[TYPO3-v4] What to do with $TYPO3_USER_SETTINGS?

[Francois Suter]

Hi all,

As I'm working (still) on updating the Core APIs manual, I'm face with 
adding the documentation for this new global array $TYPO3_USER_SETTINGS. 
The documentation has been prepared by Steffen, so that's not the issue.

This new TCA-like structure was introduced so that the "User settings" 
screen could be manipulated and extended easily. On the principle, this 
is all well and nice. But at the time I expressed the feeling that it 
was a bad idea to create a global array just for the User settings. What 
are we going if other BE forms start using the same mechanism? Have one 
global array per form? At the time I suggested have a single such global 
array, of which User settings would be just one element, something like:

$BEFORMS['user_settings']

or something similar. The problem with having too many global arrays is 
that we lose the oversight. Global array can be viewed in the Admin 
Tools > Configuration module, but they need to be added manually for 
each array. How many are we going to have eventually. With the above 
syntax, there would be only one.

My remark was turned down at the time and I wasn't disturbed enough to 
fight more for my idea. I still this array was bad idea and I would 
quite like the structure to be improved. In the meantime I am loathe to 
document this feature, as I don't think that it should survive as is.

What do you think?

-- 

Francois Suter
Cobweb Development Sarl - http://www.cobweb.ch