Variable-Length Line Item Edits

Overview

Describes how to add modules to CMS edit pages where variable-length arrays of objects can be added to a content record.

Markup

Cross-site request forgery

• A CSRF token is created and saved as a session variable.
• The value of this variable is saved in a hidden element on the page: #csrf-token where it will then be available in jQuery.

Line item listings

• Outer container has .line-items-container class.
  • This element does not get modified by jQuery.
  • The class is used as a selector in jQuery to target the parent of the individual line items.
• Each individual line item element has .line-item class.
  • The class name is used as a selector in jQuery to assign edit handlers to the individual line items.
  • When iterating through the line item objects in PHP, they should be rendered using a separate PHP include file. This way, that line item include file can be shared between the front-end PHP template and the AJAX script that updates page content.
  • The .line-item element must have the following attributes defined:
    • data-id: Record id of the line item in the database.
    • data-type: PHP class name of the object that can fetch and save the line item data to and from the database.
• New item button:

  <button class="add-line-btn" title="add new [object_name]">add new [object_name]</button>

Edit form

• The edit form markup will include the .line-item element.
• The flattened display of the line item will be replaced in its entirety with the edit form markup.
• The edit form will be replaced in its entirety with the updated flattened display of the line item once editing has been completed.

CSS

There is nothing critical here to the operation of the line item edits.

The line item elements can be table rows or divs.

If they are divs, consider creating CSS rules for .line-item that will render divs contained within it horizontally, and arrange them so that they line up vertically, e.g:

.line_item div {
	display: table-cell;
	vertical-align: top;
	margin-right: 8px;
}

JavaScript

Libraries

• [COMMON_LIB]littled/lineitemModule.js

Binding handlers and buttons

Default binding handlers and buttons:

$(document).ready(function() {
	$('.line-items-module').lineitemModule('init');
});

The defaults can be overridden by passing in custom configuration in the 2nd argument:

$(document).ready(function() {
	$('.line-items-module').lineitemModule('init', {
		edit: {
			selector: '.custom-selector',
			event: 'click',
			uri: '/path/to/custom/edit_ajax.php'
		},
		del: {
			uri: '/path/to/custom/del_ajax.php'
			handler: function(evt, options) {
				console.log('Custom handler called.');
			}
		}
	});
});

PHP

Classes

• [COMMON_LIB]content/ajax_page_class.php
• Custom class to fetch and save the line item data from and to the database.

Utility scripts

• [COMMON_LIB]_ajax/utils/edit_line_item.php
• [COMMON_LIB]_ajax/utils/del_line_item.php

Examples

• littledamien.com ontacts CMS Contact status and contact history
• Luzern Labs Advice CMS (deprecated)