Blocks - Edit components#

The edit component part of a block anatomy is specially different to the view component because they have to support the UX for editing the block. This UX can be very complex depending on the kind of block and the feature that it is trying to provide. The project requirements will tell how far you should go with the UX story of each tile, and how complex it will become. You can use all the props that the edit component is receiving to model the UX for the block and how it will render.

See the complete list of Block edit component props.

We have several UI/UX artifacts in order to model our block edit component UX. The sidebar and the object browser are the main ones.

Sidebar#

We can use the new sidebar when building our block's edit components. The sidebar is a new UI asset that is available in Volto 4. You need to instantiate it this way:

import { SidebarPortal } from '@plone/volto/components';

[...]

<SidebarPortal selected={this.props.selected}>
  // ...
</SidebarPortal>

Everything that's inside the SidebarPortal component will be rendered in the sidebar. If you need an extra layer of configuration within SidebarPortal, you can use SidebarPopup.

import { SidebarPopup } from '@plone/volto/components';

<SidebarPopup open={this.props.sidebarOpen}>
  ...
</SidebarPopup>

Schema driven automated block settings forms#

A helper component is available in core in order to simplify the task of defining and rendering the settings for a block: the BlockDataForm component.

Note

BlockDataForm is a convenience component around the already available in core InlineForm that takes care of some aspects exclusively for Volto Blocks, like Variants and schemaExtenders. You can still use InlineForm across Volto, but using BlockDataForm is recommended for the blocks settings use case.

The edit block settings component needs to be described by a schema that matches the format used to serialize the content type definitions. The widgets that will be used in rendering the form follow the same algorithm that is used for the regular metadata fields for the content types. As an example of schema, it could look like this:

const IframeSchema = {
  title: 'Embed external content',

  fieldsets: [
    {
      id: 'default',
      title: 'Default',
      fields: [
        'url',
        'align',
        'privacy_statement',
        'privacy_cookie_key',
        'enabled',
      ],
    },
  ],

  properties: {
    url: {
      title: 'Embed URL',
    },
    privacy_statement: {
      title: 'Privacy statement',
      description: 'Short notification text',
      widget: 'text',
    },
    privacy_cookie_key: {
      title: 'Privacy cookie key',
      description: 'Identifies similar external content',
    },
    enabled: {
      title: 'Use privacy screen?',
      description: 'Enable/disable the privacy protection',
      type: 'boolean',
    },
  },

  required: ['url'],
};

export default IframeSchema;

To render this form and make it available to the edit component:

import schema from './schema';
import BlockDataForm from '@plone/volto/components/manage/Form/BlockDataForm';
import { Icon } from '@plone/volto/components';

<SidebarPortal selected={this.props.selected}>
  <BlockDataForm
    icon={<Icon size="24px" name={nameSVG} />}
    schema={schema}
    title={schema.title}
    headerActions={<button onClick={() => {}}>Action</button>}
    footer={<div>I am footer</div>}
    onChangeField={(id, value) => {
      this.props.onChangeBlock(this.props.block, {
        ...this.props.data,
        [id]: value,
      });
    }}
    onChangeBlock={onChangeBlock}
    formData={this.props.data}
    block={block}
  />
</SidebarPortal>;

Object Browser#

Volto 4 has a new object browser component that allows you to select an existing content object from the site. It has the form of an HOC (High Order Component), so you have to wrap the component you want to be able to call the object browser from with it, like this:

import withObjectBrowser from '@plone/volto/components/manage/Sidebar/ObjectBrowser';

[...]

export default withObjectBrowser(MyComponent)

The HOC component withObjectBrowser wraps your component by making available this props:

isObjectBrowserOpen - (Bool) tells if the browser is currently open
openObjectBrowser - handler for opening the browser
closeObjectBrowser - handler for closing the browser

By default, it's enabled for all the component tree under the Blocks Editor, so it's available already for all the blocks in edit mode. However, if you need to instantiate it somewhere else, you can do it anyways by wrapping your component with it.

Note

The default image block in Volto features both the Sidebar and the object browser, take a look at its source code in case you need more context on how they work.

openObjectBrowser handler API#

If you want to open an ObjectBrowser from your Block, you need to call the openObjectBrowser function you'll find in the props of your block component. This function has this signature:

@param {Object} object ObjectBrowser configuration.
@param {string} object.mode Quick mode, defaults to `image`.
@param {string} object.dataName Name of the block data property to write the selected item.
@param {string} object.onSelectItem Function that will be called on item selection.

