README

Content management in "slices"; separate content components, each with their own template, fields and visual settings that can be created and arranged by a user in the CMS.

• Slice previews in the CMS
• Slice CMS configured via YAML

Usage

It's best to use silverstripe-slices with lots of generic fields on the base slice class, since this allows templates to share fields and be configured in YAML without creating a class for each slice. silverstripe-adaptivecontent works well for this (and used to be integrated with this module).

# Use the generic fields in silverstripe-adaptivecontent
Slice:
  extensions:
    - 'AdaptiveContent'
    - "AdaptiveContentRelated('Page')"

Templates

Each slice type/template has it's own template file with the name [BaseSliceClass]_[TemplateName]. These can go in themes/[theme]/templates/Slices to separate them from the other templates in your site.

Adding Slices to Page

This module comes with an extension for easily setting up Slices on Page:

Page:
  extensions:
    - PageSlicesExtension

In templates, all slices can be rendered using this:

<% if $Slices %>
    <% loop $Slices %>
        $forTemplate
    <% end_loop %>
<% end_if %>

Subclassing Slice

Subclassing Slice is a normal use case, however note that when subclassing it, you'll need to override the method getBaseSliceClass method in your "base" slice subclass (the one you point to in a has_many from Page) for the slice to save correctly:

class ContentSlice extends Slice
{
    protected function getBaseSliceClass()
    {
        return __CLASS__;
    }
}

class VideoSlice extends ContentSlice
{
    // Subclasses of your 'base' subclass don't need anything special
}

This is due to the the module needing a "default" class to fall back to when the className key has not been set in a template config.

Customising CMS fields

Adding and modifying fields in YourBaseSlice::getCMSFields is an expected use case. Note that things configured in the slices YAML configuration will be overriden if, for example, you replace a field with something custom. In this case, you can re-apply the slices config with the following at the end of your getCMSFields function:

// Re-apply slices config
$config = $this->getCurrentTemplateConfig();
$this->configureFieldsFromConfig($fields, $config);

Customising slice previews in the CMS

A preview of a slice renders the CMS in an iframe when editing and browsing. Out of the box, previews are rendered inside a basic HTML page wrapper: silverstripe-slices/templates/SliceWrapper.ss. You can override this wrapper in your own theme to customise how slice previews are delivered.

Example config

Slice:

  # Define stylesheets to be used when previewing slices in the CMS
  previewStylesheets:
    - /themes/base/css/styles.css

  # Automatically configure the upload folder for these file fields on Slice
  # Files and images will be uploaded to assets/Uploads/Slices/[TemplateName]
  uploadFolderFields:
    - LeadImage
    - SecondaryImage
    - LeadFile

  # The default slice template can be specified, or defaults to the first defined
  # This is just what is selected by default when a new slice is created
  defaultTemplate: TwoColumnImage

  templates:
    Quote:
      fields:
        Title: Quotee
        Content:
          # Set the CMS "title" of the field
          label: Quote

          # Change the form component used for this field
          fieldClass: TextareaField

          # Cast the field to something when rendering it in the template
          casting: Text

          # Value to use for the field's "right title"
          help: ~20 - 30 words

          # Value to use when previewing what the slice will look like
          exampleValue: Dolor exercitation sint ad minim et deserunt nisi aliquip cillum laboris ipsum esse nulla commodo cupidatat ipsum proident exercitation veniam

      # Options exposed in the CMS for configuring the slice template
      # The key is accessible in templates, and the value is used as the CMS title
      visualOptions:
        no-icon: No icon
        bold-quote: Bold quoted text


    TwoColumnImage:
      # Name to show for the template in the CMS
      name: Two column with image

      # Class to change to when using this template
      # This allows complex slices to have extra fields and code
      className: TwoColumnImageSlice

      # Fields that only need a label configured can be defined using a shortcut:
      # (The order fields are defined here also controls the order they show in the CMS)
      fields:
        Title: ~
        Content: Text column
        LeadImage:
          name: Image
          # Images can be specified as file names in example content
          exampleValue: themes/base/images/examples/random-guy.jpg

      visualOptions:
        image-right: Image in right column
        title-centered: Center title above columns

Compatibility

This module requires at least SilverStripe 3.1 and PHP 5.3.