TYPO3 Core

FlexForm's are used more and more in TYPO3. But as far as I know there's still missing core-method for simple data-retrival.

The Core-Class t3lib_flexformtools has some methods for data traversing. But in my opinion this covers only one common need.

To simply retrieve the FlexForm-Data (saved FlexForm) as array, there don't seem to be any method yet. As currently every deveoper seems to cook his own soup on this, I think t3lib_flexformtools would be the right way to implement something on this.

I would expect a method like this:

Method:

t3lib_flexformtools::flexData2xml(
  string $flexXML,     # The FlexForm XML
  $singleField = null  #(optional)
  bool $allLanguages = false,
  int $languageUid = 0 # (default is always the current sys_language_uid!)
)

I would expect this result:

1. Using argument $allLanguages=true
f.e.

Array(
  // Array of Rows by LanguageKey
  'lDEF' => Array(
    'field_hello' => 'hello world',
  ),
  '1' => Array(
    'field_hello' => 'hallo welt',
  ),
);

2. Using argument $allLanguages=false
f.e.

(Say sys_language_uid is "1")

Array(
  'field_hello' => 'hallo welt',
);

As first draft:

This method could be implemted upon t3lib_flexformtools::traverseFlexFormXMLData which already exists for use with Callback-Functions.

Implementing a private function as reader for our flexData2xml, this shouldn't be too much complicated.

If there is some positive feedback I would try to invest my time to provide a patch. Please give feedback or improvements or just post "please do" - to let me know if it is worth investing time for posting a patch here.