[Typo3-dev] $TCA and XML [was: Re: Better templating: PHP!]

[Peter Niederlag]

Hi,

dan frost schrieb:
> 
>> XML advantages:
>>
>> - you can validate it
>> - you can process it
>> - it's easyer to read comparing PHP includes
>> - good combination with xhtml and other xml
>> - it seems to be an establishe standard
>>
> XML has the other advantage that you don't have to edit it - because of
> the wide availability of XML-objects (DOM stuff etc) it is relatively
> easy to build a GUI on top of the XML object model.

One thing I like about XML is that it is "language-neutral".

Consider for example $TCA. Right now it is strictly bound to be used in
PHP, since it is an array. Also it is not really kept somewhere but
mostly needs a loadTCA to get it in memory on the fly. If $TCA would be
available as XML on a per table basis from a filesystem, it could be
used from any language.

I just had some thoughts about $TCA and XML yesterday. ;)

A rough idea would be to somehow make an XML-Definition of $TCA
available to the outside world on a per table basis. One could
have serialized objects for $TCA that are understood by the TYPO3-Core
available in a temp-Filesystem.

For example I like the way znf http://znf.zeronotice.com/ handles
XML-based config-files.

I am pretty sure there are ways to do something like this without too
much of a hassle with TYPO3 as well.

Well, just some spits out of my brain. ;)

Cheers,
Peter
-- 
Peter Niederlag
http://www.niekom.de * TYPO3 & EDV Dienstleistungen *
http://www.typo3partner.net * professional services network *