Custom Modules (AKA WebApps)

Settings

These settings relate to the overall Custom Modules options and functionality and how content might be managed by site administrators.

For nested modules, such as Blogs, Events, Galleries, FAQs, and any nested Custom Modules, you may wish to edit the settings for each of the 2 nested modules. You can easily switch between the 2 module's settings using the switcher at the top of page (under the modules name). The disabled, greyed out item, indicates the currently active module - while the active, highlighted linked item, provides a link to the related module.

Item Properties

Here you can define the various options that might be available when creating Custom Module items, such as the system data fields to be used, default expiry, SEO settings, custom fields, and more...

Layouts

Layouts are the containers for an item's data to be rendered into, along with your custom markup. They are output by way of their associated component tag.
eg:

{% component type: "module", source: "<Custom Module Name>", layout: "List" %}

When the component is output it loops through all of its relevant items and renders their data into the specified Layout, as defined by the layout parameter of the component tag.
In other words, the Layout acts as a type of template for displaying the Custom Modules data.

You create your HTML markup or custom code and insert something similar to “data merge tags” by way of Liquid objects (eg: {{this['name']}} would render the item’s name).

From the Custom Module Layouts screen you’ll also have access to the Parent/Child Layouts as this is a grouped module. For this article, we’ll just focus on the Custom Module Layouts.

List Layouts

Layouts of type ‘List’ are typically used for rendering repeating data sets. So, if the component you've configured retrieves 3 Custom Modules, the List Layout will be rendered 3 times, each with a different item’s data being inserted within a defined markup.

Here is a simple example of how the Layout works, rendering a heading with the item's name as a link:

<div>
    <h2><a href="{{this['Url']}}">{{this['Name']}}</a></h2>
</div>

Using the example above of 3 items, the result on the website's front-end would look something like this:

<div>
    <h2><a href="/module-url/Custom Module-1">Custom Module 1</a></h2>
</div>
<div>
    <h2><a href="/module-url/Custom Module-2">Custom Module 2</a></h2>
</div>
<div>
    <h2><a href="/module-url/Custom Module-3">Custom Module 3</a></h2>
</div>

Detail Layouts

Layouts of type ‘Detail’ are typically used for rendering a single item's detail view, as displayed when browsing to that item’s unique URL.

Here is a simple example of how the detail Layout could look, rendering a heading with the item's name and the item's description field:

<div>
    <h2>{{this['Name']}}</h2>
    <div>
        {{this['Description']}}
    </div>
</div>

So, as per the example above, if viewing the first Custom Module, the Layout would render something like this:

<div>
    <h2>Custom Module Item 1</h2>
    <div>
        This is the description content of Custom Module Item 1.
    </div>
</div>

Adding/Editing Layouts

You have the freedom of editing these layouts as you need to, with any HTML, CSS or JS as appropriate for your project. As well as creating unlimited, additional layouts.

Click the 'CREATE NEW' button at the top and choose which grouped module you wish to add a list or detail layout for.

You can then add your custom markup and insert dynamic Liquid objects into your layout. Using the ' Properties' manager (found at the top right of the editor), simply click on the desired Liquid object name from the list to have it inserted at your cursors position within your markup, or click on the copy icon () to copy it to your clipboard.

Additionally, you can even add other modules inside of these Layouts, just as you might insert them onto a regular page. Simply click on the ' Components' manager (found at the top right of the editor) and follow the prompts to configure any additional component tags for the desired data output.

Table

This setting allows you to customise the column headers in the table/list view of module items in the admin. Allowing you to provide a better editing experience for you and the site admins.

For example, looking at a list of products, you’d likely want to see, and sort by, different columns of data than you would for a list of gallery slides or a list of staff members.

Reposition or Remove Table Columns

The Tables interface shows a representation of the current column headers which can be repositioned (via drag and drop), or deleted (via the x () icon, shown on hover).

