In TYPO3 6.x, how to disable larger chunks of BE fields at once?

Question

As configuring excludefields in that tiny box is painful and incomplete, I use TCEFORM to simplify the TYPO3 backend for editors. I thought in TYPO3 6.x, this would be maybe a bit cleaner, but it's not. Everything's still there, and with FAL, even more potentially user-confusing fields have been introduced.

That's how I do it (in user group TSConfig):

page.TCEFORM.tt_content.longdescURL.disabled  = 1

The syntax corresponds to table and column name, AFAIK.

I'll include my current setup (beware, Legacy from 4.5, there are probably black holes in there) in an answer, as it's quite long.

If you disable all fields in a tab, the tab itself will disappear.

The question is:

Is there an easier way? Like, disabling an entire tab at once? Or disabling everything and only including desired fields from the ground up?

Answer 1

Here's my current usergroup TSConfig setup. Attention, this is probably incomplete and may feature outdated items (it's from 4.5).

This could be created automatically from the DB structure, probably. For tx_news, I just got the column titles via SHOW COLUMNS from tx_news_domain_model_news

####################################################
# Pages ###########################################
#################################################### 

# "General"
page.TCEFORM.pages.doktype.disabled = 0
page.TCEFORM.pages.title.disabled = 0
page.TCEFORM.pages.nav_title.disabled  = 0
page.TCEFORM.pages.subtitle.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.pages.alias.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.pages.tx_realurl_pathsegment.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.pages.tx_realurl_exclude.disabled = 1


# "Access"
page.TCEFORM.pages.hidden.disabled = 0
page.TCEFORM.pages.nav_hide.disabled = 0
page.TCEFORM.pages.extendToSubpages.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.pages.fe_group.disabled = 0
page.TCEFORM.pages.fe_login_mode.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.pages.starttime.disabled  = 0
page.TCEFORM.pages.endtime.disabled  = 0

# "Metadata"
page.TCEFORM.pages.abstract.disabled  = 0
page.TCEFORM.pages.keywords.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.pages.description.disabled = 0
page.TCEFORM.pages.author.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.pages.author_email.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.pages.lastUpdated.disabled = 1


# "Appearance"
page.TCEFORM.pages.newUntil.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.pages.backend_layout.disabled  = 0
page.TCEFORM.pages.backend_layout_next_level.disabled  = 0
page.TCEFORM.pages.module.disabled = 1

# "Behaviour"
page.TCEFORM.pages.alias.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.pages.target.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.pages.crdate.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.pages.crdate.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.pages.url_scheme.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.pages.cache_timeout.disabled = 0
page.TCEFORM.pages.no_cache.disabled = 0
page.TCEFORM.pages.l18n_cfg.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.pages.is_siteroot.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.pages.no_search.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.pages.editlock.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.pages.php_tree_stop.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.pages.mount_pid_of.disabled  = 1

# Categories
page.TCEFORM.pages.categories.disabled  = 1

# "Resources"
page.TCEFORM.pages.media.disabled  = 0
page.TCEFORM.pages.storage_pid.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.pages.TSconfig.disabled  = 1

# Layout
page.TCEFORM.pages.layout.disabled  = 1


####################################################
# tt_content  ######################################
####################################################

# turn off language dropdown in monolingual sites (only!)
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.sys_language_uid.disabled  = 0

#Frame 
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.section_frame.disabled  = 1

#Checkbox Index (Seiteninhalt wird in Menus ausgegeben) ?
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.sectionIndex.disabled  = 1

#Old school stuff
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.spaceBefore.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.spaceAfter.disabled  = 1

#others
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.altText.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.select_key.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.linkToTop.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.rte_enabled.disabled  = 0
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.colPos.disabled  = 0
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.splash_layout.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.titleText.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.categories.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.fe_users.lockToDomain.disabled  = 1

####################################################
# Section Header  ############################# 
####################################################
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.header.disabled  = 0
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.header_position.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.header_layout.disabled  = 0
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.header_link.disabled  = 1

####################################################
# Section Text #####################################
####################################################
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.text_align.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.text_face.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.text_size.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.text_color.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.text_properties.disabled  = 1

###################################################
# Section Table #####################################
####################################################
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.table_bgColor.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.table_bordersection_frame.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.table_cellspacing.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.table_cellpadding.disabled  = 1


####################################################
# Access ######################
####################################################
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.starttime.disabled  = 0
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.endtime.disabled  = 0
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.date.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.fe_group.disabled  = 0


#################################################################
# textpic ######################################
################################################################# 

# Appearance
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.longdescURL.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.image_link.disabled  = 0
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.image_zoom.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.imageorient.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.imagecols.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.image_effects.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.spaceBefore.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.spaceAfter.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.section_frame.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.imagewidth.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.imageheight.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.imageborder.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.image_compression.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.imagecaption_position.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.image_noRows.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.image_frames.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.tt_content.layout.disabled  = 1

# media
page.TCEFORM.sys_file_reference.alternative.disabled  = 1
# in FE, use caption as altText (I know)
page.TCEFORM.sys_file_reference.description.disabled  = 0
page.TCEFORM.sys_file_reference.title.disabled  = 1
page.TCEFORM.sys_file_reference.link.disabled  = 0
#*******Imageorient 
#mod.wizards.newContentElement.wizardItems.common.elements.textpic.tt_content_defValues.imageorient = 2
#mod.wizards.newContentElement.wizardItems.common.elements.image.tt_content_defValues.imageorient = 2

## alle Werte von imageorient
# 0, 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 17, 18, 25, 26 
#0 = Above, center
#1 = Above, right
#2 = Above, left
#8 = Below, center
#9 = Below, right
#10 = Below, left
#17 = In text, right
#18 = In text, left
#25 = In text, right (nowrap)
#26 = In text, left (nowrap)
# liesse sich sünst gut anpassen
#TCEFORM.tt_content.imageorient.removeItems = 0, 1, 8, 9, 10, 17, 18, 25, 26 
TCEFORM.tt_content.imageorient.disabled = 1

##########################################
# tx_news ################################
##########################################

page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.title.disabled = 0
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.teaser.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.bodytext.disabled = 0
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.datetime.disabled = 0
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.archive.disabled = 0
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.author.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.author_email.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.categories.disabled = 0
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.related.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.related_from.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.related_files.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.related_links.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.type.disabled = 0
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.keywords.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.tags.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.media.disabled = 0
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.internalurl.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.externalurl.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.istopnews.disabled = 0
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.content_elements.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.path_segment.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.alternative_title.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.rte_disabled.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.import_id.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.import_source.disabled = 1
page.TCEFORM.tx_news_domain_model_news.is_dummy_record.disabled = 1

Answer 2

Instead of disabling this via TSconfig, you should set [BE][explicitADmode] = explicitAllow in the Install Tool and create a backend usergroup that only allows to show the fields you need.

Then only use TSconfig for the fields that are not set as exclude field in TCA.