The template systems in TYPO3 make it one of the most powerful content management systems available today, but they seem too complex for many users. Site developers, who are able to learn how to use them efficiently, can build more extensible sites quicker and more customized for their users.
This book is a step-by-step guide for building and customizing templates in TYPO3 using the best solutions available. It takes the readers through one complete example to create a fully functional demonstration site using TypoScript, TemplaVoila, and other core TYPO3 technologies.
This book starts with the basics of creating an example TYPO3 site before showing you how to add your own stylesheets and enhanced JavaScript to the template. You learn about the different types of menus and navigation, and you can try out each one with practical examples in the book. The book shows how to create multiple templates for sections or individual pages in TYPO3 and how you can make a new template completely from scratch for a newsletter. Just as importantly, you learn how to update the editing experience and impress your clients with a custom backend. Finally, you will learn how to specialize for browsers and internationalize your TYPO3 site with simple template updates.
Chapter 1, Getting Started provides an introduction to TypoScript and the overall methods of building templates in TYPO3 from the beginning up to the present. The chapter introduces a new extension for building templates, TemplaVoila!, and walks readers through building their first template from HTML to TYPO3 integration.
Chapter 2, Enhancing Your Template with CSS covers the different ways of integrating stylesheets into a TYPO3 site and the advantages or disadvantages of each method. The chapter concludes by looking at the built-in classes in TYPO3 that can be used to style individual elements like even and odd rows in a table or a list.
Chapter 3, Adding Custom Template Fields gives an introduction to data structures in TemplaVoila templates and walks readers through an example of adding new fields for a banner and a datestamp to the existing template.
Chapter 4, Creating Flexible Menus covers the different types of navigation that can be created in TYPO3 templates. The chapter explains the concepts of building menus with TypoScript and walks through complete examples of text-based menus, graphic menus, and special "breadcrumb" menus.
Chapter 5, Creating Multiple Templates goes through different examples of templates that can be built based on the existing TemplaVoila template data like templates with sidebars for additional content. The chapter concludes by walking through the process of creating special print-friendly page templates that can be loaded automatically when a visitor wants to print content from a TYPO3 site.
Chapter 6, Creating a Template from Scratch walks readers through building a complete template from scratch from the HTML and data structure to a finished template with custom data fields. Up until now, the book has been extending the template that was automatically generated in the first chapter, but this chapter shows how to build a custom template from scratch without the assistance of any wizards or starter templates.
Chapter 7, Customizing the Backend Editing covers the different ways to make the TYPO3 backend easier to use for editors by customizing the options available and making the layout and styles match the frontend more closely. It starts by showing how to customize the text editor to match the design and branding of a TYPO3 site more by removing unnecessary options and adding styles that match the overall design. After that, the chapter walks readers through modifying the backend page layouts with columns and headings to mimic the frontend design of a site.
Chapter 8, Working with Flexible Content Elements introduces one of the most powerful and useful technologies in TemplaVoila, flexible content elements. Flexible content elements allow developers to create new content types utilizing the power of TemplaVoila for specialized purposes such as displaying contact information or product ads consistently across a site. The chapter explains the main concepts and walks readers through multiple examples.
Chapter 9, Creating a Mobile Website covers everything that you need to know to create a mobile version of a TYPO3 site. The chapter talks about detecting mobile browsers and devices using TypoScript, customizing the TypoScript elements for mobile devices, and creating a separate mobile template. The chapter ends by showing how to use TypoScript to automatically redirect to a special mobile site when necessary.
Chapter 10, Going International goes through all the steps to make a TYPO3 site run with multiple languages and localizations and shows why TYPO3 is so ideally suited to international websites. The chapter covers translating content, creating a menu of language options, and building special TemplaVoila templates for different languages.
Chapter 11, Building Websites with the TemplaVoila Framework covers the new TemplaVoila Framework and looks at how it can help developers build sites faster and with less effort by using a repeatable workflow and common tools. Frameworks, cleaner coding, and rapid development are all themes that TYPO3 is moving towards as it develops for the future, and this chapter gives developers a head start by demonstrating the TemplaVoila Framework.