Birkit.com: TYPO3 CMS Configuration http://www.birkit.com/ News for TYPO3 Configuration en Birkit.com: TYPO3 CMS Configuration http://www.birkit.com/fileadmin/main/template_files/images/rssCatLogo.png http://www.birkit.com/ 144 70 News for TYPO3 Configuration TYPO3 - get.content.right http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 2006-2007 birkit.com Tue, 19 Sep 2006 05:55:00 -0700 Using the News Plugin http://www.birkit.com/content/current-article/article/using-the-news-plugin.html?tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=120&cHash=be3abda7acbe72cedbade1fd05304c02 This is a condensed tutorial about adding a new news article in Typo3. Note: Depending on your access level, not all form feilds may be accesable.

To create a new News article take these steps:

  • Click List → Folder → Create New Record
  • Select the News record from the list of available record types.

On the General tab complete the form. The following are feild definitions for the form:

  • Title: The headline of the article. Will also become a link article or target page.
  • Hide: De select to make the article viewable in the front end.
  • Start: If set Typo3 will activate the database entry on the specified date. This field is typically not used.
  • Stop: The date the article is deactivated in the database. This field is typically not used as it will override archiving.
  • Access: Set the access to a specified group. This is typically not used as access is inherited from the parent page/folder.
  • Type Select Box:
    • News: A standard news article.
    • Internal Link: Treats the news article like a ebullition with a link to a static page within the front end.
    • External link: Treats the news article like a ebullition with a link to a static page on an e\external web site.
  • Restrict Editing by Non-admins: Restricts editing by non-super-admins. This field is typically not used as access is predetermined in the Typo3 back end already.
  • Date/Time: The date and time the article was written.
  • Archive Date: The date in the future when the article will be available in the archives only. If no date is given the article will never be archived! Tip: To pick a day 10 days from now type d + 10. Typo3 will convert the date for you!
  • Language: Set the language. Defaults to English. Note: this does not translate.
  • Author: The name of the author.
  • Email: The email address of the author. If the article is in a protected section it is safe to display the email; otherwise leave blank to avoid getting spammed!
  • Subheader: If used the subheader will be the only text viewable on the headline news page. Use this if you have a very short article that you do not want to be truncated.
  • Text: The full article. If no subheader is used the viewable part on the headline news page will be truncated.
  • Source: Show/edit the source HTML of the text. Not recommended!
  • Keywords: Meta tags added to the article page. Not needed if headline news page is password protected.
  • No Automatic Page Breaks: Will show really long articles on one page only.

On the Relations tab fill out the form. The following is a list of the feild definitions:

  • Category Selected: The category you selected from the list on the right. This must be selected an should be the same category as the containing folder.
  • Category Items: The list of categories you can pick for the above.
  • Images: A list of images to include with the article. Note: To select an image form the server click the tiny open-folder icon to browse.
  • Browse: Select an image from your computer. Best way is to first upload the image to the proper folder and then select as outlined above.
  • Alt Text/Title Text: Displays The entered text when a front end user puts their mouse over the image. These should be both the same.
  • Links: Additional links you wish to provide. These will be displayed below the article text. To force a new window add to the end of the link:  _blank
  • Related News: Pick any related news items the user might be interested in.
  • Files: Any files that should be included. Usually for downloading.
  • PHP& PHP3: Not needed.
]]> Tutorials Tue, 19 Sep 2006 05:55:00 -0700 Mailformplus as an Event Registration Form http://www.birkit.com/content/current-article/article/mailformplus-as-an-event-registration-form.html?tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=120&cHash=187d31023f0a728afd0f4a0e6cc4613b How to use the mailformplus plugin when configured as an event registration form. The setup for mailformplus as an event registration form consists of 6 parts:

  1. The front-end website form where website user can register.
  2. A message displayed to the website user upon a successful registration.
  3. A list of incorrect fields displayed to the website user upon missing data in the form.
  4. A thank-you email sent to the person registering.
  5. An email to the administration address of the website containing the data entered into the form.
  6. Database saving of the information filled out during registration.

Extended explanation:

  1. The form contains all of the fields that the user should fill out to register for the event. The fields are named within the HTML code in the best human readable format. These field names will become the headings of the CSV file when data is downloaded from the database.
  2. The message displayed to the user appears on the website itself when the website user has completed the form correctly. The criteria for correct completion is determined by the setup of the mailformplus plugin. These “required fields” usually consist of Name. Email address etc.
  3. As determined by the required fields list in the setup of the mailformplus plugin an error list will appear at the top of the form page describing to the website user which fields need to be completed in order to register.
  4. This is a simple thank-you email. The contents of the email can be checked by completing the registration form with the administrators personal email address or the email address of the registration email account.
  5. This email is just a simple backup of the data entered into the form. In the event that someone inadvertently deletes the database records these emails can be used as backup.
  6. Every time a form is completed successfully a new entry in the database is created. These records can be accessed from the page containing the mailformplus Front-end Plugin. This is the one that can be seen in “Page-view”.

Downloading the collected data from the database:

  1. in the Web Module Menu select the mailformplus link.
  2. In the Page Tree select the page that contains the Front-end Plugin mailformplus (This is the page that the website user registers from).
  3. The information displayed shows the database records of the completed registrations. To download the information in CSV format select the “export” link at the bottom of the page.
  4. A pop up appears. Save the file.
  5. To view the file in Excel or Open Office it may be necessary to explicity add the .csv file extension. To do this select the file, right click and rename it to something like “todays-date.csv”.
  6. Open the file with the spreadsheet program of your choice. The program should detect the .csv extension and prompt you to select a separator. The separator in files from the mailformplus plugin are semicolons ( ; ).
  7. Format the spreadsheet to your liking.

