Create Folder Structure And Configuration Files

Before we write the first line of code, we must arrange the infrastructure of the extension. Beside the folder structure there are some minimum needed configuration files counting. We put the unique identifier of our extension (extension-key) as inventory, and thus we specify at the same time the name of the extension as Inventory.

Tip

The name of an extension is always written in UpperCamelCase (beginning with a capital letter, then upper and lower letters; no underscore), while the extension key may only contain small letters and underscore (lower_underscore). You will find an overview of the name conventions in appendix A, Coding Guidelines.

Extensions can be stored at different places in TYPO3. Locally installed extensions are the rule. These are in the folder typo3conf/ext/. Globally installed extensions are available to all websites using the same installation. They are stored in typo3/ext/. System extensions are delivered with the TYPO3-distribution and are in the folder typo3/sysext/. Extbase or Fluid are examples of system extensions. All three paths are below the installation folder of TYPO3, in which also lies the file index.php.

Then, in the folder for local extensions typo3conf/ext/ we create the folder inventory. The name of this folder must be written like the extension key and therefore in lower-case letters, and where appropriate, with underscores. On the uppermost level lie the folders Classes and Resources. The folder Classes contains all PHP classes, with the exception of external PHP libraries. The folder Resources contains all other files that are also processed by our extension (e.g. HTML templates) or delivered directly to the front end (e.g. icons,javascript). Within the folder Classes are the folders Controller and Domain. In our example, the folder Controller contains only one class that will control the entire process of listing creation later. The folder Domain again contains the two folders Model and Repository. Resulting from all this, the folder structure within the extension folder inventory/ should look as in image 4-1.

Figure 4-1: The simplest directory structure with the basic files

So that the extension can be loaded by TYPO3, we require two configuration files. These are discarded into the extension folder inventory/ on the uppermost level. You can copy and adapt these files from an existing extension. Later you will let them be created by the kickstarter.

The file ext_emconf.php contains the meta information for the extension, e.g. the title, a description, the status, the name of the author etc.. It does not differ to conventional extensions. It is recommended to indicate the dependence to Extbase and Fluid (if appropriate, also a certain version).

<?php

$EM_CONF[$_EXTKEY] = array(

'title' => 'Inventory List',

'description' => 'An extension to manage a stock.',

'category' => 'plugin',

'author' => 'Jochen Rau',

'author_company' => '',

'author_email' => '',

‘dependencies’ => ‘extbase,fluid’

'state' => 'alpha',

'clearCacheOnLoad' => '1',

'version' => '0.0.0',

'constraints' => array(

'depends' => array(

'typo3' => '4.3.0-4.3.99',

‘extbase’ => ‘1.0.0-0.0.0’,

‘fluid’ => ‘1.0.0-0.0.0’,

)

)

);

?>

The file ext_icon.gif contains the icon of the extension. For this you can use any graphic stored in GIF format. It should not exceed a width of 18 pixels and a height of 16 pixels. The icon appears in the extension manager and in the extension repository (TER).

After the basic structure was constructed, the extension can already be shown in the extension manager and can be installed. But first we turn to our domain.