Custom fields
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You can create your own fields when the default fields do not meet your requirements. Magnolia fields are implemented as Vaadin components.
You can start by looking through the Vaadin sampler. When you find a matching field, implement it as a simple Vaadin Field in Magnolia. If you need a more complex field that is a composition of more than one simple field, look at the composite field or implement a Vaadin CustomField.
personaSwitcher is an example of a custom field. Editors can quickly
switch between personas while
previewing the page.
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This custom field definition is part of the Magnolia 6 UI framework. If you work with the Magnolia 5 UI framework, see Custom fields for Magnolia 5 UI instead. |
Required classes
Each field needs the following classes:
Definition class
A definition class defines the field. It typically reads properties from
the field definition. The definition class must implement the
info.magnolia.ui.field.FieldDefinition interface.
Factory class
A factory class creates and initializes Vaadin fields based on the field definition.
For example, info.magnolia.ui.field.factory.TextFieldFactory creates a
text
field. It contains logic to react to the definition properties. If the
rows property equals 1, the factory creates a single-line input
element. If rows is greater than 1, the factory creates a multiline
text area.
Factory classes extend info.magnolia.ui.field.factory.AbstractFieldFactory, which can handle all
common simple field properties.
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Field class
A field class is only needed if you cannot find a single Vaadin field that meets your requirements. Simple fields do not have a field class; the factory class creates the matching Vaadin field directly. More complex fields need a field class.
For example, a
link
field is a combination of a text box and a button. Vaadin does not
provide this combination out of the box, so a
info.magnolia.ui.field.LinkField class that extends Vaadin
CustomField
is needed. The custom field class provides a layout with a text field on
the left and a button on the right. It also registers a preview
component that displays a thumbnail of the link target if defined.
The link field is an example that provides all three (definition, factory and field) classes:
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info.magnolia.ui.field.LinkFieldDefinition -
info.magnolia.ui.field.factory.LinkFieldFactory -
info.magnolia.ui.field.LinkField