New TYPO3 Extension "data_seeder": Test Data for Development Teams at the Click of a Button
At the TYPO3 Developer Days 2026 in Karlsruhe, Thomas Löffler and Tim Schreiner from the agency km2 presented their new extension, “Seeder.” It solves a problem familiar to many TYPO3 teams: How can all developers get the same test data on their local systems without constantly sending database dumps back and forth? The answer: structured data in YAML files, versioned directly in the Git repository.
Instead of relying on database exports, “Seeder” stores test content—such as pages, content elements, files, or data records—in easy-to-read YAML files. These are versioned along with the code.
When a new content element is created, appropriate test data can be included immediately, so that everyone involved can see it right away in the frontend.
Technically, the extension includes a command-line tool that imports the data into the database. Relationships between data records—such as between a page and its content elements—are defined not by fixed IDs but by freely selectable identifiers. An internal multi-pass process ensures that even nested dependencies are correctly established. Recurring text blocks can be defined as variables and reused in multiple places.
The extension is extensible: In addition to the YAML loader integrated into TYPO3, users can add their own data sources, so-called property converters for data transformations, as well as operations to be performed before or after the seeding process.
The “data_seeder” extension is already available in the TYPO3 Extension Repository and is currently in the beta phase. The developers explicitly note that the extension is intended for local development and should not be used in production environments.
Tim Schreiner
Thomas Löffler
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