Checkbox field

CheckBoxFieldDefinition renders a single checkbox. It is a simpler alternative to CheckBoxGroupFieldDefinition.

This checkbox field definition is part of the Magnolia 6 UI framework. The fully qualified class name is info.magnolia.ui.field.CheckBoxFieldDefinition.

If you work with the Magnolia 5 UI framework, see Checkbox field for Magnolia 5 UI instead.

Example definition

checkbox:
  $type: checkBoxField
  label: Show title
  buttonLabel: Select checkbox to display title

You can preview this example using the field-examples-module. See Field examples module for more information.

Field properties

Field-specific properties

Property Description

buttonLabel

required

Label displayed next to the checkbox. The value is i18n-able.

If you do not want to have any label, set the property to an empty string in YAML or in a message bundle.

Common simple field properties

Property Description

name

required

Name of the field definition item. Derived from the configured node name. Use alphanumeric characters without spaces.

class

required (unless $type is used)

Type of the field definition item. The value must be a fully qualified class name and a subtype of info.magnolia.ui.field.FieldDefinition. See Field types for possible values.

$type

You can use this as a shortcut for class if the definition class is annotated with info.magnolia.ui.field.FieldType. The proper value is defined by the annotation.

Example class annotation
@FieldType("textField")
public class TextFieldDefinition extends ConfiguredFieldDefinition<String> {
...
}

See Field types for possible values.

type

optional

Property type of the field.

A default type is typically hard-coded in each definition class. You only need to add this property if you want to override the default implementation.

In text fields, make sure that type has a value matching the type of data you entered (for example, java.lang.Long for long values) and that converterClass is set accordingly.

Example definition
text:
  $type: textField
  type: java.lang.Long
  converterClass: com.vaadin.data.converter.StringToLongConverter

You can’t configure this property through YAML but it can be used in your Java code.

converterClass

optional

Converts values between the presentation (UI) and model (stored data). The property must extend com.vaadin.data.Converter. Available classes:

  • info.magnolia.ui.editor.converter.JcrNodeToIdentifierConverter

  • info.magnolia.ui.editor.converter.JcrNodeToPathConverter

  • info.magnolia.ui.editor.converter.JcrNodeToWorkspaceAndIdConverter

  • info.magnolia.ui.editor.converter.JcrPathToIdentifierConverter

com.vaadin.data.converter.StringToBigDecimalConverter and com.vaadin.data.converter.StringToDoubleConverter always round the presentation value by default. For non-rounding converters, use the following classes instead:

  • info.magnolia.ui.field.converter.NonRoundingStringToBigDecimalConverter

  • info.magnolia.ui.field.converter.NonRoundingStringToDoubleConverter

You can’t configure this property through YAML but it can be used in your Java code.

conversionErrorMessage

optional, default is translated conversion.message.error key

Message shown when there is an error in the conversion process. The value can be literal or a key of a message bundle.

defaultValue

optional

Pre-filled default value displayed in the field. The value can be overwritten by the user. Use alphanumeric characters.

This is only applied only when creating a new item, not for existing items.

For defaultValue to work, the populate property in info.magnolia.ui.dialog.actions.OpenDialogActionDefinition must be set to false.

description

optional

Help text displayed when the user clicks the help icon. The value can be literal or a key of a message bundle.

factoryClass

optional

Defines the factory class that initializes and builds the Vaadin form field. The default factory class depends on the particular field.

The value must be a fully qualified class name and a subtype of info.magnolia.ui.field.FieldFactory.

You can’t configure this property through YAML but it can be used in your Java code.

fieldBinderClass

optional

Defines the binder class that applies configuration parameters from the field.

i18n

optional, default is false

Enables i18n authoring support, which allows editors to write foreign-language or regionally targeted content. A two-letter language identifier (en, de, fr, etc.) is displayed on controls where i18n is set to true.

label

optional

Field label displayed to editors. The value can be literal or a key of a message bundle.

If you do not provide the property, Magnolia will fall back to a generated i18n key.

If you do not want to have any label, set the property to an empty string such as label: "" in YAML.

readOnly

optional, default is false

Makes the field uneditable.

required

optional, default is false (not relevant for checkbox field)

Makes the field required. When true, an asterisk is displayed next to the field label.

When false, empty values are accepted as valid. For those empty values, any field validators are ignored.

requiredErrorMessage

optional, default is translated validation.message.required key

Error message shown when required is set to true and the user saves an empty field. The value can be literal or a key of a message bundle.

styleName

optional

Additional style information for an editor property definition item applied to the element when the form is rendered. The value can be a CSS class or a list of CSS classes separated by white spaces.

The style name will be rendered as an HTML class name, which can be used in a CSS definition. The class name is added to the field by calling the Vaadin method addStyleName.

The referenced class can be defined in:

validators

optional

List of field validator definition items. Any value must be a subtype of info.magnolia.ui.field.FieldValidatorDefinition.

See Field validators for more information.

Example scenario

The formFile component enables developers to add an upload field to forms. Adding it would result in the following component dialog in the Pages app without any alteration to the out-of-the-box setup.

formFile in Pages app

In some cases, you want to validate whether a file has been uploaded and display an error message if no file is uploaded when the completed form is submitted. A checkbox can be added to the template by using decorations. A walk-through of important aspects of this scenario is given below:

  • The YAML excerpt below adds a formFile to the respective template’s main area.

    ...
areas:
  main:
    availableComponents:
      formFile:
        id: form:components/formFile
...

  • The cms.area directive in the FTL file calls the main area to be rendered in the excerpt below.

        ...
    <div class="container">
      [@cms.area name="main" /]
    </div>
    ...

  • The Label dialog for the formFile component at the beginning of this section does not need to be specified and is part of the Form module, which is bundled with both the community edition and DX Core.

  • In order to add a checkbox to the dialog, a decoration YAML file is necessary in the light modules folder, such as the example shown below.

    my-module/decorations/form/dialogs/formFile.yaml
    form:
    tabs:
        tabMain:
            fields: !override
                mandatory:
                    type: Boolean
                    class: info.magnolia.ui.form.field.definition.CheckboxFieldDefinition
                    defaultValue: false
                    name: mandatory
                validation:
                    class: info.magnolia.ui.form.field.definition.TwinColSelectFieldDefinition
                    path: /modules/form/config/validators
                    repository: config

  • Adding the decoration creates a new field in the component dialog as shown below.

    formFile in Pages app

  • Use of model objects, for which all public methods of any Java model class may be accessed from template scripts, allows developers to check fields. For example, whether the field is valid and displaying the requiredSymbol in the rendered form if the mandatory checkbox in its component dialog is selected. An example FTL snippet to do these checks and rendering is given below.

    my-module/templates/components/formFile.ftl
        ...
    [#if !model.isValid()]
        <em>${i18n['form.error.field']}</em>
    [/#if]
    [#if content.mandatory!false]
        <dfn title="required">${model.requiredSymbol!}</dfn>
    [/#if]
    ...
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