Installation

Getting Grid Elements ready for use has three parts: get the extension into the project, update the database schema for its tables and fields, and include the TypoScript that renders its output. All three are one-time, project-level setup.

Install with Composer

Composer is the primary and recommended way to install Grid Elements. From the project root:

composer require gridelementsteam/gridelements

In a Composer-managed TYPO3 installation, this alone makes the extension active. There is no separate activation step in the Extension Manager; the Extension Manager, in Composer mode, simply reflects what is required in composer.json.

Update the database schema

Grid Elements adds its own database table for CE backend layout records and a handful of fields to tt_content. Bring the schema up to date with either:

vendor/bin/typo3 database:updateschema

or the Install Tool's Analyze Database Structure function under Admin Tools > Maintenance. Review the proposed changes and apply them.

Note

One of those changes turns tt_content.colPos into a signed column, since Grid Elements stores negative sentinel values there for its own children. Applying that change is required. Never revert it with a later schema fix or manual migration: doing so prevents those negative sentinel values from being stored, which makes TYPO3 Core's own placement handling and backend presentation misinterpret affected records, even though the underlying tx_gridelements_container parent relation itself remains intact. See Data Model for what those sentinel values mean and how to recover if this happens.

Dependencies

The current Composer package requires PHP 8.2, 8.3 or 8.4, and TYPO3 12.4 LTS or 13.4 LTS (patch level 13.4.7 or later). It has no dependency on any other third-party extension. Consult composer.json in the package for the exact constraint, and the version matrix in the project's README for how this maps to other Grid Elements versions.

Basic configuration

With the extension active and the schema updated, one piece of frontend configuration remains before a Grid Element can render: including its TypoScript. This is the only step that still needs doing manually; everything about defining a grid's structure is TSconfig, covered in Grid Definitions, and does not require touching TypoScript at all.

Include the recommended static template

Grid Elements ships two static templates. Open the TypoScript module, edit the site's root template record, and on the Includes tab, under Include static (from extensions), add:

Gridelements w/DataProcessing (recommended)

This is the current, supported rendering path, built on GridChildrenProcessor and Fluid, see Rendering for how it works. The other entry, Gridelements (deprecated), wires up the older Plugin\Gridelements TypoScript path; it is still functional for existing projects but not recommended for new ones, see Legacy TypoScript Rendering. Include one of the two, not both.

The recommended static template builds on lib.contentElement, which TYPO3's own Fluid-based content rendering provides. Make sure a static template that defines it, ordinarily Fluid Content Elements (fluid_styled_content) or a sitepackage that supplies the equivalent, is included before Grid Elements' own static template.

Grid definitions versus rendering configuration

Keep the two configuration languages apart. A grid's rows, columns, cells and restrictions are TSconfig, not TypoScript; Grid TS Syntax documents that notation, and the Grid Wizard builds it visually. TypoScript, the static template just included, is only ever about frontend rendering output. Neither one substitutes for the other.

Installing without Composer

Grid Elements is also published in the TER for installations that do not manage extensions with Composer. Download or import it there, then activate it in the Extension Manager as with any other classic-mode extension. The database schema update and TypoScript inclusion steps above are the same either way.

Historical note. Grid Elements' extension metadata still declares a conflict with TemplaVoila. This declaration dates from an earlier period when the two extensions shared some of the same TYPO3 Core hooks and could not be active on the same installation at once; it remains in the metadata as a leftover from that situation, not as a warning specific to any project built today.

With the extension installed, activated and its static template included, continue to Quick Start to define and render a first Grid Element.