Developer

This chapter will explain different usecases for developer working with headless extension.

New cObjects

EXT:headless comes with a bunch of new cObjects to be used via TypoScript:

BOOL
FLOAT
INT
JSON
CONTENT_JSON

BOOL, FLOAT and INT are basically like TEXT (with value and stdWrap properties!) but make sure their result is being cast to bool, float or int.

JSON

To build and render a JSON object into your page output.

lib.meta = JSON
lib.meta {
  if.isTrue = 1
  fields {
    title = TEXT
    title {
      field = seo_title
      stdWrap.ifEmpty.cObject = TEXT
      stdWrap.ifEmpty.cObject {
        field = title
      }
    }
    robots {
      fields {
        noIndex = BOOL
        noIndex.field = no_index
      }
    }
    ogImage = TEXT
    ogImage {
      dataProcessing {
        10 = FriendsOfTYPO3\Headless\DataProcessing\FilesProcessor
        10 {
          as = media
          references.fieldName = og_image
          processingConfiguration {
            returnFlattenObject = 1
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
  dataProcessing {
  }
  stdWrap {
  }
}

The JSON cObjects comes with a bunch of properties: if, fields, dataProcessing and stdWrap.

Property `if`

Can be used to decide whether or not to render the object.

Property `fields`

Array of cObjects. With special properties per item:

intval/floatval/boolval to cast the result to int, float or bool.
ifEmptyReturnNull to return null in case it's empty
ifEmptyUnsetKey to remove the item in case it's empty
dataProcessing to render data processors (have a look at lib.meta.ogImage for example)

Property `dataProcessing`

This property can be used to render data processors such as MenuProcessor.

Property `stdWrap`

This property can be used to run stdWrap to the already rendered JSON output.

CONTENT_JSON

This cObject basically behaves like TYPO3's CONTENT, the main difference is that content elements are grouped by colPol & encoded into JSON by default.

CONTENT_JSON has the same options as CONTENT but also offers two new options for edge cases in json context.

merge

This option allows to generate another CONTENT_JSON call in one definition & then merge both results into one dataset (useful for handling slide feature of CONTENT cObject).

lib.content = CONTENT_JSON
lib.content {
  table = tt_content
  select {
    orderBy = sorting
    where = {#colPos} != 1
  }
  merge {
    table = tt_content
    select {
      orderBy = sorting
      where = {#colPos} = 1
    }
    slide = -1
  }
}

doNotGroupByColPos = 0(default)|1

This option allows to return a flat array (without grouping by colPos) but still encoded into JSON.

lib.content = CONTENT_JSON
lib.content {
  table = tt_content
  select {
    orderBy = sorting
    where = {#colPos} != 1
  }
  doNotGroupByColPos = 1
}

Internal Extbase plugins

To integrate a custom frontend plugin which returns its data inside the JSON object, we have to do the following:

Follow the standard proceeding to register and configure extbase plugins:

Create the DemoController.php:

class DemoController extends \TYPO3\CMS\Extbase\Mvc\Controller\ActionController {
  public function indexAction() {
    return json_encode([
       'foo' => 'bar',
       'settings' => $this->settings
    ]);
  }
}

Use the plugin through TypoScript:

tt_content.list =< lib.contentElementWithHeader
tt_content.list {
  fields {
    content {
      fields {
        data = CASE
        data {
          key.field = list_type
          demoplugin_type = USER
          demoplugin_type {
            userFunc = TYPO3\CMS\Extbase\Core\Bootstrap->run
            vendorName = Vendor
            extensionName = ExtName
            pluginName = DemoPlugin
            controller = Demo
            settings {
              test = TEXT
              test.value = The demo is working
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Clear the cache and in the response we will see the following JSON output (shortened):

{
  "content": {
    "colPos0": [{
      "type": "demoplugin_type",
      "appearance": {...},
      "content": {
        "data": {
          "foo": "bar",
          "test": {
            "value": "The demo is working",
            "_typoScriptNodeValue": "TEXT"
          }
        }
      }
    }]
  }
}

Integrating external plugins

The integration of other extension plugins is pretty simple. We're providing the headless_news extension as an example of how it works.

Main part is a user function definition to run a plugin from TypoScript:

tt_content.list =< lib.contentElementWithHeader
tt_content.list {
  fields {
    content {
      fields {
        data = CASE
        data {
          key.field = list_type
          news_pi1 = USER
          news_pi1 {
            userFunc = TYPO3\CMS\Extbase\Core\Bootstrap->run
            vendorName = GeorgRinger
            extensionName = News
            pluginName = Pi1
            controller = News
            view < plugin.tx_news.view
            persistence < plugin.tx_news.persistence
            settings < plugin.tx_news.settings
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

For any other plugin, just change the vendorName, extensionName, pluginName and controller options, and import needed constant and setup values (like for view, persistence and settings in this case).

Then use the constants of that extension to overwrite the paths to the fluid templates:

plugin.tx_news {
  view {
    templateRootPath = EXT:headless_news/Resources/Private/News/Templates/
    partialRootPath = EXT:headless_news/Resources/Private/News/Partials/
    layoutRootPath = EXT:headless_news/Resources/Private/News/Layouts/
  }
}

As last step we need to re-implement the template logic to generate JSON instead of HTML structure. We do this by creating Fluid templates at the location specified in the previous step.

