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Belsignum Language Modes Extension

This TYPO3 extension allows you to dynamically override the fallbackType for SiteLanguage per page and language at runtime.

🧩 Features

• Define language fallback behavior (free, fallback, strict) per language version of each page
• Fully compatible with TYPO3 v12
• Uses SiteFinder and SiteConfiguration XCLASS for clean and early injection
• Modifies both SiteLanguage and LanguageAspect at runtime
• Configuration is cached safely and applies consistently across the TYPO3 request lifecycle
• No core patch required since v12

🔧 How it works

• A select field is added to the pages table (tx_languagemodes_mode)
• This field is only visible in translated pages (i.e., sys_language_uid > 0)
• When a page is resolved, the SiteFinder XCLASS loads the language-specific configuration from the DB and replaces the SiteLanguage for the current request
• Additionally, the LanguageAspect is updated to ensure proper behavior in content fetching and overlays

🛠 Installation

Install via Composer:

⚙️ Configuration

No special configuration needed. Once the extension is installed:

• Open the page module
• Switch to a language version of a page (not the default language)
• You will see a select field labeled Language fallback mode with the options:
  • Free
  • Fallback
  • Strict

If no value is selected, the global fallback behavior from the site config applies.

🧠 Why we use SiteFinder / SiteConfiguration – and not Middleware, Events or Hooks

TYPO3 offers multiple ways to influence site and language resolution. After extensive evaluation, this extension intentionally avoids Middleware or Event-based approaches for the following reasons:

❌ Why not Middleware?

• Middlewares like typo3/cms-frontend/site resolve the site and language context before any custom fallback logic can take effect.
• Injecting a modified SiteLanguage or LanguageAspect into $GLOBALS['TYPO3_REQUEST'] after site resolution has no influence on the request lifecycle.
• Custom middlewares cannot safely override fallbackType without risk of unstable or version-dependent behavior.

❌ Why not Events?

• Events such as BootCompletedEvent or SiteConfigurationBeforeWriteEvent are either:
  • Too early (before routing and site resolution),
  • Too late (after the fallback logic has already been applied),
  • or only trigger on configuration write operations, not at runtime.
• As of TYPO3 v12, there is no ModifyResolvedSiteLanguageEvent or similar that would allow request-based manipulation of fallback behavior.

❌ Why not Hooks?

• While legacy hooks like configArrayPostProc are still technically available in TYPO3 v12, they no longer have meaningful influence on language resolution.
• These hooks operate after TSFE initialization and only affect TypoScript-based values like config.sys_language_mode.
• Since TYPO3 v9+, language fallback is controlled via SiteLanguage and Context, not TypoScript.
• Hook-based solutions are not reliable in modern TYPO3 setups and are not suitable for manipulating SiteLanguage or LanguageAspect.

➡️ Therefore, we avoid using legacy hooks and rely on early runtime overrides instead.

✅ Why SiteFinder and SiteConfiguration XCLASSing is used

• SiteFinder and SiteConfiguration are part of the early site and language resolution process.
• By XCLASSing both, the extension can:
  • Load the language-specific configuration from the database
  • Dynamically set the fallbackType per language and page
  • Safely inject a new SiteLanguage and corresponding LanguageAspect into the runtime context
• This approach is:
  • Core-compliant
  • Fully runtime-safe
  • Patch-free
  • Compatible with TYPO3 v12+

🧑‍💻 Credits

Developed by Belsignum with ❤️ for TYPO3 integrators.

📝 License

Licensed under the MIT License