Any changes made to the headers here are saved automatically.

Editing Table Columns

You can add additional columns to your module list view by clicking the “Add New Column” button, or you can edit existing ones via the pencil () icon (shown next to the column label on hover).

Column options are as follows:

Views

There are 3 different list views your Custom Module items can be configured to display in, or switched to via the icons ( ) in the top right of the item view.

Depending on how the module is configured, some or all of these icons may be visible and the default view may be different to that of how other modules display.

List View ()

A direct listing of all the current module items, in a tabular layout, which can be clicked on to access their content. A typical view for singular, self contained modules.

Tree View ()

Relevant for nested module structures, this view shows all current module items, in a tabular layout, as folders (parent items) which can be clicked into to access a List View of their child module items.

Simplified Tree View ()

Relevant for nested module structures, this view shows all current module items (parent items) in a simplified list of items only. These can be reordered or nested via drag and drop or further edited via the auxiliary menu () visible next to the item on hover.

For more details on these view options see the module ‘Advanced Settings’ section above.

Import / Export

Found under the main auxiliary menu (), you can import/export data to/from your Custom Modules module where you can then further update your items in bulk using a spreadsheet application and re-import item data in an Excel file format (.xlsx).

If re-importing to update existing items, be sure to maintain the same 'External ID' values from those exported items.

Export the current items in order to get a template import file you can use for importing new data. If you're starting from scratch, first create a dummy item with some sample data so you can see the import format needed.

Import for Nested (Parent/Child) Modules

Nested modules include eCommerce (Products/Catalogs), Blogs, Events, Banners, Galleries & Sliders, FAQs, and any Custom Modules that have been configured to ‘Allow creating foreign items from other existing Custom Modules’.

The import file for such child modules will include a ‘Parents’ column which allows the imported item (row) to be assigned to a parent item (or its root level) via it’s URL path/slug. Or even multiple parents, if ‘Allow multiple parent items’ is configured in the parent module.

For example; if we have a parent module called “Web Technologies” with an item called “Javascript” and we wanted to assign an item from a nested Custom Module to it, we would include the following path in the child item’s “Parent” column cell: /web-technologies/javascript

The item’s full URL would then become /web-technologies/javascript/item-name

And if assigning to multiple parents, we would include each parent item’s slug separated by a semicolon (;), like so: /web-technologies/javascript;/web-technologies/liquid

Similarly, if we want to assign the child item to the root level parent module, include the module slug without any parent item slug included: /web-technologies

If the import file for the child items has empty ‘Parent’ cells or if the column is not present, the child items will be imported into the view you initiated the import from. So if you are viewing the parent items in ‘List View’ or are at the top level/root using ‘Tree View’, the imported items will be assigned to the root level of the parent module. Likewise, if you have navigated into a parent “folder” and initiate the import process, the child items will be assigned to the currently viewed “folder” (only if the Parent cell is empty or omitted from the file).

You can also assign child items as parents to other child items, in the same module, during the same import process. For example; if we have two child items called “Number type” and “Integer” an wanted “Integer” to be a child of “Number type”, then it’s Parent cell value would include the parent module’s root slug and the target child item’s slug, like so:
/web-technologies/number-type

Resulting in the item’s full URL to become /web-technologies/number-type/integer

The sequence of the imported items in the spreadsheet is not important here. They can be in any order.

URL Conflicts

If, upon attempting to create an imported item with the constructed parent/child URL, the URL already exists in your site, the item will be handled in one of two ways (based on the site’s setting in ‘Settings’ > ‘Misc’ > ‘Disable autocomplete for already taken URL slugs’):

• If setting is unchecked (URL autocomplete enabled) then the conflicting URL will be appended with an incrementing number.
• If setting is checked (URL autocomplete disabled) then the import will present an error for that item and skip any update/creation of the item.

