Structure of this book

This chapter is structured into ten chapters and three appendixes. The chapters discuss the following topics:

Chapter 1, Installation, leads you through the installation of Extbase and Fluid. To make extension development most effective, we give suggestions for development environments and tips and tricks for debugging.

Chapter 2, Basic principles, begins with an overview about the concepts of object oriented programming, because these are essential for working with Extbase. After that, we dive into Domain-Driven Design, a programming paradigm which is supported optimally by Extbase. After that, you’ll learn the design pattern Model-View-Controller, which is the technical basis of every Extbase Extension. Finally, the chapter explains Test-Driven Development to the reader.

Chapter 3, Journey through the Blog Example, should give you a feeling how the concepts from chapter 2 were implemented in Extbase. Based on a given example extension we explain how a blog posting is created and goes through the different system stages until it is shown.

In chapter 4, Creating a first extension, we show you a minimal extension. With this extension, data is managed through the TYPO3 backend, and displayed in the Frontend.

Chapter 5, Modelling the Domain, shows Domain-Driven Design with a practical example. It shows how a model can be planned and implemented.

If the domain model is finished, the necessary TYPO3 infrastructure must be created: Database tables and backend editing forms. The relevant information is explained in chapter 6, setting up the persistence layer.

After chapters 5 and 6 have explained the model layer in detail, we now focus on the application flow of the extension in chapter 7, controlling the flow with controllers. These are implemented in the controller layer.

Now, only the output layer of the extension is missing, the so-called view. In chapter 8, styling the output with Fluid, Fluid is explained in detail and its functionalities are shown with several examples. At the end of the chapter, the explained functionalities are combined and demonstrated at the example extension.

Chapter 9, internationalization, validation and security deals with advanced topics and tasks. This includes the multilingual capabilities of extensions, the validation of data and the handling of security aspects.

Chapter 10, outlook, gives a glimpse into code which is currently being developed. The focus lies on the kickstarter and the use of Extbase in the TYPO3 Backend. Additionally, this chapter shows you parts of FLOW3 and explains how Extbase Extensions can be ported to TYPO3 v5.

Extbase mostly uses the conventions of FLOW3. In Appendix A, Coding Guidelines, they are summarized.

Appendix B Reference of Extbase contains an overview about important Extbase concepts and an alphabetical listing of the API.

In Appendix C, Reference of Fluid, you can find a reference of all standard Fluid ViewHelpers and the API which is needed to create own ViewHelpers.