How Flowpane works with TYPO3
TYPO3 is built for organisations that run many sites and languages from one installation. Each site has its own configuration, base address and languages; TypoScript, extensions and page properties then shape what each one publishes. Flowpane examines what every site and language actually delivers, and the extension adds TYPO3's own account of how each output is produced, so results can be explained site by site.
For the general model, read How Flowpane works with your CMS.
Sites, languages and addresses
Every TYPO3 site is defined in the site configuration with a base address and its languages, each language with its own base path or domain and hreflang value. Pages have a slug per language, and a page can fall back to another language or exist in one language only. The extension reports each site, each language and each published page with its slug, hreflang and modification date, so Flowpane can compare TYPO3's intended structure with what sitemaps list and the public website serves.
robots.txt: a file or a static route
TYPO3 can answer /robots.txt in several ways:
Request for /robots.txt
|
+-- Physical robots.txt in the public folder? -> the web server serves it
+-- Static route in the site configuration? -> TYPO3 serves it:
| staticText : rules written in config.yaml
| uri / asset : content from a page or file
+-- A redirect record or a page with that slug? -> that answer is served
|
+-- A static file cache or CDN can serve an older copy.
A static route of type staticText is the most common choice: the rules live in the site's config.yaml, so they travel with the site configuration through deployments. The extension reports which of these controls robots.txt for each site, so a change made in the wrong place is easy to spot.
curl -s https://example.com/robots.txt
XML sitemaps
TYPO3's own SEO extension provides the XML sitemap. It is served at the query address /?type=1533906435, and at /sitemap.xml when the site includes the SEO sitemap site set, whose route enhancer maps the friendly address. The sitemap exists only when the SEO extension is active and its sitemap configuration is included for that site. Other extensions, such as news, cs_seo, Yoast SEO for TYPO3 and dedicated sitemap generators, can add sitemap providers or produce sitemaps of their own.
The extension reports, for each site, which producer serves the sitemap and whether TYPO3's own sitemap is fully configured, so a missing sitemap points straight to the missing setting.
Page-level indexing directives
With the SEO extension active, each page has Index this page, Follow this page and a canonical link field in its SEO properties. TypoScript, templates, other extensions and the web server can still add directives of their own, so the public page remains the final answer:
curl -s https://example.com/about-us | grep -i 'name="robots"'
curl -sI https://example.com/about-us | grep -i 'x-robots-tag'
The extension reports each page's index and follow settings and whether a canonical link is set, per language.
Redirects, workspaces and caching
The redirects extension holds redirect records that can answer before a page does. Workspaces let editors stage changes privately; the extension reports only what is live. Static file caches, such as the staticfilecache extension, and CDNs can serve stored HTML or sitemap XML without reaching TYPO3. Flowpane records the response crawlers receive, including redirects, so a cached or redirected answer is visible as such.
What Flowpane observes on every TYPO3 Site
Without a connection, Flowpane checks the public robots.txt, the sitemaps it can discover, the governance files and sampled pages, and records Results, Changes and Findings from what the public web serves. This is identical for every CMS.
What the extension adds
| Native to TYPO3 | Added by the Flowpane extension |
|---|---|
| Site configuration with languages and base addresses | Reports every site and language, with base addresses and hreflang values |
| A physical robots.txt, a static route or a redirect | Reports which one controls robots.txt for each site |
| The SEO extension's sitemap, news and other sitemap extensions | Reports which producer serves each site's sitemap and whether TYPO3's own sitemap is fully configured |
| Page slugs and SEO page properties | Reports each published page's slug, modification date, index and follow settings and canonical link, per language |
| Installed extensions | Identifies the SEO, sitemap, redirect and caching extensions that shape public output |
| Governance files such as security.txt, llms.txt and ads.txt | Reports which governance files exist in the public folder |
| Backend editing | Records page edits as they happen |
The extension sends addresses, dates and settings; page content stays on your Site.
Reported and verified on TYPO3
Flowpane shows the extension's report and the public observation separately, each with its own date:
- If the site configuration holds robots.txt rules but the public file differs, a physical file or a cache is answering first.
- If a page is set to Index this page but the public page carries
noindex, TypoScript, the template or another extension is adding it. - If one language is missing from the sitemap, the sitemap configuration or that language's publication state is the place to look.
Worked examples
A new language goes live. A site adds German at /de/. The extension reports the new language and its pages, Flowpane reads the public sitemap, and the evidence shows whether the German pages are listed with the right hreflang values.
A sitemap that only exists by query address. TYPO3's sitemap answers at /?type=1533906435 but not at /sitemap.xml. The extension reports that the SEO extension is active but the sitemap site set is not included, which is the single setting that adds the friendly address.
Rules in two places. A deployment adds a physical robots.txt while the site configuration still holds a static route. The public file comes from the physical file; the extension's report names both, so the team can agree which one should own robots.txt.
Environments
Requirements are listed on Flowpane for TYPO3.