Inside TYPO3

3.8.10. "language-splitted" syntax (deprecated)

An old concept called "language-split" has been around for use with typically table-names, field names etc. in $TCA. This concept is based on a single string with labels separated by "|" according to the number of system languages defined in the TYPO3_languages constant. But this approach is now depricated for the future because it is not very scalable and it's VERY hard to maintain properly. Therefore the "locallang" concept is required for use anywhere a value is defined to be "language-splitted" (LS). Instead of specifying a number of labels separated with "|" you simply write a code, which refers to a locallang-file/label inside of that.

Syntax is "LLL:[file-reference of locallang file relative to PATH_site]:[key-name]:[extra settings]".

File-reference should be a filename relative to PATH_site. You can prepend the reference with "EXT:[extkey]/" in order to refer to locallang-files from extensions.

Example:

For the extension "mininews" we have a field called "title". Normally this would be translated into Danish like this in the $TCA:

      "title" => Array (

          "exclude" => 0,

          "label" => "Title:|Titel:",

          "config" => Array (

              "type" => "input",

              "size" => "30",

              "eval" => "required",

          )

      ),

 

But now we would create a file, "locallang_db.php" in the root of the extension directory. This would look like this:

  <?php

  $LOCAL_LANG = Array (

      "default" => Array (

          "tx_mininews_news.title" => "Title:",

      ),

      "dk" => Array (

          "tx_mininews_news.title" => "Titel:",

      ),

      "de" => Array (

      )

  );

  ?>

 

As you can see there is an English (red) and Danish (green) translation. But the German is still missing.

Now, in the $TCA array we change the "language-splitted" label to this value instead:

      "title" => Array (

          "exclude" => 0,

          "label" => "LLL:EXT:mininews/locallang_db.php:tx_mininews_news.title",

          "config" => Array (

              "type" => "input",

              "size" => "30",

              "eval" => "required",

          )

      ),

As you can see it has now become a reference to the file "locallang_db.php" in the "mininews" extension. Inside this file we will pick the label "tx_mininews_news.title" (this associative key could be anything you decide. In this case I have just been systematic in my naming).

Notice how the reference to the locallang file is divided into three parts separated with a colon, marked with colors corresponding with the syntax mentioned before: "LLL:[file-reference of locallang file]:[key-name]:[extra settings]".

The "extra-settings" are currently not used.