DataHandler basics¶

Command keywords and values¶

copy ¶

Data type

integer or array

The significance of the value depends on whether it is positive or negative:

Positive value

The value points to a page UID. A copy of the record (and possibly child elements/tree below) will be inserted inside that page as the first element.

Negative value

The (absolute) value points to another record from the same table as the record being copied. The new record will be inserted on the same page as that record and if $GLOBALS['TCA'][$table]['ctrl']['sortby'] is set, then it will be positioned after.

Zero value

Record is inserted on tree root level.

array

The array has to contain the integer value as in examples above and may contain field => value pairs for updates. The array is structured like:

[
    'action' => 'paste', // 'paste' is used for both move and copy commands
    'target' => $pUid,   // Defines the page to insert the record, or record uid to copy after
    'update' => $update, // Array with field => value to be updated.
]

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move ¶

DataType

integer

Works like copy but moves the record instead of making a copy.

delete ¶

Data Type

integer (1)

Value should always be "1".

This action will delete the record (or mark the record "deleted", if configured in $GLOBALS['TCA'][$table]['ctrl']['delete']).

undelete ¶

Data Type

integer (1)

Value should always be "1".

This action will set the "deleted" flag back to 0.

localize ¶

Data type

integer

The value is the languageId (defined in the site configuation) to localize the record into. Basically a localization of a record is making a copy of the record (possibly excluding certain fields defined with l10n_mode) but changing relevant fields to point to the right language ID.

Requirements for a successful localization is this:

• [ctrl] options languageField and transOrigPointerField must be defined for the table
• A languageId must be configured in the site configuration.
• The record to be localized by currently be set to default language and not have any value set for the TCA transOrigPointerField either.
• There cannot exist another localization to the given language for the record (looking in the original record PID).

Apart from this, ordinary permissions apply as if the user wants to make a copy of the record on the same page.

The localize DataHandler command should be used when translating records in "connected mode" (strict translation of records from the default language). This command is used when selecting the "Translate" strategy in the content elements translation wizard.

copyToLanguage ¶

Data type

integer

It behaves like localize command (both record and child records are copied to given language), but does not set transOrigPointerField fields (for example, l10n_parent).

The copyToLanguage command should be used when localizing records in the "free mode". This command is used when localizing content elements using translation wizard's "Copy" strategy.

inlineLocalizeSynchronize ¶

Data type

array

Performs localization or synchronization of child records. The command structure is like:

$cmd['tt_content'][13]['inlineLocalizeSynchronize'] = [ // 13 is a parent record uid
    'field' => 'tx_myfieldname', // field we want to synchronize
    'language' => 2,             // uid of the target language
    // either the key 'action' or 'ids' must be set
    'action' => 'localize'       // or 'synchronize'
    'ids' =>  [1, 2, 3]          // array of child IDs to be localized
]

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version ¶

Data type

array

Versioning action.

Note

This section is currently outdated.

Keys:

[action]

Keyword determining the versioning action. Options are:

"new"

Indicates that a new version of the record should be created. Additional keys, specific for "new" action:

[treeLevels]

(Only pages) Integer, -1 to 4, indicating the number of levels of the page tree to version together with a page. This is also referred to as the versioning type:

• -1 ("element") means only the page record gets versioned (default)
• 0 ("page") means the page + content tables (defined by ctrl flag versioning_followPages )
• >0 ("branch") means the the whole branch is versioned (full copy of all tables), down to the level indicated by the value (1 = 1 level down, 2 = 2 levels down, etc.). The treeLevel is recorded in the field t3ver_swapmode and will be observed when the record is swapped during publishing.

[label]

Indicates the version label to apply. If not given, a standard label including version number and date is added.

"swap"

Indicates that the current online version should be swapped with another. Additional keys, specific for "swap" action:

[swapWith]

Indicates the uid of the record to swap current version with!

[swapIntoWS]

Boolean, indicates that when a version is published it should be swapped into the workspace of the offline record.

"clearWSID"

Indicates that the workspace of the record should be set to zero (0). This removes versions out of workspaces without publishing them.

"flush"

Completely deletes a version without publishing it.

"setStage"

Sets the stage of an element. Special feature: The id key in the array can be a comma-separated list of ids in order to perform the stageChange over a number of records. Also, the internal variable ->generalComment (also available through `/record/commit` route as `&generalComment`) can be used to set a default comment for all stage changes of an instance of the data handler. Additional keys for this action are:

[stageId]

Values are:

• -1 (rejected)
• 0 (editing, default)
• 1 (review),
• 10 (publish)

[comment]

Comment string that goes into the log.

Examples of commands¶

$cmd['tt_content'][54]['delete'] = 1;    // Deletes tt_content record with uid=54
$cmd['tt_content'][1203]['copy'] = -303; // Copies tt_content uid=1203 to the position after tt_content uid=303 (new record will have the same pid as tt_content uid=1203)
$cmd['tt_content'][1203]['copy'] = 400;  // Copies tt_content uid=1203 to first position in page uid=400
$cmd['tt_content'][1203]['move'] = 400;  // Moves tt_content uid=1203 to the first position in page uid=400

Accessing the uid of copied records¶

The DataHandler keeps track of records created by copy operations in its $copyMappingArray_merged property. This property is public but marked as @internal. So it is subject to change in future TYPO3 versions without notice.

