Extend FlexForms

Following fields of the plugin configuration can be extended without overriding the complete FlexForm configuration.

Selectbox "Sort by"

The sorting can be extended by adding the value to

$GLOBALS['TYPO3_CONF_VARS']['EXT']['news']['orderByNews']

Default values are: tstamp,datetime,crdate,title

Additional Actions

If you need an additional action to select, you can extend it by using:

// Add an additional action: Key is "Controller->action", value is label
$GLOBALS['TYPO3_CONF_VARS']['EXT']['news']['switchableControllerActions']['newItems']['News->byFobar'] = 'A fobar action';

Remove fields in additional actions

If you define an additional action, you won't need all available fields which are available inside the FlexForms. If you want to hide some fields, take a look at the hook inside the class Hooks/BackendUtility.php:

$GLOBALS['TYPO3_CONF_VARS']['EXT']['news']['Hooks/BackendUtility.php']['updateFlexforms']

Additional Template Selector

If you need a kind of template selector inside a plugin, you can add your own selections by adding those to

$GLOBALS['TYPO3_CONF_VARS']['EXT']['news']['templateLayouts']['myext'] = array('My Title', 'my value');

You can then access the variable in your template with {settings.templateLayout} and use it for a condition or whatever.

Extend FlexForms with custom fields

If you need additional fields in the FlexForm configuration, this can be done by using a hook in the Core.

Register the hook

Add this to the ext_localconf.php of your extension:

$GLOBALS['TYPO3_CONF_VARS']['SC_OPTIONS'][\TYPO3\CMS\Core\Configuration\FlexForm\FlexFormTools::class]['flexParsing'][]
   = \Vendor\ExtKey\Hooks\FlexFormHook::class;

Add the hook

Create the class FlexFormHook in your extension in Classes/Hooks/FlexFormHook.php and add the path to an additional FlexForm file.

<?php

namespace Vendor\ExtKey\Hooks;

use TYPO3\CMS\Core\Core\Environment;
use TYPO3\CMS\Core\Utility\GeneralUtility;

class FlexFormHook
{
   /**
   * @param array $dataStructure
   * @param array $identifier
   * @return array
   */
   public function parseDataStructureByIdentifierPostProcess(array $dataStructure, array $identifier): array
   {
     if ($identifier['type'] === 'tca' && $identifier['tableName'] === 'tt_content' && $identifier['dataStructureKey'] === 'news_pi1,list') {
         $file = Environment::getPublicPath() . '/typo3conf/ext/extKey/Configuration/Example.xml';
         $content = file_get_contents($file);
         if ($content) {
             $dataStructure['sheets']['extraEntry'] = GeneralUtility::xml2array($content);
         }
     }
     return $dataStructure;
   }
}

Create the FlexForm file

Create the FlexForm file you just referenced in the hook. This can look like that.

<extra>
    <ROOT>
        <TCEforms>
            <sheetTitle>Fo</sheetTitle>
        </TCEforms>
        <type>array</type>
        <el>
            <settings.postsPerPage>
                <TCEforms>
                    <label>Max. number of posts to display per page</label>
                    <config>
                        <type>input</type>
                        <size>2</size>
                        <eval>int</eval>
                        <default>3</default>
                    </config>
                </TCEforms>
            </settings.postsPerPage>
        </el>
    </ROOT>
</extra>