---
title: "Introduction"
manual: "TCA_API"
version: "2.2"
permalink: "https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/maikschneider/tca-api:introduction@2.2"
source: "Introduction/Index.rst"
rendered: "2026-10-12T13:17:40+00:00"
---

# Introduction {#introduction}

## What does it do? {#what-does-it-do}

TCA_API is a TYPO3 extension that automatically generates a REST API from your
TYPO3 TCA (Table Configuration Array) definitions. It exposes database tables as
[Hydra JSON-LD](https://www.hydra-cg.com/) resources through a
configuration-driven approach — no custom controllers or Extbase models needed.

By placing a simple PHP configuration file in your extension's
`Configuration/TcaApi/` directory, you get a fully functional REST API with
CRUD operations, filtering, sorting, pagination, validation, and access control.

## Motivation {#motivation}

TYPO3 offers several existing approaches for serving content as structured data.
TCA_API was built to fill a gap where other API extensions fall short: exposing
multiple resources uniformly, with minimal boilerplate and strong query
efficiency. See [Motivation](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/maikschneider/tca-api:motivation@2.2) for the full comparison.

## Features {#features}

-   **Full CRUD** — List, show, create, update (PUT & PATCH), and delete operations
-   **Hydra JSON-LD** — Responses follow the [Hydra](https://www.hydra-cg.com/)
    specification (`application/ld+json`)
-   **Configuration-driven** — Expose tables by registering a PHP configuration
    array; no custom controllers needed
-   **Serialization groups** — Use `groups` to control which columns appear per
    operation (`list`, `show`, `create`, `update`)
-   **Filtering** — Exact, partial, word-start, range, full-text search, and
    many-to-many filter strategies via query parameters; relation-path filters
    (`categories.title`) reach across one or more hops; configurable defaults
    and private, non-overrideable filters; extensible via `FilterInterface`
-   **Sorting** — Configurable allowed sort columns with defaults
-   **Pagination** — Offset-based pagination with Hydra `PartialCollectionView`
    links
-   **Validation** — Required, length, range, item-count, and regex validators
    with structured 422 error responses; auto-derived from TCA and extensible
    via `ValidatorInterface`
-   **File uploads** — `multipart/form-data` uploads on write endpoints with
    per-column FAL storage, size limits, and filename masks
-   **Access control** — Per-operation roles: `PUBLIC`, `FE_USER`, `FE_GROUP`,
    `BE_USER`, `BE_ADMIN`, `OWNER` (record-level ownership), or custom
    callable voters
-   **Write privilege model** — Actor-aware write context with configurable
    execution strategy, table-level access control, and structured audit logging
-   **Virtual properties** — Computed fields via callables or column processors,
    with support for referencing existing columns (including file/image columns
    at different sizes)
-   **Relation handling** — Shallow stubs or fully embedded related records
    (configurable depth); create related records inline on write
-   **Userinfo endpoint** — Expose the authenticated FE user's own record at a
    configurable URL
-   **Response caching** — Tag-based caching for `list` and `show` with
    automatic invalidation through the DataHandler, configurable TTL and
    per-request bypass
-   **Multi-language** — URL base segments (`/de/api/…`) and an optional
    `X-Locale` header resolve the TYPO3 `SiteLanguage`, with translation
    overlays and language-scoped cache keys
-   **OpenAPI + Swagger UI** — Auto-generated OpenAPI 3.1.0 spec and interactive
    Swagger UI served directly from the API prefix, plus a backend module on
    TYPO3 v14
-   **PSR-14 events** — Hook into the request lifecycle with Before/AfterOperation
    and Before/AfterWrite events
-   **TYPO3 DataHandler** — Write operations use TYPO3's DataHandler for safe,
    consistent data manipulation
-   **Extensible handler pipeline** — Register custom operation handlers or override
    built-in ones from any extension
-   **TCA-style overrides** — Override or extend any resource config shipped by a
    third-party package via `Configuration/TcaApi/Overrides/`

## Demo project {#demo-project}

[maikschneider/typo3-petstore](https://github.com/maikschneider/typo3-petstore)
is a runnable TYPO3 project that exercises a range of TCA_API resource
configurations in one place — a working reference for how the configuration
options in this manual fit together. It is in early stages and evolves
alongside the extension.