The $copyMappingArray_merged property can be used to determine the UID of a record copy based on the UID of the copied record.

The structure of the $copyMappingArray_merged property looks like this:

$copyMappingArray_merged = [
   <table> => [
      <original-record-uid> => <record-copy-uid>,
   ],
];

The property contains the names of the manipulated tables as keys and a map of original record UIDs and UIDs of record copies as values.

$cmd['tt_content'][1203]['copy'] = 400;  // Copies tt_content uid=1203 to first position in page uid=400
$this->dataHandler->start([], $cmd);
$this->dataHandler->process_cmdmap();

$uid = $this->dataHandler->copyMappingArray_merged['tt_content'][1203];

Examples of data submission¶

This creates a new page titled "The page title" as the first page inside page id 45:

$data['pages']['NEW9823be87'] = [
    'title' => 'The page title',
    'subtitle' => 'Other title stuff',
    'pid' => '45'
];

This creates a new page titled "The page title" right after page id 45 in the tree:

$data['pages']['NEW9823be87'] = [
    'title' => 'The page title',
    'subtitle' => 'Other title stuff',
    'pid' => '-45'
];

This creates two new pages right after each other, located right after the page id 45:

$data['pages']['NEW9823be87'] = [
    'title' => 'Page 1',
    'pid' => '-45'
];
$data['pages']['NEWbe68s587'] = [
    'title' => 'Page 2',
    'pid' => '-NEW9823be87'
];

Notice how the second "pid" value points to the "NEW..." id placeholder of the first record. This works because the new id of the first record can be accessed by the second record. However it works only when the order in the array is as above since the processing happens in that order!

This creates a new content record with references to existing and one new system category:

$data['sys_category']['NEW9823be87'] = [
    'title' => 'New category',
    'pid' => 1,
];
$data['tt_content']['NEWbe68s587'] = [
    'header' => 'Look ma, categories!',
    'pid' => 45,
    'categories' => [
        1,
        2,
        'NEW9823be87', // You can also use placeholders here
    ],
];

This updates the page with uid=9834 to a new title, "New title for this page", and no_cache checked:

$data['pages'][9834] = [
    'title' => 'New title for this page',
    'no_cache' => '1'
];

Clear cache using cache tags¶

Every processing of data or commands is finalized with flushing a few caches in the pages group. Cache tags are used to specifically flush the the relevant cache entries instead of the cache as whole.

By default the following cache tags are flushed:

• The table name of the updated record, for example, pages when updating a page or tx_myextension_mytable when updating a record of this table.
• A combination of table name and record UID, for example, pages_10 when updating the page with UID 10 or tx_myextension_mytable_20 when updating the record with UID 20 of this table.
• A page UID prefixed with pageID_ (pageId_<page-uid>), for example, pageId_10 when updating a page with UID 10 (additionally all related pages, see clearcache-pagegrandparent and clearcache-pagesiblingchildren) and pageId_10 when updating a record if a record of any table placed on the page with UID 10 (<table>.pid = 10) is updated.

Notice that you can also use the TypoScriptFrontendController->addCacheTags() method to register additional tags for the cache entry of the current page while it is rendered. This way you can implement an elaborate caching behavior which ensures that every record update in the TYPO3 backend (which is processed by the DataHandler) automatically flushes the cache of all pages where that record is displayed.

Following the rules mentioned above you could register cache tags from within your Extbase plugin (for example, controller or a custom ViewHelper):

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace MyVendor\MyExtension\Controller;

use MyVendor\MyExtension\Domain\Model\ExampleModel;
use Psr\Http\Message\ResponseInterface;
use TYPO3\CMS\Extbase\Mvc\Controller\ActionController;
use TYPO3\CMS\Frontend\Controller\TypoScriptFrontendController;

final class SomeController extends ActionController
{
    public function showAction(ExampleModel $example): ResponseInterface
    {
        // ...

        /** @var TypoScriptFrontendController $frontendController */
        $frontendController = $this->request->getAttribute('frontend.controller');
        $frontendController->addCacheTags([
            sprintf('tx_myextension_example_%d', $example->getUid()),
        ]);

        // ...
    }
}

Hook for cache post-processing¶

You can configure cache post-processing with a user defined PHP function. Configuration of the hook can be done from ext_localconf.php. An example might look like:

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

use Vendor\SomeExtension\Hook\DataHandlerHook;

defined('TYPO3') or die();

$GLOBALS['TYPO3_CONF_VARS']['SC_OPTIONS']['t3lib/class.t3lib_tcemain.php']['clearCachePostProc'][] =
    DataHandlerHook::class . '->postProcessClearCache';