[TYPO3-core] How to refer to TYPO3_CONF_VARS in the documentation (since v6.0)

[Philipp Gampe]

Hi François,

François Suter wrote:

> Version 6.0 of TYPO3 CMS brought big changes to the handling of
> TYPO3_CONF_VARS. In the Documentation Team we are faced with updating
> the documentation with regards to that (among many other topics), but we
> are not sure how to write about this, partly because none of us has yet
> really toyed with 6.0.

I did a bit and what happens ... I am not active (much) anymore in the doc 
team :P

> Thus we would like the opinion of other Core members, in particular the
> RM team, about this.
> 
> Let's take a typical sentence from a manual:
> 
> "[...]please set $TYPO3\_CONF\_VARS['SYS']['encryptionKey'] to a unique
> and secret key[...]"
> 
> There's no particular information about where to set that parameter. Of
> course it can be done from the Install Tool, but the localconf.php could
> also be edited manually. Questions:

Preferred would be the Install Tool.

> 1) can LocalConfiguration.php still be edited manually? If yes, are
> there limits to what you can do (adding, editing, deleting configuration
> options)?

Yes, it is a readable PHP array and you can edit it manually.

> 2) LocalConfiguration.php does not explicitly mention TYPO3_CONF_VARS
> anymore. How should we refer to that then?

Maybe add a comment to LocalConfiguration.php that is return the array for 
GLOBALS['TYPO3_CONF_VARS'].

On top of that, we should add an overview page for tuning/editing the 
LocalConfiguration.php file.

Actually we should create a chapter in the core API, about all files and 
folders, there usages and configurations:
fileadmin/ => clear
index.php => main entry point for frontend, mention other entry points
t3lib/ => still used?, what is in there?
typo3/ => the backend and actual installation
typo3/ext/ => folder for global, shared extensions
typo3/sysext/ => all system extensions
typo3conf/ => main config folder
typo3conf/AdditionalConfiguration.php => custom config
typo3conf/ENABLE_INSTALL_TOOL => Install Tool anti-lock file
typo3conf/ext/ => local extensions
typo3conf/LocalConfiguration.php => as mentioned above, main config file
typo3temp/ => temp files, can be emptied anytime, maybe explain subfolders
uploads/ => main uploads dir, still used in 6.0?

New users are easily confused about the structure and we could (now) link to 
this chapter any time we talk about one of those files/folders.

Best regards
-- 
Philipp Gampe – PGP-Key 0AD96065 – TYPO3 UG Bonn/Köln
Documentation – linkvalidator
TYPO3 .... inspiring people to share!