List

The listing array defines how records are listed. The Contao core engine supports three different “list view”, “parent view” and “tree view”. You can configure various sorting options like filters or the default sorting order and you can add custom labels.

Sorting

// contao/dca/tl_example.php
$GLOBALS['TL_DCA']['tl_example']['list']['sorting'] = [
    // …
];
Key Value Description
mode Sorting mode (integer) 0 Records are not sorted
1 Records are sorted by a fixed field
2 Records are sorted by a switchable field
3 Records are sorted by the parent table
4 Displays the child records of a parent record (see style sheets module)
5 Records are displayed as tree (see site structure)
6 Displays the child records within a tree structure (see articles module)

Note: Before Contao 4.13 you will need to implement a child_record_callback in mode 4, otherwise no records will be shown in backend.
flag Sorting flag (integer) 1 Sort by initial letter ascending
2 Sort by initial letter descending
3 Sort by initial two letters ascending
4 Sort by initial two letters descending
5 Sort by day ascending
6 Sort by day descending
7 Sort by month ascending
8 Sort by month descending
9 Sort by year ascending
10 Sort by year descending
11 Sort ascending
12 Sort descending
panelLayout Panel layout (string) search show the search records menu
sort show the sort records menu
filter show the filter records menu
limit show the limit records menu.
Separate options with comma (= space) and semicolon (= new line) like sort,filter;search,limit.
fields Default sorting values (array) One or more fields that are used to sort the table.
headerFields Header fields (array) One or more fields that will be shown in the header element (sorting mode 4 only).
icon Tree icon (string) Path to an icon that will be shown on top of the tree (sorting mode 5 and 6 only).
root Root nodes (array) IDs of the root records (pagemounts). This value usually takes care of itself.
rootPaste true/false (bool) Enable paste buttons at root level. (default: false)
filter Query filter (array) Allows you to add custom filters as arrays, e.g. [['status=?', 'active'], ['usages>?', 0]].
disableGrouping true/false (bool) Allows you to disable the group headers in list view and parent view.
paste_button_callback Callback function (array) These functions will be called instead of displaying the default paste buttons. Please specify as ['Class', 'Method'] or use an anonymous function.
child_record_callback Callback function (array) These functions must be specified to render the child elements (sorting mode 4 only). Please specify as ['Class', 'Method'] or use an anonymous function.
header_callback Callback function (array) These functions will be called when the header fields (sorting mode 4 only) are created. Please specify as ['Class', 'Method'] or use an anonymous function.
child_record_class CSS class (string) Allows you to add a CSS class to the parent view elements.

Since Contao 4.13 the Contao\DataContainer class provides constants for the various sorting modes and flags, e.g.

// Displays the child records of a parent record (see content elements)
'mode' => Contao\DataContainer::MODE_PARENT, // 4

// Records are displayed as tree (see site structure)
'mode' => Contao\DataContainer::MODE_TREE, // 5

//Sort by initial letter ascending
'flag' => Contao\DataContainer::SORT_INITIAL_LETTER_ASC, // 1

// Sort by initial letter descending
'flag' => Contao\DataContainer::SORT_INITIAL_LETTER_DESC, // 2

Labels

// contao/dca/tl_example.php
$GLOBALS['TL_DCA']['tl_example']['list']['label'] = [
    // …
];
Key Value Description
fields Fields (array) One or more fields that will be shown in the list (e.g. ['title', 'user_id:tl_user.name']).
showColumns true/false (bool) If true Contao will generate a table header with column names (e.g. back end member list)
format Format string (string) HTML string used to format the fields that will be shown (e.g.
%s ).
maxCharacters Number of characters (integer) Maximum number of characters of the label.
group_callback Callback functions (array) Call a custom function instead of using the default group header function.
label_callback Callback functions (array) Call a custom function instead of using the default label function.

Operations

The operations are divided into two sections: global operations that relate to all records at once (e.g. editing multiple records) and regular operations that relate to a particular record only (e.g. editing or deleting a record).

Global operations

// contao/dca/tl_example.php
$GLOBALS['TL_DCA']['tl_example']['list']['global_operations'] = [
    // …
];
Key Value Description
label &$GLOBALS['TL_LANG'] (string) Button label. Typically a reference to the global language array.
href URL fragment (string) URL fragment that is added to the URI string when the button is clicked (e.g. act=editAll).
icon Icon (string) Path and filename of the icon.
class CSS class (string) CSS class attribute of the button.
attributes Additional attributes (string) Additional attributes like event handler or style definitions.
button_callback Callback function (array) Call a custom function instead of using the default button function. Please specify as ['Class', 'Method'].

This feature is available in Contao 4.7 and later.

Key Value Description
route Symfony Route Name (string) The button will redirect to the given Symfony route.

Regular operations

// contao/dca/tl_example.php
$GLOBALS['TL_DCA']['tl_example']['list']['operations'] = [
    // …
];
Key Value Description
label &$GLOBALS['TL_LANG'] (string) Button label. Typically a reference to the global language array.
href URL fragment (string) URL fragment that is added to the URI string when the button is clicked (e.g. act=edit).
icon Icon (string) Path and filename of the icon.
attributes Additional attributes (string) Additional attributes like event handler or style definitions.
button_callback Callback function (array) Call a custom function instead of using the default button function. Please specify as ['Class', 'Method'].

This feature is available in Contao 4.7 and later.

Key Value Description
route Symfony Route Name (string) The button will redirect to the given Symfony route.

Since Contao 5.0 you do not have to define any settings for standard operations anymore. Instead you can give a list of which operations should be avilable for your data container. Contao will also check the appropriate contao_dc.<data-container> permission for these operations.

// contao/dca/tl_foobar.php
$GLOBALS['TL_DCA']['tl_foobar']['config']['list']['operations'] = [
    'edit',
    'children',
    'copy',
    'cut',
    'delete',
    'toggle',
    'show',
    'toggle',
];

Toggle Operation

since 5.0 You can implement an automatic toggle operation for data containers that contain a boolean field. This is typically used for fields that control a “published” state of a data record for example, but the use case can be arbitrary.

// contao/dca/tl_foobar.php
$GLOBALS['TL_DCA']['tl_foobar']['config']['list']['operations'][] = 'toggle';

$GLOBALS['TL_DCA']['tl_foobar']['fields']['published'] = [
    'toggle' => true,
    'inputType' => 'checkbox',
    'sql' => ['type' => 'boolean', 'default' => false],
];

If the state of your field is reversed you can instead define reverseToggle:

$GLOBALS['TL_DCA']['tl_foobar']['fields']['invisible'] = [
    'reverseToggle' => true,
    'inputType' => 'checkbox',
    'sql' => ['type' => 'boolean', 'default' => false],
];