[TYPO3-dev] Flexforms overriding TS in Extbase Extensions

[Alexander Stehlik]

Here are my 2 cents to this topic.

I'm not sure if it will be possible to display the ts settings in the 
flexform, as you already pointed out this is for frontend use.

But what I could image: You specify default values for the flexform, 
that can of course be the same as in your setup ts. When saving the 
flexform TYPO3 needs to check, if the values have changed or if they are 
equal to the default configuration. If they are equal to the default 
config, an empty value will be stored.

When it comes to merging flexform and setup ts data it should be 
sufficient to overwrite setup ts values with non-empty flexform values. 
If you really need to overwrite something with an empty value you can do 
that programatically by adding a single checkbox to your form for this 
particular case that needs to be checked by the editor. But in most of 
the cases you probably won't need this.

What are the advantages of this behaviour?

1. You are flexible.
You can either use the merging mechanism of TYPO3 or use your own by 
simply using different names in your setup ts and in the flexform.

2. setup ts updates are easy
If you change something in your setup ts it will only be overwritten if 
the editor really changed the value in the plugin configuration. If he 
didn't change it the new value will be used immediately. If you would 
store the default values of the flexform in the database you would need 
to update every single plugin.

Kind regards,
Alex

Am 14.06.2011 23:18, schrieb Thomas Allmer:
> On 14.06.2011 13:03, Mario Rimann wrote:
>> Bastian's proposal was to change the whole Flexform mechanism so that an
>> input field can have e.g. a checkbox in front of it to NULL it out or
>> something like this.
>
> oh not another hard to get extra setting box... :/
>
> I'm pretty sure it's not easy doable but for me the perfect solution
> would be to just display the current ts setting inside the flexform.
> With that if the value is empty in ts it will be empty in the flexform
> and if it's set with something the editor even sees it and can change it
> if needed. This would in some way work around the "empty" problem and
> would by far improve the usability for editors [1].
>
> I know it's setup-ts and I know it's probably hard to display the
> correct setting in the flexform. I'm just saying that how I would want
> it to behave.
>
> In short it's far easier to understand than another is empty checkbox
> but probably far harder to implement :p
>
> what do you think?
>
> cheers
>
> PS: if you really need an "back to ts setting button" let's use an
> "reset button". It's more commonly known and it will display the used
> value to the editor.
>
> PPS: I know - while developing you probably want to change the "default"
> ts for your extension and don't want to always reset all the fields...
> so probably insert the plugin with ts? or make a "reset all Button"...
> anyway as a developer you have options... but the flexform is for
> editors right? so let them easily handle and understand them...
>
> [1]: know this situation? sorting is set to "descending" by ts. Editor
> opens the plugin and sees "ascending" as it's not set and it's the first
> value in the select box. He want to change the order so he thinks how
> it's now it's not how I want it, so I change it to the other value which
> is "descending" and then nothing changes... :p