Currently "description", "details" and "syntax" fields accept limited XHTML content: <strong>, <em>, <b>, <i>. However, don't use important markup for the “description” field since it will stripped when shown in TCEforms.

Example

Looking at the "context_help" extension you will see many "locallang_csh_*.php" files. One is named "locallang_csh_pages.php" and the first lines from that looks like this:

<?php

/**

* Default  TCA_DESCR for "pages"

*/

$LOCAL_LANG = Array (

'default' => Array (

'title.description.+' => 'This is normally shown in the website navigation.',

'layout.description' => 'Select a layout for the page. Any effect depends on the website template.',

Notice the red plus-sign in the "title.description" label - this value is added to the existing title.

The other key, "layout.description", is an addition which did not previously exist in the $TCA_DESCR for the pages-table - but that makes sense here since the "context_help" depends on the "cms" extension being loaded which would have added the field "layout" to the database on beforehand! (the "layout" field in the pages-table is not a part of the core as you might have guessed by now...)

The keys in $TCA_DESCR is by default pointing to database tables, for example "pages". However if you wish to use CSH in your modules you can use keys name by this syntax:

_MOD_[module_name] - Placed in the “Backend module” category

xMOD_[extension key with tx_ infront] - Placed in the “Other” category

xEXT_[extension key] - for description of extensions.

xGLOSSARY_[group] - for glossaries, will be marked up in other CSH.

Normally modules will have their name in the $MCONF variable. That would allow you to load the available labels for your module by this API call:

$key = '_MOD_'.$MCONF['name'];

$LANG->loadSingleTableDescription($key);

... and you would now have your labels loaded in $TCA_DESCR[$key]['columns'].

Notice: You will still have to set up the locallang file with the CSH labels by a API call to t3lib_extMgm::addLLrefForTCAdescr(), possibly in a "ext_tables.php" file.

In all cases of "Text" above <strong>, <em>, <b>, and <i> is allowed as HTML tags. Make HTML-tag names and attributes in lowercase! Must be XHTML compliant.

Say you have created an extension named "myext" and you have extended the pages-table with a new field, "tx_myext_test". What you need to do is to:

That's it.

If you use these functions the descriptions are not loaded automatically for you. You have to do that manually in the initialization of your module:

This approach is user in the Extension Manager for example. Here it is a good choice because there are descriptions for all settings for extensions and we want to link them to the help icons in a table column

Example 1

The most simple and straight forward way to include the icon/helptext would be something like this:

$HTMLcode.=

t3lib_BEfunc::helpTextIcon($this->descrTable,"quickEdit_selElement",$GLOBALS["BACK_PATH"]).

t3lib_BEfunc::helpText($this->descrTable,"quickEdit_selElement",$GLOBALS["BACK_PATH"]).

"<br/>";

These lines assumes that

The locallang_csh file for this example would look like this:

<?php/*** Default  TCA_DESCR for "_MOD_web_layout"*/$LOCAL_LANG = Array (    'default' => Array (        'quickEdit.description' => 'The Quick Editor gives you direct . . . ',        'quickEdit.details' => 'The Quick Editor is designed to cut . . .',        'quickEdit_selElement.description' => 'This is an overview of th. . . ',        'columns.description' => 'By the \"Columns\" view you can control t. . . ',    ),);?>

(Location is "sysext/cms/locallang_csh_weblayout.php" and in ext_tables.php for the "cms" extension you will find this line to associate the locallang file with CSH for the Web>Page module: t3lib_extMgm::addLLrefForTCAdescr('_MOD_web_layout','EXT:cms/locallang_csh_weblayout.php'); )

Notice the key " quickEdit_selElement.description" which will provide the description for the help icon in the example.

Example 2

A more advanced - and better - approach is to create a function internally in the script class of the module for handling the help texts. This is an example from the Extension Manager module (mod/tools/em/index.php):

function helpCol($key)    {

    global $BE_USER;

    if ($BE_USER->uc["edit_showFieldHelp"])    {    

        $hT = trim(t3lib_BEfunc::helpText($this->descrTable,"emconf_".$key,$this->doc->backPath));

        return '<td>'.

            ($hT?$hT:

                t3lib_BEfunc::helpTextIcon(

                    $this->descrTable,

                    "emconf_".$key,

                    $this->doc->backPath

                )).

            '</td>';

    }

}

The basic elements are the same, but its more comfortable to work with.

If you want more examples you can make a source code search for the function ->loadSingleTableDescription and $TCA_DESCR and then you should find a number of examples to learn from as well.

This is the quick method. Calling this function instead of t3lib_BEfunc::helpText() will deliver an output which is either a help-icon or a table with both icon and description text depending on the current users configuration. In addition it will automatically load the description files for the $table parameter given.

$HTMLcode.=t3lib_BEfunc::cshItem($tableIdent,'quickEdit',$BACK_PATH);