[5.8] - Content Block - Card Attributes

[leevigraham]

Experimenting with the new Content Blocks and they're great.

The one downside I see so far is that grouping fields in a Content Block means they are no longer available as card attributes.

My old implementation had a "Page Header" section. These fields are available as attributes

Moving to a Content Block:

They are no longer available.

Could content block fields be pulled up into the card attribute selector?

[AugustMiller]

As it stands, this is correct, content block fields can't be directly used as card attributes.

You can, however, use the new Generated Fields feature to pull field data from the content block and expose it to the card:

(There are some limitations here, particularly with HTML; we use the "site" template mode when rendering object templates, so some CP-specific functions are unavailable.)

[leevigraham]

Ok … let me see if this works with thumbnails as well. Doubt there would be much overhead with generated fields but it would be nice if the sub-properties were directly exposed.

[leevigraham]

This also means that you would need to created generated fields for every entry that the content block is applied.

[leevigraham]

Additionally generated fields only support strings. They can't be used for thumbnails.

[AugustMiller]

If the logic is complicated, you could put it on the content block field itself, then reference it or "copy" it in any upstream entry types.

There may be some goofiness with the order of operations and stale generated fields, though—we aren't tracking dependencies between them! 😅

[mmikkel]

As an alternative to generated fields, you could expose Content Block field values using custom card attributes added in Element::EVENT_REGISTER_CARD_ATTRIBUTES and Element::EVENT_DEFINE_ATTRIBUTE_HTML event handlers, in a custom module or private plugin. For example:

Event::on(
    Entry::class,
    Element::EVENT_REGISTER_CARD_ATTRIBUTES,
    static function (RegisterElementCardAttributesEvent $event) {
        $event->cardAttributes['_page_header_heading'] = [
            'label' => Craft::t('site', 'Page Header Heading'),
            'placeholder' => Craft::t('site', 'Some awesome heading'),
        ];
    }
);

Event::on(
    Entry::class,
    Element::EVENT_DEFINE_ATTRIBUTE_HTML,
    static function (DefineAttributeHtmlEvent $event) {
        if ($event->attribute === '_page_header_heading') {
            $event->html = $event->sender?->pageHeader?->heading ?? '';
        }
    }
);

[leevigraham]

I don't think this will work for thumbnails tho as they can only be set on fields?

[leevigraham]

An alternative approach would be to create a custom field that implements the card attribute and thumbnail functions.

[thupsi]

Kinda related: #17507

Essentialy, this would enable one to display content block field values, via generated fields, in entry indices.

[kylecotter]

I was looking pretty much at the same use case as Leevi - it'd be great if your Content Block fields (specifically assets set as card thumbnails) would bubble up. The workarounds seem counterintuitive to what Content Blocks were supposed to solve in the first place.

[leevigraham]

@khalwat Solved this nicely in Seomatic. Something similar for card attributes would work. Still no solution for thumbnails.

[brandonkelly]

Added this for 5.9 🎉 (#18206)