What is the relation between extensions and the backend of TYPO3?

1
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I am new to TYPO3 and have trouble understanding the general relation between extensions and the backend of TYPO3.

For example, is it true that the goal of making an extension is to be able add edited/new content elements to your page that cannot be found in TYPO3 out of the box?

For example if I wanted to add a carousel to my page, would I make an extension and design it in such a way that I can add it from my backend to the desired page? Or would it make more sense to, for example, put it as a partial and import it to the desired page using fluid (all of this without using the backend and just using code).

Or are both approaches possible and when would you go for the first or the second (or seek out a third approach)?

Sorry if this question is too general/vague. I feel like I do not understand how the backend and the files in my TYPO3 folder communicate to generate the website and that I am using content elements in the backend one time and typing out the elements in HTML the next time without a good reason for it.

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2 Answers

1
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I try to bring some light into the dark areas.

  • Backend This is the admin area of the CMS where in most cases the content is created by editors.
  • Frontend: How the website looks to a regular visitor
  • Extension: An extension is custom code, either your own code or by others which extend TYPO3 in one or more ways. The benefit is that you don't change the code of TYPO3 core itself and therefore it can be always updated.

An extension can be used for a lot of things: - Shipping a site template with all the assets like CSS, JavaScript, HTML template, .. - Providing custom content elements - Providing new record types like news or forms - Improve user experience

So yes, if you want to have a new kind of content elements you need to use an extension:

0
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One approach to look at this question in a different way might be to differentiate between content created and maintained by editors (the backend users which typically add and maintain content) and parts of the visible webpages created in other ways. For example, the header, footer, menu of a site may be created by a sitepackage extension - this is something the editor (backend user without admin access) typically has no permission to access and that is one of the points of a CMS - the content is editable by someone without technical background. Of course this improves the stability as well because you don't have people fiddling around with things they should not be able to have access to and thus cannot break.

If you want your editors to be able to add (remove, change) content - do it in a way they have access to (typically using content elements).

You are right, the core provides content elements (such as "textmedia"), extensions can extend this by adding other content elements.

For your example with "carousel" you might want to look at the (official) Introduction Package which uses the bootstrap_package which offers a carousel content element. The Installation Guide explains how to setup a TYPO3 installation with "Introduction Package" so you may already be using that.

For example, is it true that the goal of making an extension is to be able to add edited/new content elements to your page that cannot be found in TYPO3 out of the box?

That is one of many, many other possible purposes of an extension. For example, look at the extension "min". It does not provide any content element and there is no visible change for the editor. An extension is just a way to extend the TYPO3 core (while the core itself also consists of extensions).