8. Content Objects (cObject)

8.1.1. PHP-information:

The content objects (cObjects) are primarily controlled by the PHP-script "typo3/sysext/cms/tslib/content.php". The PHP-class is named "tslib_cObj" and often this is also the variable-name of the objects ($cObj)

The $cObj in PHP has an array, $this->data, which holds records of various kind. See data type "getText".

This record is normally "loaded" with the record from a table depending on the situation. Say if your creating a menu it's often loaded with the page-record of the actual menuitem or if it's about content-rendering it'll be the content-record.

IMPORTANT NOTE :

When dealing with "cObjects", you're allowed to use a special syntax in order to reuse cObjects without actually creating a copy. This has the advantage of minimizing the size of the cached template. But on the other hand it doesn't give you the flexibility of overriding values.

This example will show you how it works:

 

  #

  # Temporary objects are defined:

  #

  lib.stdheader = COA

  lib.stdheader {

    stdWrap.wrapAlign.field = header_position

    stdWrap.typolink.parameter.field = header_link

    stdWrap.fieldRequired = header

    1 = TEXT

    1.current = 1

    1.fontTag = {$content.wrap.header1}

    stdWrap.space = {$content.headerSpace}

  }

  #

  # CType: header

  #

  tt_content.header = COA

  tt_content.header {

    10 < lib.stdheader

    10.stdWrap.space >

    20 = TEXT

    20.field = subheader

    20.fontTag = {$content.wrap.subheader1}

  }

  #

  # CType: bullet

  #

  tt_content.bullets = COA

  tt_content.bullets {

    10 = < lib.stdheader

    20 < styles.content.bulletlist_gr

  }

 

Comment: First lib.stdheader is defined. This is (and must be) a cObject ! (in this case, COA).

Now lib.stdheader is copied to tt_content.header.10 with the "<" operator. This means that an actual copy of lib.stdheader is created at parsetime.

But this is not the case with tt_content.bullets.10. Here lib.stdheader is just pointed to and lib.stdheader will be used  as the cObject at runtime.

The reason why lib.stdheader was copied in the first case is the fact that it's needed to unset ".stdWrap.space" inside the cObject ("10.stdWrap.space >"). This could NOT be done in the second case where only a pointer is created.

NOTE:

If lib.stdheader was temp.stdheader instead, the pointer would not work! This is due to the fact that the runtime-reference would find nothing in "temp." as this is unset before the template is stored in cache!

This goes for "temp." and "styles." (see the toplevel object definition elsewhere)

Overriding values anyway:

Although you can not override values TypoScript-style (using the operators and all) the properties of the object which has the reference will be merged with the config of the reference.

Example:

  page.10 = TEXT

  page.10.value = kasper

  page.10.case = upper

  page.20 = < page.10

  page.20.case = lower

  page.20.value >

  page.20.field = pages

 

The result is this config:

Notice that .value was not cleared (the red line), because it's simply two arrays which are joined:

 

So hence the red line in the above example is useless.