Creating a new content plugin

Most GLAMkit content uses the Fluent Contents system for adding an ordered list of arbitrary content items to a given Django model (aka “Rich Content”). A Content Item is (usually) a small model for representing an item of content on a page and can have any fields that a normal model has.

Content Items and Fluent Contents models (which contain them) are related with Generic Foreign Keys.

Which content plugins are used in the project and how do I remove / add one?

All content plugins need to be listed in INSTALLED_APPS as they are self contained Django apps. Each of these apps to be available for registration must extend ContentItem for the model declaration and ContentPlugin for the registration for use.

To be able to find which plugins are installed into the project looking in INSTALLED_APPS can start you on the process of discovery as well as searching the project and environment for ContentItem or ContentPlugin.

If the app is installed it does not necessarily mean that it is available for use every where in the project. There is a setting named FLUENT_CONTENTS_PLACEHOLDER_CONFIG which allows each region to have specified content plugins enabled for it. If the region is not defined in this setting it is assume that all content plugins are appropriate for use with it.

To add a content plugin to a project add it in INSTALLED_APPS and if applicable define its use in FLUENT_CONTENTS_PLACEHOLDER_CONFIG.

To remove a content plugin first ensure all the content instances have been removed from your database and then remove the content plugin from INSTALLED_APPS and FLUENT_CONTENTS_PLACEHOLDER_CONFIG.

GLAMkit also has a simpler PublishableArticle model, which implements a Publishable Fluent Contents model - ie it’s a straightforward Django model that happens to have rich content and be publishable. This is useful for more normal Django collections-of-things, like Press Releases, People, Articles.

It’s common to have a collecton of items with a paired AbstractLayoutPage Page to list/navigate the collection. See the authors app for a worked example of this.

Adding help text to a Placeholder

You can also add help text to a placeholder, by specifying a 'help_text' entry for the placeholder in settings.FLUENT_CONTENTS_PLACEHOLDER_CONFIG:

FLUENT_CONTENTS_PLACEHOLDER_CONFIG = {
    ...
    'about_the_show': {
        'plugins':  (
            'RawHTMLPlugin',
            'TextPlugin',
        ),
        'help_text': "About the show can <em>only</em> have text and HTML."
    },
    ...
}

The placeholder help text displays when its tab is selected.

Note: Placeholder help text is currently only implemented for Models that inherit GLAMkit’s LayoutFieldMixin, and with an Admin that inherits from FluentLayoutsMixin. This is because icekit.admin.LayoutAdmin defines a URL/view that includes the help text, and the icekit/static/icekit/admin/js/fluent_layouts.js file injects the help text into the DOM.

Adding rich content to a model.

You can add modular content to any model, not only hierarchical Page models, with two mixin classes:

# models.py

from icekit.mixins import FluentFieldsMixin

class MyModel(FluentFieldsMixin, MyModelBase):
    ...

# admin.py

from icekit.admin_tools.mixins import FluentLayoutsMixin

class MyModelAdmin(FluentLayoutsMixin, MyModelAdminBase):
    ...

FluentFieldsMixin will add a layout field to your model, so you’ll need a migration for this change:

$ manage.py makemigrations myapp
$ manage.py migrate

Creating New Plugins

We should endeavor to use the reference plugins as-is to keep things DRY.

When they don’t entirely fit the requirements, we should try to enhance them in a backwards compatible way to support the new requirements without breaking any existing projects that might be using them.

If the requirements are drastically divergent and can’t support both the current and new requirements, we can make a new plugin.

If the new requirements are widely reusable, we should make a new reference plugin in icekit, or perhaps in another repository.

If the new requirements are a different flavour of the same thing that will almost certainly only apply to one client or project, then we can make a new plugin in the project.

Before we make a new plugin in the project, we should consider that:

  1. A fully customised solution is warranted by the requirements and budget;
  2. Future projects won’t be able to benefit from custom plugins developed for one project. It is rarely the case that we refactor project plugins into icekit after a project has ended.
  3. The project won’t get “free” plugin enhancements when upgrading to a new version of GLAMkit.
  4. We may end up re-implementing very similar plugins again and again in different projects.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I target a specific page layout with a plugin?

Defining a ‘placeholder slot’

Configuring the available plugins

How do I make changes to the fields on a plugin that lives in the venv? How do I add/remove fields in the admin?

Inherit from the plugin, make changes as a subclass, use fieldsets (property on the content plugin) to hide fields.

Refer to fluent-contents - specifically Customizing the admin interface