Neos User Interface Extensibility API

At the heart of the Neos UI lies the system of registries – key-value stores that contain system components. The registries are populated through the manifest API command that is exposed through the neos-ui-extensibility package.

Inspector-specific Registries

Editors

Way to retrieve:

globalRegistry.get('inspector').get('editors')

Contains all inspector editors. The key is an editor name (such as Neos.Neos/Inspector/Editors/SelectBoxEditor), and the values are objects of the following form:

{
  component: TextInput // the React editor component to use. Required
  hasOwnLabel: true|false // whether the component renders the label internally or not
}

Component Wiring

Every component gets the following properties (see EditorEnvelope/index.js)

identifier: an identifier which can be used for HTML ID generation
label: the label
value: the value to display
propertyName: name of the node property to edit
options: additional editor options
commit: a callback function when the content changes.
- 1st argument: the new value
- 2nd argument (optional): an object whose keys are saveHooks to be triggered, the values are hook-specific options. Example: {'Neos.UI:Hook.BeforeSave.CreateImageVariant': nextImage}
renderSecondaryInspector:
- 1st argument: a string identifier of the second inspector; used to implement toggling of the inspector when calling this method twice.
- 2nd argument: a callback function which can be used to render the secondary inspector. The callback function should return the secondary inspector content itself; or “undefined/null” to close the secondary inspector. Example usage: props.renderSecondaryInspector('IMAGE_CROPPING', () => <MySecondaryInspectorContent />)

Secondary Editors

Way to retrieve:

globalRegistry.get('inspector').get('editors')

Contains all secondary inspector editors, which can be used to provide additional, more complex functionality that needs more space of the UI than the inspector panel can provide itself.

Use it like the registry for editors.

Views

Way to retrieve:

globalRegistry.get('inspector').get('views')

Contains all inspector views.

Use it like the registry for editors.

Save Hooks

Way to retrieve:

globalRegistry.get('inspector').get('saveHooks')

Sometimes, it is needed to run code when the user presses “Apply” inside the Inspector.

Example: When the user cropped a new image, on “Apply”, a new imageVariant must be created on the server, and then the identity of the new imageVariant must be stored inside the value of the image.

The process is as follows:

When an editor wants its value to be post-processed, it calls props.commit(newValue, {hookName: hookOptions})
Then, when pressing “Apply” in the UI, the hookNames are resolved inside this saveHooks registry.

Hook Definitions

Every entry inside this registry is a function of the following signature:

(valueSoFar, hookOptions) => {
  return new value; // can also return a new Promise.
}

Validators

Way to retrieve:

globalRegistry.get('validators')

Contains all server feedback handlers.

The key is the server-feedback-handler-type, and the value is a function with the following signature:

(feedback, store) => {
  // do whatever you like here
}

Frontend Configuration

Any settings under Neos.Neos.Ui.frontendConfiguration would be available here.

Might be used also for third-party packages to deliver own settings to the UI, but this is still experimental.

Settings from each package should be prefixed to avoid collisions (unprefixed settings are reserved for the core UI itself), e.g.:

Neos:
  Neos:
    Ui:
      frontendConfiguration:
        'Your.Own:Package':
          someKey: someValue

Then it may be accessed as:

globalRegistry.get('frontendConfiguration').get('Your.Own:Package').someKey

Inline Editors

Way to retrieve:

globalRegistry.get('inlineEditors')

Each key in this registry should be a unique identifier for an inline editor, that can be referenced in a node type configuration.

