Elemental Singleview Previous and Next Buttons

Questions
1

Silverstripe Version: 5

Question: Is there a way to have Previous and Next buttons for Elemental Elements when using them in a GridFieldDetailForm. I have extended ElementalAreaConfig and used ->setShowPagination(true) but it does not work. Curiously enough, adding ->setShowAdd(true) does work.

Any suggestions on how to acchieve this?

2

In Silverstripe 5, if you’re using Elemental elements within a GridFieldDetailForm, enabling pagination for previous and next buttons directly through setShowPagination(true) might not be straightforward because Elemental elements are typically managed within an ElementalArea, which is a relation rather than a GridField.

However, you can achieve similar functionality by customizing your GridField configuration and the ElementalArea itself. Here’s a general approach:

  1. Customize GridField Configuration:
    You’ll need to customize the GridField configuration to include navigation buttons. You can create custom actions for “Previous” and “Next” buttons that manipulate the current ElementalArea’s displayed elements.

  2. Extend ElementalArea:
    Extend the ElementalArea class to include methods for retrieving previous and next elements based on some ordering criteria (e.g., ID, creation date). You’ll need to implement methods that retrieve the previous and next elements relative to the currently displayed element.

Here’s a basic example of how you might implement this:

use DNADesign\Elemental\Models\ElementalArea;

class CustomElementalArea extends ElementalArea
{
    // Add methods to retrieve previous and next elements

    public function getPreviousElement($currentElement)
    {
        return $this->Elements()->filter('Sort', $currentElement->Sort - 1)->first();
    }

    public function getNextElement($currentElement)
    {
        return $this->Elements()->filter('Sort', $currentElement->Sort + 1)->first();
    }
}

  1. Update GridField Detail Form:
    Update the GridField detail form to include navigation buttons that trigger the previous and next actions, which interact with your custom ElementalArea methods.

  2. Ensure Consistent Sorting:
    Make sure your elements have consistent sorting criteria (e.g., by ID or creation date) to ensure the “previous” and “next” buttons work as expected.

This approach involves customizing Silverstripe’s default behavior to achieve the desired functionality. Keep in mind that you may need to adjust the implementation based on your specific requirements and the structure of your application.

Remember to thoroughly test your implementation to ensure it behaves as expected and handles edge cases gracefully. Additionally, consider documenting any customizations for future reference and maintenance.

3

Thank you for your response! Will give it a try.

4

@addwebsolution

  1. Customize GridField Configuration:
    You’ll need to customize the GridField configuration to include navigation buttons. You can create custom actions for “Previous” and “Next” buttons that manipulate the current ElementalArea’s displayed elements.

How would you go about this? How would I display the actions/buttons in the CMS? Do you have code snippet for this?

5

Assuming you’re talking about elemental blocks with private static $inline_editable = false;, it’s actually really simple. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, just update the gridfield config that elemental area uses.

Step 1: Create an extension

You’re implementing the updateConfig extension hook.

Note that if you’re using Silverstripe CMS 4 the method will have to be public, and you may have to use new instead of ::create() depending on what minor version of framework you’ve got installed.

<?php

namespace App\Extension;

use SilverStripe\Core\Extension;
use SilverStripe\Forms\GridField\GridFieldDetailForm;
use SilverStripe\Forms\GridField\GridFieldPaginator;

class ElementalAreaConfigExtension extends Extension
{
    protected function updateConfig()
    {
        $this->getOwner()->addComponent(GridFieldPaginator::create());
        $this->getOwner()->getComponentByType(GridFieldDetailForm::class)->setShowPagination(true);
    }
}

Step 2: Apply the extension

Add this yml config

DNADesign\Elemental\Forms\ElementalAreaConfig:
  extensions:
    - App\Extension\ElementalAreaConfigExtension
6

@GuySartorelli that did the trick! Thank you!

I tried this before:

$this->owner
  ->getComponentByType(GridFieldDetailForm::class)
  ->setShowPagination(true);

But was missing the this bit:

$this->getOwner()->addComponent(GridFieldPaginator::create());
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