Because we don't enforce any standard for the JSON structure, we are pretty free here to adjust the structure to our needs (or to the requests of our frontend developer).

Here is the shortened List.html template which generates news items into a JSON array:

<f:spaceless>
  {"list": [<f:for each="{news}" as="newsItem" iteration="newsIterator">
  <f:if condition="{settings.excludeAlreadyDisplayedNews}">
    <f:then>
      <n:format.nothing>
        <n:excludeDisplayedNews newsItem="{newsItem}"/>
      </n:format.nothing>
    </f:then>
  </f:if>
  <f:render section="NewsListView" arguments="{newsItem: newsItem,settings:settings,iterator:iterator}" />
    {f:if(condition: newsIterator.isLast, else: ',')}
  </f:for>],
  "settings":
  <f:format.raw>
    <f:format.json value="{
      orderBy: settings.orderBy,
      orderDirection: settings.orderDirection,
      templateLayout: settings.templateLayout,
      action: 'list'
    }"/>
  </f:format.raw>
  }
</f:spaceless>

Create custom content elements

To add custom content elements we can straight follow the native approach of TYPO3 and fluid_styled_content.

The only difference to make it work with headless is the configuration of the frontend template in TypoScript. There is an overwritten content object reference in lib.contentElement which we can use, as well as an extended object with a header definition lib.contentElementWithHeader:

tt_content.demo >
tt_content.demo =< lib.contentElementWithHeader
tt_content.demo {
  fields {
    content {
      fields {
        demoField = TEXT
        demoField.value = This is a demo content-element
        bodytext = TEXT
        bodytext {
          field = bodytext
          parseFunc =< lib.parseFunc_RTE
        }
        demoSubfields {
          fields {
            demoSubfield = TEXT
            demoSubfield.value = Nested field
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

The definition of fields can be nested until various depth to reflect our desired JSON structure. Also the use of dataProcessing is possible the native way like in any other content elements (see content element definitions of this extension).

Create custom TypoScript

To add a default TypoScript object (such as CONTENT) to the fields of your page object you need to make sure to render it a valid JSON.

Here's an example of how you can create a JSON array of multiple objects from a custom DB table:

lib.page {
  fields {
    related = CONTENT
    related {
      table = tx_myextension_domain_model_things
      select {
        pidInList = this
      }
      renderObj = JSON
      renderObj {
        fields {
          title = TEXT
          title.field = title
          link = TEXT
          link.typolink.parameter.field = uid
          link.typolink.returnLast = url
        }
        # Add recognizable token at the end of this item
        stdWrap.wrap = |###BREAK###
      }
      stdWrap {
        # Wrap items into square brackets
        innerWrap = [|]

        # Replace 'inner tokens' by comma, remove others
        split {
          token = ###BREAK###
          cObjNum = 1 |*|2|*| 3
          1 {
            current = 1
            stdWrap.wrap = |
          }

          2 < .1
          2.stdWrap.wrap = ,|

          3 < .1
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Meta data override

Here's an example of how to override the meta object by data from a DB record:

lib.meta.stdWrap.override.cObject = JSON
lib.meta.stdWrap.override.cObject {
  if.isTrue.data = GP:tx_news_pi1|news
  dataProcessing.10 = FriendsOfTYPO3\Headless\DataProcessing\DatabaseQueryProcessor
  dataProcessing.10 {
    table = tx_news_domain_model_news
    uidInList.data = GP:tx_news_pi1|news
    uidInList.intval = 1
    pidInList = 0
    max = 1
    as = records
    fields < lib.meta.fields
    fields {
      title = TEXT
      title.field = title
      subtitle = TEXT
      subtitle.field = teaser
      description = TEXT
      description.field = bodytext
    }

    returnFlattenObject = 1
  }
}

TypoScript DataProcessors

This extension provides a couple of handy DataProcessors.

For further information have a look into the default TypoScript to see them in action.

EXT:form & form output decorators

EXT:headless out of box provides for developers:

FriendsOfTYPO3\Headless\Form\Decorator\FormDefinitionDecorator
FriendsOfTYPO3\Headless\Form\Decorator\AbstractFormDefinitionDecorator
FriendsOfTYPO3\Headless\Form\Decorator\DefinitionDecoratorInterface

FormDefinitionDecorator is default decorator and outputs

form: {
  id: "ContactForm-1",
  api: {
    status: null,
    errors: null,
    actionAfterSuccess: null,
      page: {
        current: 0,
        nextPage: null,
        pages: 1
      }
  },
  i18n: {},
  elements: []
}

You can anytime extend & customize for your needs simply by creating a custom decorator which implements DefinitionDecoratorInterface or extend the provided AbstractFormDefinitionDecorator which provides the ability to override the definition of each element or the whole form definition.

After creating a custom decorator you can attach it to your form simply by setting formDecorator in the rendering options of the form, see more

Snippets

See issue #136