Harmonize table layout options for sections and structure field

[jaro-io]

description

hey there 🌳 🍃

both pages sections with layout: table and structure fields kind of share the same table view. also their columns can both be customised. see here and here. however, the options to modify columns are very different. pages sections for example can show modified labels or values, including the ability to use kirby’s query language. or even show html. structure fields can’t.

expected behavior
i was actually expecting these areas to share the same logic. and was quite surprised when i found out structure fields are very limited in comparison to pages sections. are you planning to align the column options at some point? or is there a reason why this cannot be done that i am not seeing?

thank youuuu ♥️ ✨

to reproduce

pages section

type: pages
label: something
layout: table
columns:
  something:
    width: 1/2                    #working
    label: custom                 #working
    value: '{{ page.something }}' #working

structure field

type: structure
label: something
columns:
  something:
    width: 1/2                    #working
    label: custom                 #not working
    value: '{{ page.something }}' #not working

your setup

kirby version
3.7.1

[lukasbestle]

I'd say the difference comes from the fact that the sections and the structure field come from very different directions and only recently began sharing the same table layout. It would certainly make sense to harmonize them for a better consistency.

Regarding the label: You can currently set that with the fields property of the structure field, see the second example here: https://getkirby.com/docs/reference/panel/fields/structure#table-columns__example

[distantnative]

@jaro-io Could you elaborate a bit on how you would like to use query syntax in the structure field columns? Your example of '{{ page.something }}' doesn't make much sense to me as the structure field table is of course intended to display the value(s) of the structure field and not just any data.

[jaro-io]

@distantnative sure, that’s true. i think i have seen structureItem somewhere before.. can’t remember if this was part of a plugin or of some area within kirby itself. so imagine within your structure you have a field called costs, it could then be accessed via value: '{{ structureItem.costs }}'.

does this make sense to you? 🙏🏻 ✨

[distantnative]

That is from dynamic options (e.g. select field). But the columns in a structure field are exactly for the fields from the structure field. So you don't need any query here. Just

myStructureField:
  type: structure
  columns:
    costs: # the column name here needs to match the field name below and then automatically use the value
      label: My costs # will work after the PR I just opened to fix this bug
  fields:
    costs:
      type: number

[jaro-io]

of course, of course!

i am just using tons of custom field methods. so instead i would for example want to do something like

myStructureField:
  type: structure
  columns:
    costs:
      value: '{{ structureItem.costs.formatPrice() }}'
  fields:
    costs:
      type: number

or something like

myStructureField:
  columns:
    costs:
      type: html
      value: '<a href="{{ page.panel.url }}">{{ structureItem.title }}</a>'
  fields:
    costs:
      type: number

would be really great if this would work in the future, like it does for pages sections with table layout.

🌻

[distantnative]

I would ask you to post that part as a feature request over at https://kirby.nolt.io

While with the direct field values the Panel can render the table directly in the Panel, your suggestion would require that the Panel first sends the values to the backend where your queries would be rendered by PHP and send back to the Panel. So that's not a small change.

[bastianallgeier]

✅