Templating¶

Accessing variables¶

Inside your Frontend.html or EditorPreview.html file you can access the properties of your Content Element as usual by the {data} variable. This variable, however, is special. It has real superpowers. Let's have a look at the debug output of it:

TYPO3\CMS\ContentBlocks\DataProcessing\ContentBlockData [prototype] [object]
   _raw => [private] array(85 items)
   _processed => [private] array(8 items)
      uid => 24 (integer)
      pid => 1 (integer)
      languageId => 0 (integer)
      typeName => 'example_element1' (16 chars)
      updateDate => 1694625077 (integer)
      creationDate => 1694602137 (integer)
      header => 'Foo' (3 chars)

As you can see, in contrast to the usual array, we are dealing with an object here. This allows us to magically access our own custom properties very easily. The object consists of two properties _raw and _processed. As the names suggest, the one is raw and unprocessed and the other one has magic applied from Content Blocks. Normally you would access the processed properties. This is done by simply accessing the desired property like {data.header}. Note, that we are omitting _processed here. This is important to remember, as this would access a custom field named _processed. On the other hand, the raw properties have to be accessed by {data._raw.some_field}. But most of the time you shouldn't need them.

All fields with relations are resolved automatically to an array. This includes Collection, Select, Relation, File, Folder, Category and FlexForm fields. There is no need to provide additional DataProcessors for them. Content Blocks applies relation resolving for you (recursively!).

Have a look at this code example to grasp what's possible:

<!-- Normal access to custom properties -->
{data.my_field}

<!-- Normal access to custom relational properties -->
<f:for each="{data.collection1}" as="item">{item.title}</f:for>

<!-- Recursive access to custom relational properties -->
<f:for each="{data.collection1}" as="item">
    <f:for each="{item.categories}" as="category">
        {category.title}
    </f:for>
</f:for>

<!-- There are some special accessors, which are always available: -->
{data.uid}
{data.pid}
{data.typeName} <!-- This is the CType for Content Elements -->

<!-- These special accessors are available, if the corresponding features are turned on (Always true for Content Elements) -->
{data.languageId} <!-- YAML: languageAware: true -->
{data.creationDate} <!-- YAML: trackCreationDate: true -->
{data.updateDate} <!-- YAML: trackUpdateDate: true -->

<!-- These special accessors are available depending on the context -->
{data.localizedUid}
{data.originalUid}
{data.originalPid}

<!-- To access the raw (unprocessed) database record use `_raw` -->
{data._raw.some_field}

Frontend & backend¶

Content Blocks allows you to provide a separate template for the frontend and the backend out of the box. The variables are the same for both templates, and while using the asset ViewHelpers, you can also ship JavaScript and CSS as you need. The main goal behind this is, that you can provide a better user experience for the editors. With this feature, there is the possibility to provide nearly the same layout in the frontend and the backend, so the editors easily find the element they want to edit.

The frontend template is located in Source/Frontend.html and the backend template in Source/EditorPreview.html.

Asset ViewHelpers¶

Content Blocks provides new asset ViewHelpers to access assets from within the current Content Block in the template. These ViewHelpers look for the given file in the Assets directory.

<f:comment><!-- Include the Assets/Frontend.css stylesheet --></f:comment>
<cb:asset.css identifier="myCssIdentifier" file="Frontend.css"/>

<f:comment><!-- Include the Assets/Frontend.js script --></f:comment>
<cb:asset.script identifier="myJavascriptIdentifier" file="Frontend.js"/>

The information of the current Content Block is stored in {data}. This means if you use an asset ViewHelper in a partial, you have to provide {data} as an argument to that partial. Alternatively, you can set name by hand:

<f:comment><!-- The name of the Content Block is set explicitly --></f:comment>
<cb:asset.script identifier="myJavascriptIdentifier" name="vendor/name" file="Frontend.js"/>

Resource URI ViewHelper¶

The ViewHelper can be used to generate a URI relative to the Assets folder.

<img src="{cb:uri.resource(path: 'Icon.svg')}" alt="">

To generate an absolute URI, activate the absolute parameter.

<img src="{cb:uri.resource(path: 'Icon.svg', absolute: '1')}" alt="">

As described above in the asset ViewHelper, the {data} variable is required to resolve the Content Block automatically. You can also set name by hand:

<img src="{cb:uri.resource(path: 'Icon.svg', name: 'vendor/name')}" alt="">

Translation ViewHelper¶

This ViewHelper looks directly in the Labels.xlf file for the given key.

<cb:translate key="my.contentblock.header" />

As described above in the asset ViewHelper, the {data} variable is required to resolve the Content Block automatically. You can also set name by hand:

<cb:translate key="my.contentblock.header" name="vendor/name" />

Partials¶

Partials are a very useful feature of Fluid. You can use them to split up your templates into smaller parts. If you want to use a partial in a Content Block, you can create a subdirectory Partials in the Source directory and place your partials there.

This part is automatically added, but you can also extend or overwrite this TypoScript configuration in your sitepackage.

Remember, that you should ship the {data} variable to the partial if you want to make use of automatic detection of the current Content Block.

<f:render partial="Component.html" arguments="{data: data, foo: 'bar'}"/>

See also:

• Shared partials

Layouts¶

Analogous to partials, you can also use layouts. You can create a subdirectory Layouts in the Source directory and place your layouts there. The configuration is added automatically, but you can also extend or overwrite the TypoScript configuration in your sitepackage. Afterwards you can use your layouts as usual in Fluid.

Shareable resources¶

There is the technical possibility to use resources from the whole TYPO3 setup (e.g. translations, scripts, or partials from other extensions), but we do not recommend to do so. Content Blocks are intended to work independent of external resources so they can be easily copy-pasted between projects. Be aware of this downside, when you add dependencies to your Content Block.