[Typo3-dev] Problem: Entry scripts

[Ingmar Schlecht]

Hi developers,

Many front end extensions need to pass something directly to the client 
(e.g. browser) without the overhead of the index.php.
Since there is no frame work for those 'entry scripts', many extensions 
have to "reinvent the wheel" by doing it their own way.

  Examples:
    - The NF Downloads extension needs to pass download files that
      reside outside of the document root to the client. Thus it uses its
      own 'enty script'.
     See 
http://typo3.org/index.php?id=1383&tx_extrepmgm_pi1[mode]=1&tx_extrepmgm_pi1[showUid]=511&tx_extrepmgm_pi1[cmd]=details&tx_extrepmgm_pi1[DATA][showFile]=pi1%2Fpassdownload.php
    - The jpgraph extension was originally passing the graph files directly
       to the browser (using an image mime type like image/png)
    - The showpic.php file needs to pass only a little HTML file containing
      an image tag to the browser. The purpose of the showpic.php file is
      to reduce the overhead that would have been there if it would be done
      via index.php.

The first lines of almost all of these 'enty scripts' look 100% identical:

<?php

[...]

// *******************************
// Set error reporting
// *******************************
error_reporting (E_ALL ^ E_NOTICE);

// ***********************
// Paths are setup
// ***********************
define('TYPO3_OS', 
stristr(PHP_OS,'win')&&!stristr(PHP_OS,'darwin')?'WIN':'');
define('TYPO3_MODE','FE');
define('PATH_thisScript',[.. some ugly stuff to get the path ...]);

define('PATH_site', dirname(PATH_thisScript).'/');
define('PATH_t3lib', PATH_site.'t3lib/');
define('PATH_tslib', PATH_site.'tslib/');
define('PATH_typo3conf', PATH_site.'typo3conf/');
define('TYPO3_mainDir', 'typo3/');

require_once(PATH_t3lib.'class.t3lib_div.php');
require_once(PATH_t3lib.'class.t3lib_extmgm.php');

// *********************
// Timetracking started
// *********************
require_once(PATH_t3lib.'class.t3lib_timetrack.php');
$TT = new t3lib_timeTrack;
$TT->start();
$TT->push('','Script start');

[...]

?>

Possible solution:
  Introcucing an entry script framework consisting of a toplevel
  frontend script called action.php.

What would this mean to e.g. showpic.php?

Showpic.php would be splitted into two files.

1.) action.php
    This file would be called like this:
   
 http://somedomain.tld/action.php?a=tx_cms_showpic&the_usual_showpic_parameters
    or with realurls perhaps:
    http://somedomain.tld/action/showpic/the_usual_showpic_parameters

2.) typo3/systext/cms/class.tx_cms_showpic.php
        This file would be today's SC_tslib_showpic.

Additionally the ext_tables.php file of the extension 'cms' would 
contain something like this:

t3lib_extMgm::registerEntryScript('tx_cms_showpic','EXT:cms/class.tx_cms_showpic.php');

Does this make sense to you?

cheers,
Ingmar