Rich-text elements

Brightspot’s rich-text editor accommodates custom rich-text elements, such as embedded videos, image galleries, or pull quotes. For example, the following illustration is an example of a rich-text element rendered as a pull quote. The element contains typeface, alignment, and a left border.

Editing lifecycle of rich-text elements

Subclasses of RichTextElement can implement the callbacks required for editing rich-text elements.

• Inside the rich-text editor, clicking Edit fires two callbacks:

  • RichTextElement#fromBody to populate the editing widget’s Link Text field and the Main tab of the Link field.
  • RichTextElement#fromAttributes to populate the editing widget’s Attributes field in the Advanced tab.

• Inside the editing widget, clicking Save & Close fires two callbacks to create a traditional HTML link of the form <a href="value" otherattribute="othervalue">link text</a>:

  • RichTextElement#toBody to retrieve the link text from the editing widget’s Link Text field.
  • RichTextElement#toAttributes to retrieve the link’s attributes from the editing widget’s Attributes field in the Advanced tab.

  

The following snippet describes the interaction between the rich-text element and the editing widget.

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import com.psddev.cms.db.RichTextElement;
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import com.psddev.dari.util.CompactMap;
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import com.psddev.dari.util.StringUtils;
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public class AnotherLinkRichTextElement extends RichTextElement {
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    @Required
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    private Link link;
①
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    private String linkText;
②
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    public String getLinkText() {
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        return linkText;
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    }
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    public void setLinkText(String linkText) {
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        this.linkText = linkText;
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    }
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    @Override
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    public void fromBody(String body) {
③
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        setLinkText(StringUtils.unescapeHtml(body));
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    }
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    @Override
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    public String toBody() {
④
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        return getLinkText();
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    }
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    @Override
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    public void fromAttributes(Map<String, String> attributes) {
⑤
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        List<Attribute> createdAttributes = attributes.keySet()
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                .stream()
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                .map(key -> {
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                    Attribute attribute = new Attribute();
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                    attribute.setName(key);
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                    attribute.setValue(attributes.get(key));
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                    return attribute;
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                })
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                .collect(Collectors.toList());
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        link.setAttributes(createdAttributes);
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    }
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    @Override
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    public Map<String, String> toAttributes() {
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        Map<String, String> htmlAttributes = new CompactMap<>();
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        link.getAttributes()
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                .forEach(attribute -> htmlAttributes.put(attribute.getName(), attribute.getValue()));
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        return htmlAttributes;
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    }
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}

• ①Declares a Link field that contains the attributes in an HTML <a> element.
• ②Declares a field, getter, and setter for the link text (the text inside an HTML <a> element.
• ③Populates the field Link Text in the editing widget, unescaping any escaped HTML entities that may have been received from the rich-text element.
• ④Retrieves the value in the field Link Text, and uses it as the link text when constructing an HTML <a> element.
• ⑤Reads the attribute map passed from the rich-text element and populates the Attributes list in the editing widget's Advanced tab.
• ⑥Reads the Attributes list in the editing widget's Advanced tab, and uses it to construct the attributes in an HTML <a> element.

Deploying a rich-text element

The following steps outline how to design rich-text elements and attach them to the rich-text editor’s toolbar. Although the steps are specific to pull quotes, you can apply them to any custom rich-text element.

Step 1: Extend a rich-text element

All custom rich-text elements extend from RichTextElement.

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import com.psddev.cms.db.RichTextElement;
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import com.psddev.dari.db.Recordable;
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import com.psddev.dari.util.StringUtils;
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@Recordable.DisplayName("Pull Quote") 1
①
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    @RichTextElement.Tag( 2
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    value = "quote",
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    preview = true,
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    block = false,
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    root = true,
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    menu = "Enhancement")
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public class PullQuoteRichTextElement extends RichTextElement {
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    @Required
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    private String quote;
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    public String getQuote() {
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        return quote;
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    }
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    public void setQuote(String quote) {
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        this.quote = quote;
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    }
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    @Override 3
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    public Map<String, String> toAttributes() {
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        return null;
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    }
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    @Override
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    public void fromAttributes(Map<String, String> attributes) {
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    }
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    @Override
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    public void fromBody(String body) {
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        setQuote(StringUtils.unescapeHtml(body));
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    }
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    @Override
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    public String toBody() {
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        return getQuote();
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    }
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}

• ①Specifies the rich-text element displays as a pull quote in the rich-text toolbar.
• ②Specifies the presentation aspects of the rich-text element:
• ③Overrides the methods toAttributes, fromAttributes, fromBody, and toBody. These methods provide the interface between the rich-text element and the associated editing widget. For details, see Editing lifecycle of rich-text elements.

• The theme's data files use the value element for creating the view. In this snippet, the data files must provision the rich-text element using the identifier quote.
• In the toolbar, the rich-text element appears under the menu item Enhancement.

For information about the @RichTextElement.Tag annotation see @RichTextElement.Tag.

Step 2: Attach rich-text element to toolbar

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import com.psddev.cms.rte.RichTextToolbar;
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import com.psddev.cms.rte.RichTextToolbarItem;
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import com.psddev.cms.rte.RichTextToolbarStyle;
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public class CustomRichTextToolbar implements RichTextToolbar {
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    @Override
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    public List<RichTextToolbarItem> getItems() { 1
①
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        return Arrays.asList(
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            RichTextToolbarStyle.BOLD,
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            RichTextToolbarStyle.ITALIC,
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            RichTextToolbarStyle.UNDERLINE
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            RichTextToolbarStyle.ELEMENTS);
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    }
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}

• ①Attaches all custom rich-text elements to the toolbar.

Step 3: Create theme files

Under your project’s styleguide/ directory, create files for each field appearing in the rich-text element. For example, if a field body is typed as a rich-text field, then the theme’s files must provide the template, data file, and styling for the field body. As a best practice, ensure each file’s path and base name correspond to the rich-text element’s class. The following example provides an illustration for theme files corresponding to the class PullQuoteRichTextElement developed in Step 1.

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./
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└── <root>
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            ├── src |
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                       └── main |
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                                  └── java |
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                                            └── brightspot |
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                                                       └── content |
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                                                                  └── article |
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                                                                             └── PullQuoteRichTextElement.java
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             └── styleguide
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                        └── content
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                                   └── article
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                                              ├── PullQuoteRichTextElement.hbs
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                                              ├── PullQuoteRichTextElement.json
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                                              └── PullQuoteRichTextElement.less

For information about creating theming files, see Theme guide.

See also:

• Rendering rich text
• Rich-text toolbar

Storage of rich-text elements

Brightspot stores rich-text elements in XML format, similar to the following:

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{
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  "caption": "Here is a link <a href=\"http://www.brightspot.com/\" target=\"_blank\" cursor=\"wait\" type=\"text/html\" >Brightspot</a>."
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}

The element and attribute names you can use in a custom rich-text element are arbitrary, so you can design rich-text elements to fit your publishing needs. You then implement runtime parsers in view models that extract the elements and attributes from the database and populate the view.