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This documentation is not using the current rendering mechanism and is probably outdated. The extension maintainer should switch to the new system. Details on how to use the rendering mechanism can be found here.

Blogging for Administrators

Installation

The extension needs to be installed as any other extension of TYPO3 CMS:

  1. Switch to the module “Extension Manager”.
  2. Get the extension
    1. Get it from the Extension Manager: Press the “Retrieve/Update” button and search for the extension key blog and import the extension from the repository.
    2. Get it from typo3.org: You can always get current version from https://typo3.org/extensions/repository/view/blog/current/ by downloading either the t3x or zip version. Upload the file afterwards in the Extension Manager.
    3. Use composer: Use composer require T3G/blog.

Latest version from git

You can get the latest version from git by using the git command:

git clone https://github.com/TYPO3GmbH/blog.git

Setup

Use the Setup Wizard

The Setup Wizard creates the recommended pagetree and it will add all configurations and plugins you need.

To create a new blog setup, follow these steps:

  1. Click on the blog module in the backend
  2. Click on the “SetupWizard” tab
  3. Click on the “Setup a new blog” button
../_images/setup_wizard_1.png

Create a new blog setup structure

  1. Enter a title for the blog setup
  2. If the extension “blog_template” is installed, you can use the provided template by enabling the checkbox. If the extension “blog_template” is not installed, you can install and use it by enabling the checkbox.
  3. Click on the “Setup” button, to create the blog setup.
../_images/setup_wizard_2.png

Modal with setup options

  1. If the success message appears, the setup is done. Go to your page tree (maybe reload the tree) and you will see the generated page structure.
../_images/setup_wizard_3.png

The generated page structure

The Setup Wizard creates the following pages for you:

  • Rootpage (hidden by default, contains the TypoScript and PageTS-Config)
  • > Data (a folder to hold categories, authors and tags, but also blog posts are possible)
  • > Category (this page is used to show blog posts, related to single category, or a category overview)
  • > Tag (this page is used to show blog posts, related to single tag, or a tag overview)
  • > Archive (this page is the archive, it lists all blog posts by given date (month and year, or year only)
  • > First blog post (yes, a first blog post, as an example)

Setup without Wizard

To create a new blog setup, follow these steps:

  1. Create the following page structure:
  • Rootpage (contains the TypoScript and PageTS-Config)
  • > Data (a folder to hold categories, authors and tags, but also blog posts are possible)
  • > Category (this page is used to show blog posts, related to single category, or a category overview)
  • > Tag (this page is used to show blog posts, related to single tag, or a tag overview)
  • > Archive (this page is the archive, it lists all blog posts by given date (month and year, or year only)
  1. Add at least the TypoScript template which is provided by the extension
  2. Configure the page ids in the constants:
plugin.tx_blog.settings.blogUid = NEW_blogRoot
plugin.tx_blog.settings.categoryUid = NEW_blogCategoryPage
plugin.tx_blog.settings.authorUid = NEW_blogAuthorPage
plugin.tx_blog.settings.tagUid = NEW_blogTagPage
plugin.tx_blog.settings.archiveUid = NEW_blogArchivePage
plugin.tx_blog.settings.storagePid = NEW_blogFolder

Note

If you have multiple folder or root pages for your blog posts your have to add all root pages to :typoscript:`plugin.tx_blog.settings.storagePid` as a comma separated list. The first value must be the value of NEW_blogFolder

Frontend Routing Setup

The extension provides a frontend route enhancer configuration that you can include it in your site configuration.

imports:
  - { resource: "EXT:blog/Configuration/Routes/Default.yaml" }

Feel free to modify or enhance this configuration, feedback is welcome.

Plugin types

The following plugins are available after installing the extension.

List of Posts by Date

Displays a list of blog posts ordered by date. All non-hidden, non-deleted and non-archived posts are shown in the list.

../_images/list.png

Frontend view of blog post list.

../_images/list1.png

Backend view of blog post list.

List by Tag

Allows the users to show all posts tagged with a specific keyword.

../_images/byTags.png

List by Category

If you add this element and you have selected a category on the categories tab, it will show an overview of posts for that category. If you have no categories selected, it will show an overview of categories.

../_images/byCategory.png

List by Author

Displays all posts belonging to the chosen author.

../_images/byAuthor.png

Archive

The archive plugin displays all posts categorized by year and month.

../_images/archive.png

Other plugin types

Additionally to the list plugin types there are several others meant to give you the maximum flexibility. If you are using the templates included in the extension you won’t need them as they represent parts you’d normally want to have at fixed positions in your templates. For special circumstances we provide these plugins as standalone versions so you can use them in every way you want:

Metadata

Displays post meta data, like date, tags, category, sharing links…

Authors

Displays post authors, like name, title, avatar, social links…

Comments / Comment Form

Displays the comment form and comments to a post - be aware that commenting in general has to be globally enabled and the respective post should have the commenting flag set.

Creating Categories and Tags

Categories are the default TYPO3 categories you probably already know.

Create a new category:

  • Go to the list module
  • Click on the page where you want to create the new category
  • Click on the “new record” button on the top and choose category
  • Enter a title for the category and choose a possible parent
  • Click “Save”

Tags are blog specific records. Creating a new tag works in the same way as creating categories does:

  • Go to list module
  • Click on the page where you want to create the new tag
  • Enter a title for the tag
  • Click “Save”

Enable sharing

To enable sharing go to the page properties of your blog entry and set the check box “Sharing enabled”

AvatarProvider

The default AvatarProvider is the GravatarProvider, this means the avatar of an author is received from gravatar.com. The extension provides also an ImageProvider for local stored images.

But you can also implement your own AvatarProvider:

  1. Create a class which implements the AvatarProviderInterface.
  2. Add your provider to the TCA field “avatar_provider” to make it selectable in the author record