Truncate content of fields in admin columns

[bluemultimedia]

We are currently building a website that is going to use a lot of template fragments with the help of PageTable fields. The editor can build a page out of multiple fragments that will all combine to the full body content of the page. This works really really well. Here is a quick preview:

Now, the problem we are seeing ist that not all template fragments are going to have a headline (see first element in the PageTable). This makes it in some cases difficult for editors to find the correct fragment to edit. So we tried to add the body content as a way to show more information. This lead to this:

Unfortunately this makes the PageTable even harder to use if long texts are involved. 

Possible other solutions we considered:

• Make editors set a title for each fragment: they won’t like that and it adds a layer of difficulty
• Force them to add a headline and add a checkbox if it should not be displayed: additional complexity
• Add truncated text with stripped out markup to the column instead of the full text

The last item on the list, truncating, is the solution we would prefer. As far as we can see that is not currently possible without extending the functionality. Does anyone have an idea how to best approach this? Is there perhaps a module that could help out? Functionality we overlooked?

This is just a minor issue and we are more than satisfied with the incredible flexibility ProcessWire does allow.  But we want to make life for our editors as easy as possible and this would help a lot to get us to that goal. 

[LostKobrakai]

PageTables do use the markupValue function of fields to determine their content. The function can easily be hooked to manipulate or change the returned markup. 

E.g. in ready.php

$wire->addHookAfter('Fieldtype::markupValue', function($event) {
  $page = $event->arguments(0);
  $field = $event->arguments(1);

  // change the markup if needed
 
  $event->return = $customMarkup
});

Another option could be adding a runtime property to the pages, which holds the right values and use this one in the pagetable.

[bluemultimedia]

This is a great solution, thanks!

My ready.php hook:

$wire->addHookAfter('Fieldtype::markupValue', function($event) {

  $page = $event->arguments(0);
  $field = $event->arguments(1);

  if($field->type == 'FieldtypeTextareaLanguage' or $field->type == 'FieldtypeTextarea') {
    $displayValue = strip_tags($page->get($field));
    if(strlen($displayValue) > 100) {
        $displayValue = substr($displayValue,0,97).'...';
    }  
  }
  else {
      $displayValue = $page->get($field);
  }
  
  $event->return = $displayValue;
});

 

Only problem I am seeing now: after the modal window to edit the pageTable fragment closes, the content refreshes and shows the full content again. The URL that requests the new content is this one:

/processwire/page/edit/?id=1293&InputfieldPageTableField=content_elements&InputfieldPageTableAdd=1294&InputfieldPageTableSort=1294,1295,1296,1297,1298,129

Any idea how I can hook into the refresh? I will try the runtime property option too, just in case.

Edited November 18, 2015 by Dominik

[LostKobrakai]

It's strange that this would result in different markup, as the rows should be build by the same code. I've no idea why this would happen. But I'd suggest to limit the functionality down by template or something like this, as this hook will currently hit all listers/pagetables that show textareas. Of course only if that's not your intention. 

[bluemultimedia]

Thanks for the feedback. I edited the function to account for non-Textarea FieldTypes. Should I report the issue regarding the PageTable Refresh as a bug? The markupValue-hook is definitely not called.

[LostKobrakai]

In your hook you can just return without doing anything if your criteria weren't met. No need to retrieve the field value again. You can certainly post this on Github, as it's at least unexpected that the hook isn't called.