These are some examples on how to use it:

// Opens the browser in the `image` mode by default if no config object specified, so it saves the selection in the `url` data property.
this.props.openObjectBrowser();

// Opens the browser in the `link` mode, so it saves the selection in the `href` data property.
this.props.openObjectBrowser({ mode: 'link' });

// Opens the browser defining which data property should save the selection using `dataName`
this.props.openObjectBrowser({
  dataName: 'myfancydatafield',
});

// Opens the browser defining the function that should be used to save the selection using `onSelectItem`
this.props.openObjectBrowser({
  onSelectItem: (url) =>
    this.props.onChangeBlock(this.props.block, {
      ...this.props.data,
      myfancydatafield: url,
    }),
});

ObjectBrowserWidget#

This widget shows an objectBrowser to find content/contents on site.

It is the default widget for vocabulary fields that uses plone.app.vocabularies.Catalog.

It works in 3 different mode:

image: The field value is an object. The path of selected item is saved in url property of value object. (fieldName: {url:''})
link: The field value is an object. The path of selected item is saved in href property of value object. (fieldName: {href:''})
multiple: The field value is an array of objects.

`return` prop#

The object widget returns always an array, even if it's meant to have only one object in return. In order to fix that situation and do not issue a breaking change, a return prop is being introduced, so if its value is single, then it returns a single value:

export const Image = () => <ObjectBrowserWidget mode="image" return="single" />;

Note

This situation will be fixed in subsequent Volto releases.

PropDataName vs dataName#

dataName is the prop inside data object, used for link and image mode.
PropDataName is the name of field which value is data. It's used for multiple mode.

For example:

content:{ '@id': 'page-1', related_pages:[], image:{url:""}, link:{href:""} }

if we use object browser widget for fields:

related_pages: propDataName is related_pages and dataName is null.
image: dataName is url and propDataName is null.
link: dataName is href and propDataName is null.

Usage in blocks schema#

Used in along with InlineForm, one can instantiate and configure it using the widget props like this:

{
  title: 'Item',
  fieldsets: [
    {
      id: 'default',
      title: 'Default',
      fields: ['href'],
    },
  ],
  properties: {
    href: {
      title: 'title',
      widget: 'object_browser',
      mode: 'link',
      selectedItemAttrs: ['Title', 'Description'],
    },
}

selectedItemAttrs#

You can select the attributes from the object (coming from the metadata brain from @search endpoint used in the browser) using the selectedItemAttrs prop as shown in the last example.

allowExternals#

You can allow users to type manually an URL (internal or external). Once validated, it will tokenize the value. As a feature, you can paste an internal URL (eg. the user copy the URL from the browser, and paste it in the widget) and will be converted to a tokenized value, as if it was selected via the Object Browser widget.

ObjectBrowserWidgetMode()#

Returns the component widget with mode passed as argument.

The default mode for ObjectBrowserWidget is multiple. If you would like to use this widget with link or image mode as widget field for a specific field id (for example), you could specify in in config.js as:

export const widgets = {
  widgetMapping: {
    ...widgetMapping,
    id: {
      ...widgetMapping.id,
      my_image_field: ObjectBrowserWidgetMode('image'),
      my_link_field: ObjectBrowserWidgetMode('link'),
    },
  },
  default: defaultWidget,
};

Selectable types#

If selectableTypes is set in widgetOptions.pattern_options, then only items whose content type has a name that is defined in widgetOptions.pattern_options.selectableTypes will be selectable.

<ObjectBrowserWidget ... widgetOptions={{pattern_options:{selectableTypes:['News Item','Event']}}}>

You can also set the selectableTypes from plone when declaring a field for contenttype:

form.widget(
  'a_cura_di',
  RelatedItemsFieldWidget,
  (vocabulary = 'plone.app.vocabularies.Catalog'),
  (pattern_options = {
    maximumSelectionSize: 1,
    selectableTypes: ['News Item', 'Event'],
  }),
);

`maximumSelectionSize`#

If maximumSelectionSize is set in widgetOptions.pattern_options, the widget allows to select at most the maximumSelectionSize number of items defined in widgetOptions.pattern_options.maximumSelectionSize.

<ObjectBrowserWidget ... widgetOptions={{pattern_options:{maximumSelectionSize:2}}}>

You can also set the maximumSelectionSize from plone when declaring a field for contenttype:

form.widget(
  'a_cura_di',
  RelatedItemsFieldWidget,
  (vocabulary = 'plone.app.vocabularies.Catalog'),
  (pattern_options = { maximumSelectionSize: 1, selectableTypes: ['Event'] }),
);

form.widget(
  'notizie_correlate',
  RelatedItemsFieldWidget,
  (vocabulary = 'plone.app.vocabularies.Catalog'),
  (pattern_options = {
    maximumSelectionSize: 10,
    selectableTypes: ['News Item'],
  }),
);

Reusing the blocks engine in your components#

You can render a blocks engine form with the BlocksForm component.