Important notes on downloading:

  • The default display of the mailformplus module where the .csv files are downloaded from will only show records that have not been exported. To view and export all records select the check box “show also exported records “ and press the reload button.
  • If the delete link is clicked records will not be deleted from the database—only from the default view. If the delete link is presses while viewing exported records all records will be deleted!
  • If differences appear at the top of the page this means that the form has been changed. Theoretically this should not happen once the form is live for website users. This should only be seen while the form has been changed during testing.

Column headers in the spreadsheet:

Every form element on the page is save to the database. This includes hidden form fields. There are hidden fields for the page_id and several other items necessary for the form to work correctly. These fields can be disregarded in the spreadsheet.

 ]]> Tutorials Fri, 15 Sep 2006 05:37:00 -0700 Uploading files to the fileadmin http://www.birkit.com/content/current-article/article/uploading-files-to-the-fileadmin.html?tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=120&cHash=3752b119d32d6f5516e04472605e2253 Organization of your files is essential in TYPO3, as it is with any computer or paper file system.In TYPO3 'real' files are stored in folders on the file server. As soon as you link to a file (a .pdf for example) a reference is written to the database and that reference is 'static'. What this means...
In TYPO3 'real' files are stored in folders on the file server. As soon as you link to a file (a .pdf for example) a reference is written to the database and that reference is 'static'. What this means is that if the file is renamed moved or deleted from it originally referenced folder TYPO3 won't be able to find the file! In actual fact TYPO3 will make no attempt to find the missing file because it has no way of knowing that it is missing!

The behavior of file locations in you home computer is different. It updates the file references whenever you move a file. Therefore think of the file system on the TYPO3 server differently: Always try to put files in their correct place first so that you don't have to move them.

Now, before we get upset and disparately confused, remember this: We can create virtually unlimited storage folders on the file server. This means that we can have a nice, human readable file system.

For example, say we are dealing with images and .pdf files. No problem. We create two folders in the fileadmin called “images” and “pdf” respectively. Now, to avoid the inevitable (Mr. Anderson) situation of finding files when we have 300 images and 100 .pdf's stuck in their respective folders we simply create sub folders.

For example we could make a folder structure like this:

    * fileadmin/
          o images/
                + people/
                      # -person.gif
                      # -group.gif
                + animals/
                      # -tiger.png
                      # -mouse.jpg


Creating a file structure

   1. Click on [filelist] in the file module.
   2. Left click on the folder you would like to make a sub folder in.
   3. Select “New” from the menu.
   4. Type the name of the new folder in the text box and press the submit button.


To upload files to a folder:

   1. Left click on the folder you want to upload to.
   2. Select “Upload files” from the menu.
   3. Click the [Browse] button.
   4. Select your file.
   5. Press the upload button. ]]> Tutorials Mon, 04 Sep 2006 06:46:00 -0700 Making links in the RTE http://www.birkit.com/content/current-article/article/making-links-in-the-rte.html?tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=120&cHash=f102619644add382e896825ef527a92a How to create and edit links in text content records using the Rich Text Editor (RTE). Linking to Another Page
  • Click PAGE→Name of Page.
  • Edit a page content record by clicking on its respective pencil icon.
  • In the Rich Text Editor highlight the text you want to become the link and click the LINK icon.
  • Click the PAGE tab. (Notice that the Page Tab is highlighted. This is the default behaviour.)
  • Scroll down to the bottom and choose how the page will open with the selectorbox. The two choices are Top and New Window. Top will open the linked page in the same window, New page will force a ne browser window to open.
  • Click the Name of the Page you want to link to.
Linking to a File
  • Click PAGE→Name of Page.
  • Edit a page content record by clicking on its respective pencil icon.
  • In the Rich Text Editor highlight the text you want to become the link and click the LINK icon.
  • Click the FILE tab.
  • Scroll down to the bottom and choose how the page will open with the selectorbox. The two choices are Top and New Window. Top will open the linked page in the same window, New page will force a ne browser window to open. (Notice that the default behavior should be New Page).
  • Click the Name of the File you want to link to.
Linking to an External Web Site
  • Click PAGE→Name of Page.
  • Edit a page content record by clicking on its respective pencil icon.
  • In the Rich Text Editor highlight the text you want to become the link and click the LINK icon.
  • Click the External URL tab.
  • Choose how the page will open with the selectorbox. The two choices are Top and New Window. Top will open the linked page in the same window, New page will force a ne browser window to open. (Notice that the default behavior should be New Page).
  • Type the URL of the site you want to link to and press the SET LINK button.
Creating an Email Link
  • Click PAGE→Name of Page.
  • Edit a page content record by clicking on its respective pencil icon.
  • In the Rich Text Editor highlight the text you want to become the link and click the LINK icon.
  • Click the Email tab.
  • Type the email address into the box and press the SET LINK button.
Removing a Link
  • Click PAGE→Name of Page.
  • Edit a page content record by clicking on its respective pencil icon.
  • In the Rich Text Editor highlight the link you want to remove.
  • Click the Remove Link tab.
]]> Tutorials Sun, 03 Sep 2006 13:28:00 -0700