Each entry in this registry is supposed to consist of an object with the following structure:

{
  bootstrap: myBootstrapFunction,
  createInlineEditor: myInlineEditorFactoryFunction
}

bootstrap is called only once during the global initialization of the guest frame. It is not required to do anything in this function, but it is possible to prepare the guest frame environment, if any global variables must be defined or other initialization routines must be run in order for the inline editor to work.

bootstrap will receive an API Object as its first parameter, with the following methods:

setFormattingUnderCursor: Will dispatch the respective action from the @neos-project/neos-ui-redux-store package (actions.UI.ContentCanvas.setFormattingUnderCursor)
setCurrentlyEditedPropertyName: Will dispatch the respective action from the @neos-project/neos-ui-redux-store package (actions.UI.ContentCanvas.setCurrentlyEditedPropertyName)

createInlineEditor is called on every DOM node in the guest frame that represents an editable property. It is supposed to handle the initialization and display of an inline editor.

createInlineEditor will receive an object as its first parameter, with the following properties:

propertyDomNode: The DOM node associated with the editable property
propertyName: The name of the editable property
contextPath: The contextPath of the associated node
nodeType: The nodeType of the associated node
editorOptions: The configuration for this inline editor
globalRegistry: The global registry
persistChange: Will dispatch the respective action from @neos-project/neos-ui-redux-store package (actions.Changes.persistChanges)

CKEditor5-specific registries

The integration of CKeditor5 is dead simple and tries to introduce a minimal amount of abstractions on top of CKeditor5. There are only two registries involved in configuring it: config and richtextToolbar

Configuration of CKeditor5

Way to retrieve:

globalRegistry.get('ckEditor5').get('config')

In CKE all things are configured via a single configuration object: plugins, custom configs, etc (@see https://docs.ckeditor.com/ckeditor5/latest/builds/guides/integration/configuration.html)

This registry allows to register a custom configuration processor that takes a configuration object, modifies it and returns a new one. Example:

config.set('doSomethingWithConfig' (ckeConfig, editorOptions) => {
  ckeConfig.mySetting = true;
  return ckeConfig;
})

That is all you need to know about configuring CKE in Neos, Refer to CKeditor5 documentation for more details on what you can do with it: https://docs.ckeditor.com/ckeditor5/latest/index.html

CKEditor4-specific registries

Formatting rules

Way to retrieve:

globalRegistry.get('ckEditor').get('formattingRules')

Contains the possible styles for CKEditor.

Enabled Styles

The actual enabled styles are determined by the NodeTypes configuration of the property. This means, that if the node is configured in NodeTypes.yaml using:

properties:
  [propertyName]:
    ui:
      inline:
        editorOptions:
          formatting:
            strong: true

then the “strong” key inside this registry is actually enabled for the editor.

For backwards compatibility reasons, the formatting-and-styling-registry KEYS must match the “pre-React” UI, if they existed beforehand.

Configuration of CKEditor

With this config, CKEditor itself is controlled:

the Advanced Content Filter (ACF) is configured, thus determining which markup is allowed in the editors
which effect a button action actually has.

Currently, there exist three possible effects:

triggering a command
setting a style
executing arbitrary code

Configuration Format

NOTE: one of “command” or “style” must be specified in all cases.

command (string, optional). If specified, this CKEditor command is triggered; so the command string is known by CKEditor in the “commands” section: http://docs.ckeditor.com/#!/api/CKEDITOR.editor-method-getCommand
style (object, optional). If specified, this CKEditor style is applied. Expects a style description adhering to CKEDITOR.style(…), so for example: { style: {element: ‘h1’}
config (function, optional): This function needs to adjust the CKEditor config to e.g. configure ACF correctly. The function gets passed in the config so-far, AND the configuration from the node type underneath ui.inline.editorOptions.formatting.[formatingRuleName] and needs to return the modified config. See “CKEditor Configuration Helpers” below for helper functions.
extractCurrentFormatFn (function, optional): If specified, this function will extract the current format. The function gets passed the currend “editor” and “CKEDITOR”.
applyStyleFn (function, optional): This function applies a style to CKEditor. Arguments: formattingOptions, editor, CKEDITOR.

CKEditor Configuration Helpers

config: registry.ckEditor.formattingRules.config.addToFormatTags(‘h1’): adds the passed-in tag to the format_tags configuration option of CKEditor.
registry.ckEditor.formattingRules.config.add(‘Strong’): adds the passed-in Button Definition Name to the ACF configuration (automatic mode). This means the button names are standard CKEditor config buttons, like “Cut,Copy,Paste,Undo,Redo,Anchor”.

