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TYPO3 Extension Environment

Created by Benjamin Mack, b:dreizehn GmbH, in 2013. Published under the MIT license.

What does it do?

The TYPO3 extension "Environment", compatible with TYPO3 CMS 4.5 until TYPO3 CMS 7.99.99, allows for context-specific settings, so the TYPO3 installation has different options for each context. This means that all logging and debugging settings can be turned on for the development environment.

Of course, this extension makes most sense if you have multiple server scenarios and a local development environment.

Installation

1) Install the extension.

2) Add the following Rewrite statements to your .htaccess file after the RewriteBase statement or to your Apache webserver configuration.

# Make sure the context variable is set with every http request
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(.*)staging-system\.org$
RewriteRule .? - [E=TYPO3_CONTEXT:Production/Staging]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(.*)development-system\.org$
RewriteRule .? - [E=TYPO3_CONTEXT:Development]

3) Add the following code to your typo3conf/AdditionalConfiguration.php for TYPO3 CMS >= 6.0

// load the environment / context configuration for this installation
if (\TYPO3\CMS\Core\Utility\ExtensionManagementUtility::isLoaded('environment')) {
    include('ext/environment/Includes/Bootstrap/InitializeContext.php');
}

3a) For installations prior to 6.0, please include this at the bottom of the localconf.php

// load the environment / context configuration for this installation
if (t3lib_extMgm::isLoaded('environment')) {
    include('ext/environment/Includes/Bootstrap/InitializeContext.php');
}

3b) For installations using TYPO3 CMS 6.2+, just add this to your typo3conf/AdditionalConfiguration.php

// load the environment / context configuration for this installation
include('ext/environment/Includes/Bootstrap/InitializeContext.php');

After that, you have a PHP constant named "TYPO3_CONTEXT" that is set to the environment variable placed in your server settings.

4) You can now define context-specific configurations, and create files like

• typo3conf/AdditionalConfiguration.Development.php
• typo3conf/AdditionalConfiguration.Production.php

and add configuration options like different DB settings and debugging settings, that get included depending on what context you have set in your server settings. Examples are provided in Resources/Public/Examples.

Please make sure that the PHP files always start with the following lines

<?php

if (!defined('TYPO3_MODE')) {
    die('Access denied.');
}

Best practices

Development Environment "Development"

• mails should only be sent locally
• all debug modes are set to full logging
• caching is disabled by default

Integration Environment "Testing/Integration"

• testing environment for unit tests etc.

"Production/Staging" Environment

• Clone of the "Live" server for (customer) acceptance testing

"Production" Environment

• "Live" server

  The top-level contexts, however, must be one of "Testing", "Development" and "Production". Of course any other sub-context name can be chosen.

Setting the environment for scheduler tasks

Usually the TYPO3 scheduler is called like this:

/usr/bin/php5 /path/to/my/typo3/installation/typo3/cli_dispatch.phpsh scheduler

this should be modified at all times to set the environment variable

/usr/bin/php5 /path/to/my/typo3/installation/typo3/cli_dispatch.phpsh scheduler --context=Production

Environment-dependent TypoScript

You can check the environment with the following TypoScript condition.

# disable tracking for Production/Staging environment
[globalString = ENV:TYPO3_CONTEXT = Production/Staging]
    page.20 >
[GLOBAL]

With TYPO3 CMS 6.2, you can use the newly defined "applicationContext" TypoScript condition.

Environment-dependent email redirection

You can redirect any outgoing email to a specific email address by setting the following TYPO3_CONF_VARS option:

$GLOBALS['TYPO3_CONF_VARS']['EXTCONF']['environment']['redirectEmails'] = '[email protected]';

You can add multiple addresses separated via comma, or in a simple array.

It makes most sense if you put this in a environment-dependent installation like typo3conf/AdditionalConfiguration.Development.php and remove it in the Production environment settings.

Thanks

Big thanks goes to:

• the b13 specialists for braining and finding the optimal out-of-the-box solutions,
• Jesus Christ who saved my life.