The DC_General is a universal data container for Contao and is an alternative for the DC_Table of the Contao framework.

With the DC_General we facilitate programming with excellent functions and influence possibilities.

With the use of the DC_General there are many advantages, e.g.

• Object-oriented data container definitions
• Event driven
• abstraction of the data source
• modular design
• verification of data - no invalid records
• improved configuration of dependencies between data containers
• more control through events

Simply declare an DCA as usual but put "General" instead of "Table" for the 'config/dataContainer' part. This will make DC_General to be used.

There are some notable changes in compatibility considering DC_Table:

1. DC_General does NOT support magic properties but provides setter and getter for almost anything you might desire.
2. There is NO activeRecord available as DC_General uses it's own kind of data Models internally.
3. The system is totally event driven and relevant information (like the model in scope) is attached to the events.

You can start with our new documentation (currently in german) or older one (in english).

We have an overview of DCA mapping and Callbacks.

In our examples you can see the difference to DC_Table.