Richtext Toolbar

Contains the Rich Text Editing Toolbar components.

The values are objects of the following form:

{
  formattingRule: 'h1' // References a key inside "formattingRules"
  component: Button // the React component being used for rendering
  callbackPropName: 'onClick' // Name of the callback prop of the Component which is fired when the component's value changes.

  // all other properties are directly passed on to the component.
}

Component wiring

Each toolbar component receives all properties except “formattingRule” and “component” directly as props.
Furthermore, the “isActive” property is bound, which is a boolean flag defining whether the text style referenced by “formatting” is currently active or not.
Furthermore, the callback specified in “callbackPropName” is wired, which toggles the value.

For advanced use-cases; also the “formattingRule” is bound to the component; containing a formatting-rule identifier (string). If you need this, you’ll most likely need to listen to selectors.UI.ContentCanvas.formattingUnderCursor and extract your relevant information manually.

Plugins

Way to retrieve:

globalRegistry.get('ckEditor').get('plugins')

Contains custom plugins for CkEditor.

plugins.set('plugin_key', {
    initFn: pluginInitFunction
});

pluginInitFunction is passed from CKEDITOR as the first argument. In that function you may register your plugin with CKEditor via its API (CKEDITOR.plugins.add). Take custom plugins as examples.

Data Loaders

Way to retrieve:

globalRegistry.get('dataLoaders')

A “Data Loader” controls asynchronous loading of secondary data, which is used in all kinds of Select / List boxes in the backend.

Example of data which is loaded through a data loader:

Link Labels (in the inline link editor)
Reference / References editor
Data Sources in the Select Editor

Each Data Loader can have a slightly different API, so check the “description” field of each data loader when using it. It is up to the data loaders to implement caching internally.

Normally, each data loader exposes the following methods:

resolveValue(options, identifier) {
  // "options" is a DataLoader-specific object.
  // returns Promise with [{identifier, label}, ...] list; where "identifier" was resolved to the actual object represented by "identifier".
}

search(options, searchTerm) {
  // "options" is a DataLoader-specific object.
  // returns Promise with [{identifier, label}, ...] list; these are the objects displayed in the selection dropdown.
}

Containers

Way to retrieve:

globalRegistry.get('containers')

The whole user interface is built around container components. They are registered through the containers registry. Below you will find an example on how to replace the PageTree container with your custom container:

manifest('Example', {}, globalRegistry => {
  const containerRegistry = globalRegistry.get('containers');
  containerRegistry.set('LeftSideBar/Top/PageTreeToolbar', () => null);
  containerRegistry.set('LeftSideBar/Top/PageTreeSearchbar', () => null);
  containerRegistry.set('LeftSideBar/Top/PageTree', FlatNavContainer);
});

Server Feedback Handlers

Way to retrieve:

globalRegistry.get('serverFeedbackHandlers')

Contains all server feedback handlers.

The key is the server-feedback-handler-type, and the value is a function with the following signature:

(feedback, store) => {
  // do whatever you like here :-)
}

Reducers

Way to retrieve:

globalRegistry.get('reducers')

Allows to register custom reducers for your plugin. It is probably a bad idea to override any of the existing reducers.

Sagas

Way to retrieve:

globalRegistry.get('sagas')

Allows to register custom sagas for your plugin. It is probably a bad idea to override any of the existing reducers.

Example:

function* watchNodeFocus() {
  yield takeLatest(actionTypes.CR.Nodes.FOCUS, function* (action) {
    yield put(actions.UI.FlashMessages.add(
      'testMessage',
      'Focused: ' + action.payload.contextPath,
      'success'
    ));
  });
}
manifest('The.Demo:Focus', {}, globalRegistry => {
  const sagasRegistry = globalRegistry.get('sagas');
  sagasRegistry.set('The.Demo/watchNodeFocus', {saga: watchNodeFocus});
});