Other Errors

The import process will present an error of each imported item if any of the following conditions are encountered (and will skip that item from being updated/created):

• If multiple parent slugs are included in the Parent cell but the module is not configured with the setting “Allow multiple parent items”
• If multiple parent slugs are included in the Parent cell and one or more of those slugs do not match any existing parent module items (missing parent items will not be created during import).
• If the slug included in the Parent cell is the same as the item slug being updated/created (cannot assign itself as parent).

If an error is thrown on a child item that is elsewhere assigned, in the import file, to be a parent to other child items, then all of those child items will also be skipped during import, since their parent cannot be created.

Deleting

Found under the main auxiliary menu (), you can delete ALL Custom Modules in bulk using the "Delete All Items" option.

Additionally, you can make bulk selections from the item list view (by ticking the checkboxes on the left of each item) and click the "DELETE SELECTION" button that will appear at the base of the list view.

Individual items can be deleted either by expanding the auxiliary menu to the right of each item and selecting the "Delete" option or when on the item's edit page, click the trash can icon () in the lower right of the page.

Bulk Apply Template

After making a selection of module items, using the checkboxes to the left of each item, an “Apply Template” option will become available in the main auxiliary menu () allowing you to assign a template, in bulk, to the selected items.

Settings

Parent

This tab will only be visible when the module is in a nested configuration, with a parent and child module grouping, and when the child module allows ‘multiple parent items’ in its advanced settings.

The tab will carry the name of the parent/child module, depending on which module you are viewing.

See module Advanced Setting above for more details on this configuration.

This page will display the items from the Parent module and allows you to assign multiple Parent to the current Custom Module item - by dragging and dropping from the available items on the left into the assigned list on the right. Or you can remove Parent from the Custom Module by moving them from right to left.

Additionally, the directional arrows in the middle can be used to move selected items right or left, or to move ALL items together right or left (using the double arrow buttons). This can be useful to clear all assigned Parent from the Custom Module quickly, for example.

SEO

Component Tag with ‘isSearchResult’

To render the search results to the page and/or a collection, you need to configure the module’s component tag with the isSearchResult parameter set to true (see the Custom Module component documentation for technical details).

{% component type: "module", source: "<Custom Module Name>", layout: "List", isSearchResult: "true" %}

This will allow the component to reference search parameters in the resulting URL.

URL search parameters will override any corresponding parameters in the component. If no search parameters are present in the URL, isSearchResult will be ignored.

You may want to separate the search form from the component tag if you want a dedicated search results page, or where you have a search input in the header or footer of all pages as so searches could be made from any page.

This method also alleviates a side-effect of the isSearchResult configured component whereby it will output all indexed items by default if no search query has been specified (ie: when a user first navigates to a search page).

If you do want one single search page, with both search form and component and don’t want to initially list all results, another solution to this is to wrap the component tag in a Liquid condition which looks for the presence of the prop_KeyWords parameter in the URL, like so:

{% if request.request_url.params.prop_KeyWords %}
    {% component type: "module", source: "<Custom Module Name>", layout: "List", isSearchResult: "true" %}
{% endif %}

Basic Search Form

A basic keyword based search form for Custom Modules would be constructed like the following:

<form>
    <input type="hidden" name="prop_ModuleId" value="1234">
    <label>Keywords</label>
    <input type="text" name="prop_KeyWords" maxlength="255" value="{{request.request_url.params.prop_KeyWords}}">
    <input type="submit" value="Search">
</form>

This form element includes a prop_KeyWords text input, prop_ModuleId hidden input, a submit button and no form action attribute.

The prop_ModuleId hidden input tells the search which module to search (replace ‘1234’ with the ID of your module).

The prop_KeyWords text input allows multiple keywords to be entered for searching.

The search logic combines multiple keywords with an AND operator, so items will be returned only if they include ALL keywords entered.

Currently, searching does not support any manual logic operators to be used in the keyword input field (such as; AND, OR, NOT...)