import { isEmpty } from 'lodash';
import BlocksForm from '@plone/volto/components/manage/Blocks/BlocksForm';
import { emptyBlocksForm } from '@plone/volto/helpers/Blocks/Blocks';
import config from '@plone/volto/registry';


class Example extends Component {

  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = {
      selectedBlock: null,
      formData: null,
    }
    this.blocksState = {};
  }

  render() {
    const {
      block,
      data,
      onChangeBlock,
      pathname,
      selected,
      manage,
    } = this.props;
    const formData = this.state.formData;
    const metadata = this.props.metadata || this.props.properties;
    const {blocksConfig} = config.blocks;
    const titleBlock = blocksConfig.title;

    return (
      <BlocksForm
        title="A form with blocks"
        description={data?.instructions?.data}
        manage={manage}
        allowedBlocks={data?.allowedBlocks}
        metadata={metadata}
        properties={isEmpty(formData) ? emptyBlocksForm() : formData}
        selectedBlock={
          selected ? this.state.selectedBlock : null
        }
        onSelectBlock={(id) => this.setState({ selectedBlock: id }) }
        onChangeFormData={(newFormData) => {
          onChangeBlock(block, {
            ...data,
            data: {
              ...formData,
            },
          });
        }}
        blocksConfig={{
          ...blocksConfig,
          title: {
            ...titleBlock,
            edit: (props) => <div>Title editing is not allowed (as example)</div>
          }
        }}
        onChangeField={(id, value) => {
          if (['blocks', 'blocks_layout'].indexOf(id) > -1) {
            this.blockState[id] = value;
            onChangeBlock(block, {
              ...data,
              data: {
                ...data.data,
                ...this.blockState,
              },
            });
          }
        }}
        pathname={pathname}
      >
      </BlocksForm>
    );
  }
}

The current block engine is available as the separate BlocksForm component, used to be a part of the Form.jsx component. It has been previously exposed as the @eeacms/volto-blocks-form addon and reused in several other addons, so you can find integration examples in addons such as volto-columns-block, volto-accordion-block, @eeacms/volto-accordion-block, @eeacms/volto-grid-block, but probably the simplest implementation to follow is in the @eeacms/volto-group-block

Notice that the BlocksForm component allows overriding the edit block wrapper and allows passing a custom blocksConfig configuration object, for example to filter or add new blocks.

You can also reuse the DragDropList component as a separate component:

  <DragDropList
    childList={childList}
    as="tbody"
    onMoveItem={(result) => {
      const { source, destination } = result;
      const ns = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(state));
      Object.keys(ns.order).forEach((lang) => {
        const x = ns.order[lang][source.index];
        const y = ns.order[lang][destination.index];
        ns.order[lang][destination.index] = x;
        ns.order[lang][source.index] = y;
      });
      setState(ns);
      return true;
    }}
  >
    {({ index, draginfo }) => {
      return (
        <Ref innerRef={draginfo.innerRef} key={index}>
          <Table.Row {...draginfo.draggableProps}>
            <Table.Cell>
              <div {...draginfo.dragHandleProps}>
                <Icon name={dragSVG} size="18px" />
              </div>
            </Table.Cell>
            {langs.map((lang) => {
              const i = state.order[lang][index];
              const entry = state.data[lang][i];
              return (
                <Table.Cell key={lang}>
                  <TermInput
                    entry={entry}
                    onChange={(id, value) => {
                      const newState = { ...state };
                      newState.data[lang][i] = {
                        ...newState.data[lang][i],
                        [id]: value,
                      };

                      setState(newState);
                    }}
                  />
                </Table.Cell>
              );
            })}
            <Table.Cell>
              <Button basic onClick={() => {}}>
                <Icon
                  className="circled"
                  name={deleteSVG}
                  size="12px"
                />
              </Button>
            </Table.Cell>
          </Table.Row>
        </Ref>
      );
    }}
  </DragDropList>

Check the source code of volto-columns-block and volto-taxonomy for details on how to reuse this component.

Plone Documentation v6.0

Blocks - Edit components

Contents

Blocks - Edit components#

Sidebar#

Schema driven automated block settings forms#

Object Browser#

openObjectBrowser handler API#

ObjectBrowserWidget#

`return` prop#

PropDataName vs dataName#

Usage in blocks schema#

selectedItemAttrs#

allowExternals#

ObjectBrowserWidgetMode()#

Selectable types#

`maximumSelectionSize`#

Reusing the blocks engine in your components#

Plone Documentation v6.0

Blocks - Edit components

Contents

Blocks - Edit components#

Sidebar#

Schema driven automated block settings forms#

Object Browser#

openObjectBrowser handler API#

ObjectBrowserWidget#

return prop#

PropDataName vs dataName#

Usage in blocks schema#

selectedItemAttrs#

allowExternals#

ObjectBrowserWidgetMode()#

Selectable types#

maximumSelectionSize#

Reusing the blocks engine in your components#

`return` prop#

`maximumSelectionSize`#