@payloadcms/plugin-nested-docs

Payload Nested Docs Plugin

A plugin for Payload CMS to easily allow for documents to be nested inside one another.

Core features:

• Allows for parent/child relationships between documents
• Automatically populates breadcrumbs data

Installation

  yarn add @payloadcms/plugin-nested-docs
  # OR
  npm i @payloadcms/plugin-nested-docs

Basic Usage

In the plugins array of your Payload config, call the plugin with options:

import { buildConfig } from "payload/config";
import nestedDocs from "@payloadcms/plugin-nested-docs";

const config = buildConfig({
  collections: [
    {
      slug: "pages",
      fields: [
        {
          name: "title",
          type: "text",
        },
        {
          name: "slug",
          type: "text",
        },
      ],
    },
  ],
  plugins: [
    nestedDocs({
      collections: ["pages"],
      generateLabel: (_, doc) => doc.title,
      generateURL: (docs) =>
        docs.reduce((url, doc) => `${url}/${doc.slug}`, ""),
    }),
  ],
});

export default config;

Fields

Parent

The parent relationship field is automatically added to every document which allows editors to choose another document from the same collection to act as the direct parent.

Breadcrumbs

The breadcrumbs field is an array which dynamically populates all parent relationships of a document up to the top level. It does not store any data in the database, and instead, acts as a virtual field which is dynamically populated each time the document is loaded.

The breadcrumbs array stores the following fields:

• label

  The label of the breadcrumb. This field is automatically set to either the collection.admin.useAsTitle (if defined) or is set to the ID of the document. You can also dynamically define the label by passing a function to the options property of generateLabel.

• url

  The URL of the breadcrumb. By default, this field is undefined. You can manually define this field by passing a property called function to the plugin options property of generateURL.

Options

collections

An array of collections slugs to enable nested docs.

generateLabel

Each breadcrumb has a required label field. By default, its value will be set to the collection's admin.useAsTitle or fallback the the ID of the document.

You can also pass a function to dynamically set the label of your breadcrumb.

{
plugins: [
  ...
  nestedDocs({
    ...
    generateLabel: (_, doc) => doc.title // NOTE: 'title' is a hypothetical field
  })
]

The function takes two arguments and returns a string:

1. breadcrumbs - an array of the breadcrumbs up to that point
2. currentDoc - the current document being edited

generateURL

A function that allows you to dynamically generate each breadcrumb url. Each breadcrumb has an optional url field which is undefined by default. For example, you might want to format a full URL to contain all of the breadcrumbs up to that point, like /about-us/company/our-team.

plugins: [
  ...
  nestedDocs({
    ...
    generateURL: (docs) => docs.reduce((url, doc) => `${url}/${doc.slug}`, ''), // NOTE: 'slug' is a hypothetical field
  })
]

This function takes two arguments and returns a string:

1. breadcrumbs - an array of the breadcrumbs up to that point
2. currentDoc - the current document being edited

parentFieldSlug

When defined, the parent field will not be provided for you automatically, and instead, expects you to add your own parent field to each collection manually. This gives you complete control over where you put the field in your admin dashboard, etc. Set this property to the name of your custom field.

breadcrumbsFieldSlug

When defined, the breadcrumbs field will not be provided for you, and instead, expects your to add your own breadcrumbs field to each collection manually. Set this property to the name of your custom field.

Note - if you opt out of automatically being provided a parent or breadcrumbs field, you need to make sure that both fields are placed at the top-level of your document. They cannot exist within any nested data structures like a group, array, or blocks.

Overrides

You can also extend the built-in parent and breadcrumbs fields per collection by using the createParentField and createBreadcrumbField methods. They will merge your customizations overtop the plugin's base field configurations.

import { CollectionConfig } from "payload/types";
import createParentField from "@payloadcms/plugin-nested-docs/fields/parent";
import createBreadcrumbsField from "@payloadcms/plugin-nested-docs/fields/breadcrumbs";

const examplePageConfig: CollectionConfig = {
  slug: "pages",
  fields: [
    createParentField(
      // First argument is equal to the slug of the collection
      // that the field references
      "pages",

      // Second argument is equal to field overrides that you specify,
      // which will be merged into the base parent field config
      {
        admin: {
          position: "sidebar",
        },
        // Note: if you override the `filterOptions` of the `parent` field,
        // be sure to continue to prevent the document from referencing itself as the parent like this:
        // filterOptions: ({ id }) => ({ id: {not_equals: id }})`
      }
    ),
    createBreadcrumbsField(
      // First argument is equal to the slug of the collection
      // that the field references
      "pages",

      // Argument equal to field overrides that you specify,
      // which will be merged into the base `breadcrumbs` field config
      {
        label: "Page Breadcrumbs",
      }
    ),
  ],
};

TypeScript

All types can be directly imported:

import {
  PluginConfig,
  GenerateURL,
  GenerateLabel,
} from "@payloadcms/plugin-nested-docs/types";

Development

To actively develop or debug this plugin you can either work directly within the demo directory of this repo, or link your own project.

1. Internal Demo

   This repo includes a fully working, self-seeding instance of Payload that installs the plugin directly from the source code. This is the easiest way to get started. To spin up this demo, follow these steps:

   1. First clone the repo
   2. Then, cd YOUR_PLUGIN_REPO && yarn && cd demo && yarn && yarn dev
   3. Now open http://localhost:3000/admin in your browser
   4. Enter username [e-mail] and password test

   That's it! Changes made in ./src will be reflected in your demo. Keep in mind that the demo database is automatically seeded on every startup, any changes you make to the data get destroyed each time you reboot the app.

2. Linked Project

   You can alternatively link your own project to the source code:

   1. First clone the repo
   2. Then, cd YOUR_PLUGIN_REPO && yarn && cd demo && cp env.example .env && yarn && yarn dev
   3. Now cd back into your own project and run, yarn link @payloadcms/plugin-nested-docs
   4. If this plugin using React in any way, continue to the next step. Otherwise skip to step 7.
   5. From your own project, cd node_modules/react && yarn link && cd ../react-dom && yarn link && cd ../../
   6. Then, cd YOUR_PLUGIN_REPO && yarn link react react-dom

   All set! You can now boot up your own project as normal, and your local copy of the plugin source code will be used. Keep in mind that changes to the source code require a rebuild, yarn build.

   You might also need to alias these modules in your Webpack config. To do this, open your project's Payload config and add the following:

   import { buildConfig } from "payload/config";
   
   export default buildConfig({
     admin: {
       webpack: (config) => ({
         ...config,
         resolve: {
           ...config.resolve,
           alias: {
             ...config.resolve.alias,
             react: path.join(__dirname, "../node_modules/react"),
             "react-dom": path.join(__dirname, "../node_modules/react-dom"),
             payload: path.join(__dirname, "../node_modules/payload"),
             "@payloadcms/plugin-nested-docs": path.join(
               __dirname,
               "../../payload/plugin-nested-docs/src"
             ),
           },
         },
       }),
     },
   });
   

Screenshots