When the form is submitted, prop_ModuleId and prop_KeyWords, along with their values, will be passed as URL parameters for the isSearchResult configured component tag to interpret.

By default, the search form has no action attribute, so it will redirect to the current page with the URL parameter appended to the current page URL.

You can, instead, separate the search form from the ‘site_search’ component, having the module component on a separate page and sending the search query to that page instead of the current page.

To do this, you’d add the other page URL slug to the form element. So if the other page was “/search-results”, you’d adjust the form to include an action attribute as such:

<form action="/search-results">

Advanced Search Form

Building further on the basic form structure above, you can add Custom Module specific fields to search their contents, either individually or combined with other fields and/or keyword queries.

The search logic combines all field queries with an AND operator, so items will be returned only if they include ALL the queries entered.

The fields that can be search upon include:

• Name
• URL (Slug)
• SKU Code
• Release Date
• Expiry Date
• Site Search Keywords
• Description
• Any ‘Default Properties’ (eg: Categories, Tags, Author...)
• Any ‘Custom Properties’
• Module specific ‘System Properties’ (Price, Product Dimensions, Unit Type, Capacity...)

To add these fields to your search form, create an appropriate input with the name attribute configured like prop_PropertyName.

So, if you were adding a search field for a custom property called “Vehicle Colour”, the form input might look like this:

<input type="text" name="prop_VehicleColour">

Follow this same format for most other properties. Although you may like to change the input type to suit the type of data required.

For example, if our above “Vehicle Colour” property was actually a dropdown field with predefined colour values, you may choose to create a <select> element instead, like so:

<select name="prop_VehicleColour">
    <option value="Red">Red</option>
    <option value="Blue">Blue</option>
    <option value="Green">Green</option>
</select>

After the search form has been submitted, you might also like to keep the search queries filled in the search form fields, for better usability. So to do this you can pull the query parameters out of the URL and into the input values, like so:

<input type="text" name="prop_VehicleColour" value="{{request.request_url.params.prop_VehicleColour}}">

Search Within Number Ranges

For property types such as dates, prices and numbers, you can search with a to-from/min-max range by adding _Min or _Max to the property name.

So let’s say you want to search for items within a certain date range, based on their release/expiry dates.

<input type="datetime-local" name="prop_ReleaseDate_Min">
<input type="datetime-local" name="prop_ExpiryDate_Max">

And to populate these fields with the searched values:

<input type="datetime-local" name="prop_ReleaseDate_Min" value="{{request.request_url.params.prop_ReleaseDate_Min | date: "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M"}}">
<input type="datetime-local" name="prop_ExpiryDate_Max" value="{{request.request_url.params.prop_ExpiryDate_Max | date: "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M"}}">

Searching for a minimum release date will return all items with a release date newer (or the same as) the query date. And likewise searching for a maximum expiry date will return all items with an expiry date older (or the same as) the query date.

Programmatically Search (without a form)

There may be times when you require the search results for a module based on constructed data, other than that of a user’s input into a search form.

You can achieve this with the use of the searchScope parameter on the module’s component tag (see the Custom Module component documentation for technical details).

This parameter allows a search on the module without search parameters needed in the URL. Instead, search parameters are added to the value of this parameter. Therefore, this parameter can be used to output module specific search results from hard-coded (or Liquid constructed) values without the use of a search form.

The search queries are similar to that used in the above form based search method, but use JSON syntax for their construction.

Below is an example of a constructed searchScope configured component tag, with min/max release date search, keywords and multiple tags query:

{% component type: "module", source: "<Custom Module Name>", layout: "List", searchScope: "{'prop_ReleaseDate_Min':'2018-07-01', 'prop_ReleaseDate_Max':'2018-07-31', 'prop_KeyWords':'Your Keywords', 'prop_ItemTags':['tag1','tag2']}" %}

The search logic combines all field queries with an AND operator, so items will be returned only if they include ALL the queries entered.