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Static Data Structures

With version 1.4.2 Static Data Structures are fully supported. This means that no database record is used for a Data Structure; instead a file contains the XML data. This makes maintenance much easier as external editors can be used for the Data Structures and the files can be managed with version control systems such as Subversion.

To enable Static Data Structures, you can use the wizard in the Extension Manager to convert existing records to Static Data Structures.

Before using the wizard, you'll need to select the directory where Static Data Structures are stored. By default, this is set to fileadmin/templates/ds/ with directories inside for pages and Flexible Content Elements.

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When you enable the first option, Templavoila will start usin the Static Data Structures. Even with Static Data Structures disabled, the wizard can be useful as a backup system for your Data Structures that are stored in the database.

There are three possible files for every Data Structure, each corresponding to fields in a normal Data Structure record.

[ds-name].xml Data Structure XML[ds-name].gif Data Structure Preview Icon[ds-name].html Data Structure Backend Layout (beLayout)

The Data Sturcture XML will be created by the wizard, but the icon and backend layout are optional and must be added manually.

There are some drawbacks to using Static Data Structures:

  • The scope must be last part of the file name. For example, in “Main Template (page).xml” the scope is page
  • The parentRec property cannot be used from TypoScript as there is no parent record.

These shortcomings may be improved in future versions.