TYPO3 TCA - How to use "inline" type without all the interface options

Question

I'm currently working on a project that uses the t3blog extension. In the backend, when creating a new post, you first enter a title and then you have to click on "create new" to add content to the post.

Ideally the client wants to remove the "create new" or at least have it create a new piece of content by default.

I'm digging through the TCA of the extension and I found where it adds that control, now I'm a bit stuck as I haven't hacked in TCA before, does anyone know how to modify the behavior of an "inline" type via TCA?

Here is the code that adds the control.

'content' => Array (
  'exclude' => 1,
  'label' => 'LLL:EXT:t3blog/locallang_db.xml:tx_t3blog_post.content',
  'config' => array (
   'type' => 'inline',
   'foreign_table' => 'tt_content',
   'foreign_field' => 'irre_parentid',
   'foreign_table_field' => 'irre_parenttable',
   'maxitems' => 100,
   'appearance' => array(
    'showSynchronizationLink' => 0,
    'showAllLocalizationLink' => 0,
    'showPossibleLocalizationRecords' => 0,
    'showRemovedLocalizationRecords' => 0,
    'expandSingle' => 1
   ),
   'behaviour' => array(
   ),
  )

 ),

What I'm trying to do is to remove the "general" tab that is created and just have the "text" tab.

Any hints would be very much appreciated.

Answer 1

My understanding is that type 'inline' refers to something called 'IRRE' or Inline Relational Record Editing, a relatively new and powerful (by TYPO3 standards) data structure in the TCA. You might find this section of the TYPO3 Core API docs useful as a reference.

As it is, the click performs an Ajax call to create a new database record in the background. However, from what I've seen (using this and other plugins such as Powermail), I doubt there is a way to skip the extra click without doing some serious hacking/extending the T3 Core itself. Sorry I can't be of more help, and just came across this recently, myself. Hopefully there are other TYPO3 hackers on SO who have tried this...

Answer 2

Just managed to fix this yesterday after a long session of head scratching, here is how:

Modified the TCA to this:

 'content' => Array (
  'exclude' => 1,
  'label' => 'LLL:EXT:t3blog/locallang_db.xml:tx_t3blog_post.content',
  'config' => array (
   'type' => 'inline',
   'foreign_table' => 'tt_content',
   'foreign_field' => 'irre_parentid',
   'foreign_table_field' => 'irre_parenttable',
   'maxitems' => 100,
   'appearance' => array(
    'showSynchronizationLink' => 0,
    'showAllLocalizationLink' => 0,
    'showPossibleLocalizationRecords' => 0,
    'showRemovedLocalizationRecords' => 0,
    'expandSingle' => 1,
    'collapseAll' => 0
   ),
   'behaviour' => array(
   ),
   't3blog' => true
  )

 )

Then I created a new empty extension. Inside the ext directory, created ext_tables.php with the following content:

<?php
$TYPO3_CONF_VARS[TYPO3_MODE]['XCLASS']['t3lib/class.t3lib_tceforms_inline.php'] = t3lib_extMgm::extPath($_EXTKEY).'ux_inline.php';

And inside ux_inline.php:

<?php
class ux_t3lib_TCEforms_inline extends t3lib_TCEforms_inline
{
    public function renderForeignRecordHeader($parentUid, $foreign_table, $rec, $config, $isVirtualRecord = false)
    {
        if(isset($config['t3blog']) && $config['t3blog'])
        {
            $GLOBALS['TCA']['tt_content']['types']['text']['showitem'] = 'bodytext;;9;richtext:rte_transform[flag=rte_enabled|mode=ts_css];3-3-3';
            $GLOBALS['TCA']['tt_content']['columns']['CType']['exclude'] = 1;
            $GLOBALS['TCA']['tt_content']['columns']['header']['exclude'] = 1;

            return;
        }
        else
        {
            return parent::renderForeignRecordHeader($parentUid, $foreign_table, $rec, $config, $isVirtualRecord);
        }
    }

    public function getExpandedCollapsedState($table, $uid)
    {
        if(isset($_REQUEST['edit']['tx_t3blog_post']))
            return true;
        else
            return parent::getExpandedCollapsedState($table, $uid);
    }

    public function getLevelInteractionLink($type, $objectPrefix, $conf=array())
    {
            if(!isset($conf['t3blog']) || !$conf['t3blog'])
            {
                return parent::getLevelInteractionLink($type, $objectPrefix, $conf);
            }
            else
 {
  if((int) $conf['inline']['first'] > 0)
   return;
 }

 $nameObject = $this->inlineNames['object'];
 $attributes = array();
 switch($type) {
  case 'newRecord':
   $title = $GLOBALS['LANG']->sL('LLL:EXT:lang/locallang_core.xml:cm.createnew', 1);
   $iconFile = 'gfx/new_el.gif';
   // $iconAddon = 'width="11" height="12"';
   $className = 'typo3-newRecordLink';
   $attributes['class'] = 'inlineNewButton '.$this->inlineData['config'][$nameObject]['md5'];
   $attributes['onclick'] = "return inline.createNewRecord('$objectPrefix')";
   $attributes['style'] = "display: none;";
   if (isset($conf['inline']['inlineNewButtonStyle']) && $conf['inline']['inlineNewButtonStyle']) {
    $attributes['style'] = $conf['inline']['inlineNewButtonStyle'];
   }
   if (isset($conf['appearance']['newRecordLinkAddTitle']) && $conf['appearance']['newRecordLinkAddTitle']) {
    $titleAddon = ' '.$GLOBALS['LANG']->sL($GLOBALS['TCA'][$conf['foreign_table']]['ctrl']['title'], 1);
   }
   $icon = ($iconFile ? '<img'.t3lib_iconWorks::skinImg($this->backPath, $iconFile, $iconAddon).' alt="'.htmlspecialchars($title.$titleAddon).'" />' : '');
   $link = $this->wrapWithAnchor($icon.$title.$titleAddon, '#', $attributes);
   return '<div'.($className ? ' class="'.$className.'"' : '').'>'.$link.'</div>';
   break;
  case 'localize':
   $title = $GLOBALS['LANG']->sL('LLL:EXT:lang/locallang_misc.xml:localizeAllRecords', 1);
   $iconFile = 'gfx/localize_el.gif';
   $className = 'typo3-localizationLink';
   $attributes['onclick'] = "return inline.synchronizeLocalizeRecords('$objectPrefix', 'localize')";
   break;
  case 'synchronize':
   $title = $GLOBALS['LANG']->sL('LLL:EXT:lang/locallang_misc.xml:synchronizeWithOriginalLanguage', 1);
   $iconFile = 'gfx/synchronize_el.gif';
   $className = 'typo3-synchronizationLink';
   $attributes['class'] = 'inlineNewButton '.$this->inlineData['config'][$nameObject]['md5'];
   $attributes['onclick'] = "return inline.synchronizeLocalizeRecords('$objectPrefix', 'synchronize')";
   break;
 }
  // Create the link:

    }
}

Hope this will help someone else in the future.