input-type field is set as read-only, it actually gets rendered as a none-type field. This means that is is possible to use the format property of such field to format the value of the input-type field.
Read-only fields with eval
set to "date"
will be formatted as "date", "datetime" as "datetime" and
"time" as "time". This overrides any value of format
which might have been set.
is_in¶
Key
is_in
Datatype
string
Description
If the evaluation type "is_in" (see eval) is used for evaluation, then the characters in the input string should be found in this string as well. This value is also passed as argument to the evaluation function if a user-defined evaluation function is registered.
Scope
Display / Proc.
checkbox¶
Key
checkbox
Datatype
string
Description
This setting is not used anymore since TYPO3 CMS 4.5.
Scope
Display / Proc.
range¶
Key
range
Datatype
array
Description
An array which defines an integer range within which the value must be.
Keys:
- lower
Defines the lower integer value.
- upper
Defines the upper integer value.
You can specify both or only one of them.
Note
This feature is evaluated on the server only so any regulation of the value will have happened after saving the form.
Example:
Limits an integer to be within the range 10 to 1000:
'eval' => 'int',
'range' => array(
'lower' => 10,
'upper' => 1000
),
In this example the upper limit is set to the last day in year 2020 while the lowest possible value is set to the date of yesterday.
'range' => array(
'upper' => mktime(0, 0, 0, 12, 31, 2020),
'lower' => mktime(0,0,0,date('m'), date('d'), date('Y'))
)
Scope
Proc.
placeholder¶
Key
placeholder
Datatype
string
Description
(Since TYPO3 CMS 4.7)
Placeholder text for the input field. This can be a simple string or
a reference to a value in the current record or another one.
With a syntax like __row|field
the placeholder will take
the value of the given field from the current record.
Since TYPO3 CMS 6.2, this can be recursive. If the designated field is a relation to another table (i.e. is of type select, group or inline), the related record will be loaded and the placeholder searched within it.
Example:
Taken from the "sys_file_reference" table.
'title' => array(
'l10n_mode' => 'mergeIfNotBlank',
'exclude' => 1,
'label' => 'LLL:EXT:lang/locallang_tca.xlf:sys_file_reference.title',
'config' => array(
'type' => 'input',
'size' => '20',
'eval' => 'null',
'placeholder' => '__row|uid_local|metadata|title',
'mode' => 'useOrOverridePlaceholder',
)
),
In the above placeholder syntax, uid_local
points to the
related "sys_file" record and metadata
points to the
"sys_file_metata" of the related "sys_file" record. From there we
take the content of the title
field.
Scope
Display
mode¶
Key
mode
Datatype
string (keywords)
Description
(Since TYPO3 CMS 6.0)
Possible keywords: useOrOverridePlaceholder
This property is related to the
placeholder property.
When defined a checkbox will appear above the field. If that
box is checked, the field can be used to enter whatever
the user wants as usual. If the box is not checked, the
field becomes read-only and the value saved to the database will
be null
.
What impact this has in the frontend depends on what is done in the code using this field. In the case of FAL relations, for example, if the "title" field has its box checked, the "title" from the related metadata will be provided.
For example code, see the placeholder property.
This is how the mode checkbox appears in the TYPO3 CMS backend:

Several input or text fields with their placeholder override checkboxes¶
Warning
In order for this property to apply properly, the field must be allowed to use "null" as a value (i.e the eval property must list "null" as a possible evaluation.
Scope
Display / Proc.
Examples¶
A "date" field¶
This is the typical configuration for a date field, like "starttime":
'starttime' => array(
'exclude' => 1,
'label' => 'LLL:EXT:lang/locallang_general.xlf:LGL.starttime',
'config' => array(
'type' => 'input',
'size' => '13',
'max' => '20',
'eval' => 'datetime',
'default' => '0'
),
'l10n_mode' => 'exclude',
'l10n_display' => 'defaultAsReadonly'
),
A "username" field¶
In this example the field is for entering a username (from "fe_users"). A number of requirements are imposed onto the field, namely that it must be unique within the page where the record is stored, must be in lowercase and without spaces in it:
'username' => array(
'label' => 'LLL:EXT:cms/locallang_tca.xlf:fe_users.username',
'config' => array(
'type' => 'input',
'size' => '20',
'max' => '50',
'eval' => 'nospace,lower,uniqueInPid,required'
)
),
A typical input field¶
This is just a very typical configuration which sets the size and a character limit to the field. In addition the input value is trimmed for surrounding whitespace which is a very good idea when you enter values into varchar fields.
'name' => array(
'exclude' => 1,
'label' => 'LLL:EXT:lang/locallang_general.xlf:LGL.name',
'config' => array(
'type' => 'input',
'size' => '40',
'eval' => 'trim',
'max' => '80'
)
),
Required values¶
Here the field is required to be filled in:
'title' => array(
'label' => 'LLL:EXT:cms/locallang_tca.xlf:fe_groups.title',
'config' => array(
'type' => 'input',
'size' => '20',
'max' => '50',
'eval' => 'trim,required'
)
),