Basic Principles¶
Introduction to TYPO3 Documentation¶
For an excellent introduction, please see the 3 part series on Marcus Schwemer's blog TYPO3 Worx:
- GUIDE TO TYPO3 DOCUMENTATION – PART 1: THE USER-INTERFACE
- GUIDE TO TYPO3 DOCUMENTATION – PART 2: CONTENT STRUCTURE
- GUIDE TO TYPO3 DOCUMENTATION – PART 3: CONTRIBUTION AND REST HELPERS!
Important
Please note that the section "CONVERT REST TO “READABLE” FORMATS" in part 3 is slightly outdated. Currently, using the Docker container for rendering is the recommended approach. If you edit on GitHub directly, GitHub preview should be sufficient for making small changes.
What's TYPO3 Documentation?¶
TYPO3 documentation may be one of the following:
- It can be one of the official manuals like TYPO3 Explained.
- It can be the documentation of a system extension.
- It can be the documentation of a 3rdparty extension.
- TYPO3 documentation can also be a Changelog entry for the core, for example a documented breaking change or new feature.
Common Characteristics of TYPO3 Documentation¶
All of these examples have a few things in common:
- The documentation is rendered and found on https://docs.typo3.org
- The documentation has a common theme, all pages look similar and use the same styles
- Most of the documentation can be directly edited by the community. For third party extensions, this depends on where and how the source-code is hosted and maintained.
- The source of the documentation is written (mostly) in reStructuredText (reST)
- All documentation is rendered using the same rendering toolchain. All documentation can be rendered locally, with the officially supported Docker image.
- The documentation source files adhere to Conventions and
share a common structure (e.g. all documentation files in a
Documentation
subdirectory). - Due to the conventions, the rendering of documentation can be automated and every documentation project only requires a minimum of setup.
What's "Rendering"?¶
Rendering means (in this specific case) converting the reST format (.rst files) into its final, readable form, which you can view in your browser, like this page, which you are probably reading online. If not, load https://docs.typo3.org/typo3cms/HowToDocument/BasicPrinciples.html in your browser.
In comparison, this is what the original source file looks like: https://docs.typo3.org/typo3cms/HowToDocument/_sources/BasicPrinciples.txt
Technically, this means converting the reST (.rst files) into HTML, automatically creating the menu, using the current theme to add additional styles and images.
Documentation Types¶
Manual¶
A "manual" in the context of TYPO3 documentation is being used to talk about
one unit of documentation, which usually has it's own git repository (or is
included in the git repository of an extension) and consists of one Documentation
folder. A "manual" can be a tutorial, such as the Getting Started Tutorial, a guide,
an extension manual or something else.
Tutorial¶
Tutorials are designed to be step-by-step instructions specifically created to walk a beginner through a particular task from beginning to end. To facilitate effective learning, tutorials provide examples to illustrate the subjects they cover.
In addition, tutorials provide guidance on how to avoid common pitfalls and highlight key concepts that should be remembered for future reference.
Guide¶
Guides are designed to familiarize a reader with a specific topic in order to provide a working knowledge of that particular process. Readers should peruse the guide from cover to cover in order to gain a practical overview of the process. Once completed, the Guide becomes a practical reference tool to which a reader can refer as needed. Guides offer advice on how best to achieve a given task.
Documentation Contribution Matrix¶
Considering how to contribute, the things that differ for various kinds of documentation are:
- Where the issues are maintained (e.g. on Forge or GitHub)
- Where the source code (Git repository) is kept
- The workflow for making changes to the documentation
Type of documentation | Issues | Source Code (Git repository) | Workflow for making changes |
---|---|---|---|
Official guides, tutorials, core docs, etc. | On page of rendered docs, click on Related links > Issues | On page of rendered docs, click on Related Links > Repository, or click on Edit me on GitHub | Create GitHub pull request, see Contribute. |
TYPO3 Core Changelog | Core issues: https://forge.typo3.org/projects/typo3cms-core/issues | TYPO3 source code: git.typo3.org, mirror: GitHub | see Contribution Guide: Add documentation |
System extensions | Core issues: https://forge.typo3.org/projects/typo3cms-core/issues | Same as for Changelog, inside TYPO3 source code: git.typo3.org, GitHub as mirror | see Contribution Guide: Add documentation |
3rdparty extensions | On page of rendered docs, click on Related Links > Issues | On page of rendered docs, click on Related Links > Repository, see Contribute to Third Party Extension | It depends, see Contribute to Third Party Extension |
To get to the issues or repository of the documentation: On the page of the rendered manual, click on "Related Links" and then click on "Issues" or "Repository".

Official TYPO3 Manuals¶
The official TYPO3 manuals are hosted on GitHub. Editing the documentation requires a GitHub account and involves creating a pull request on GitHub.
Find out more about how to contribute: Contribute.
Documentation for the Core¶
The documentation for the core (changelog and system extensions) is added to the TYPO3 source code. For this reason, the workflow of changing something in the core documentation is very similar to adding a patch to the core.
Find out more about the core contribution workflow in general or about Add documentation (Changelog etc.) in the Contribution Guide.
Documentation for 3rdparty Extensions¶
The documentation for a 3rdparty extension is maintained within the source-code of this extensions. If and where it is edited depends on where the extension is hosted and maintained.
To find out how to contribute documentation for a specific extension: Contribute to Third Party Extension
What about the Wiki?¶
In this manual, we are focusing on TYPO3 documentation in reST / sphinx that can be found on docs.typo3.org.
The TYPO3 Wiki on https://wiki.typo3.org does contain documentation as well, but that is not the scope of this manual. In any case, most of the information from the Wiki is being moved from the Wiki to some manual on docs.typo3.org.