The FLOW3 package directory structure follows a certain convention which has the advantage that you don't need to care about any package-related configuration. If you put your files into the right directories, everything will just work.

The suggested directory layout of a FLOW3 package is as follows:

As already mentioned, all classes which are found in the Classes directory will be detected and registered. However, this only works if you follow the naming rules equally for the class name as well as the file name. An example for a valid class name is \F3\MyPackage\Controller\StandardController while the file containing this class would be named StandardController.php and is expected to be in a directory MyPackage/Classes/Controller.

All details about naming files, classes, methods and variables correctly can be found in the FLOW3 Coding Guidelines. You're highly encouraged to read (and follow) them.

Package keys are used to uniquely identify packages and provide them with a namespace for different purposes. They save you from conflicts between packages which were provided by different parties.

Any public package needs to have a unique package key which you need to register at forge.typo3.org prior to use. But even if you develop a package for private use only, it's clever to register a package key for it.

At this time the features for import and installation of packages have not been implemented fully. The current behavior is that all directories which are found below the Packages folder are assumed to be packages. Just make sure that you created a Package.xml file in the Meta directory of your package.

If no PackageStates.yaml exists in your Configuration folder, it will be created and all found packages will be activated. If PackageStates.yaml exists, you can use the package manager to activate and deactivate packages through the FLOW3 command line script. The script flow3 resides in the main directory of the FLOW3 distribution. From a Unix shell you should be able to run the script by entering ./flow3:

myhost:tutorial johndoe$ ./flow3 
FLOW3 Command Line Interface

usage: flow3 <options> <command>

Options:

  -h, --help        - print this message
  -p, --production  - execute in production context

Available commands:

  package list available           - list available packages
  package list active              - list active packages
  package create <package-key>     - create a new package
  package activate <package-key>   - activate a package
  package deactivate <package-key> - deactivate a package
  package delete <package-key>     - delete a package

Depending on your FLOW3 version you'll see more or less the above available commands listed.

c:\> set FLOW3_CONTEXT=Development
c:\> set FLOW3_ROOTPATH=C:\xampp\htdocs\tutorial
c:\> set FLOW3_WEBPATH=C:\xampp\htdocs\tutorial\Web

c:\> setx FLOW3_CONTEXT Development
c:\> setx FLOW3_ROOTPATH C:\xampp\htdocs\tutorial
c:\> setX FLOW3_WEBPATH C:\xampp\htdocs\tutorial\Web

c:\> (php Packages\Framework\FLOW3\Scripts\FLOW3.php
         FLOW3 Package PackageManager listavailable)

The Package Manager is in charge of downloading, installing, configuring and activating packages and registers their objects and resources.

Just create the package folder and subdirectories manually and copy & adapt a Package.xml file from one of the other packages. Apart from that no further steps are necessary.

All packages need to provide some meta information to the package manager. This data is stored in a file called Package.xml which resides in the Meta directory of a package. The format of this file follows a RelaxNG schema which is available at http://typo3.org/ns/2008/flow3/package/Package.rng.

Here is an example of a valid Package.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<package xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xmlns="http://typo3.org/ns/2008/flow3/package" version="1.0">
   <key>TestPackage</key>
   <title>Test Package</title>
   <description>Test to demonstrate the features of Package.xml</description>
   <version>0.0.1</version>
   <categories>
      <category>System</category>
      <category>Testing</category>
   </categories>
   <parties>
      <person role="LeadDeveloper">
         <name>David Brühlmeier</name>
         <email>typo3@bruehlmeier.com</email>
      </person>
      <person role="Maintainer">
         <name>John Smith</name>
         <email>john@smith.com</email>
         <organisation>Smith Ltd.</organisation>
         <repositoryUserName>jsmith</repositoryUserName>
      </person>
      <organisation role="Sponsor">
         <name>John Doe Co.</name>
         <email>info@johndoe.com</email>
         <website>www.johndoe.com</website>
      </organisation>
   </parties>
   <constraints>
      <depends>
         <package minVersion="1.0.0" maxVersion="1.9.9">FLOW3</package>
         <system type="PHP" minVersion="5.1.0" />
         <system type="PHPExtension">xml</system>
         <system type="PEAR" minVersion="1.5.1">XML_RPC</system>
      </depends>
      <conflicts>
         <system type="OperatingSystem">Windows_NT</system>
      </conflicts>
      <suggests>
         <system type="Memory">16M</system>
      </suggests>
   </constraints>

   <!-- The following elements are only used and generated by the repository -->
   <repository>
      <downloads>
         <total>3929</total>
         <thisVersion>444</thisVersion>
      </downloads>
      <uploads>
         <upload>
            <comment>Just a comment...</comment>
            <repositoryUserName>jsmith</repositoryUserName>
            <timestamp>2008-04-22T17:23:09Z</timestamp>
         </upload>
         <upload>
            <comment/>
            <repositoryUserName>jsmith</repositoryUserName>
            <timestamp>2008-04-19T03:54:13Z</timestamp>
         </upload>
      </uploads>
   </repository>
</package>