Multivalue field

renders multiple fields that allow the user to either enter multiple values such as items in a shopping list or select multiple items such as categories for tagging content. The multivalue field saves the entered values as a LinkedList<T> collection by default. You can save them in a different way by using a multivalue property transformer.

class: info.magnolia.ui.form.field.definition.MultiValueFieldDefinition

fieldType: multiValue

The multivalue field is commonly used to select targets inside Magnolia, for example to select items for display in a carousel.

Multivalue field properties

Simple multivalue field configuration.

form:
  tabs:
    - name: tabMain
      label: Categories
      fields:
        - name: selectCategories
          fieldType: multiValue
          label: Select category
          field:
            name: linkField
            class: info.magnolia.ui.form.field.definition.LinkFieldDefinition
            targetWorkspace: category
            appName: categories
            identifierToPathConverter:
              class: info.magnolia.ui.form.field.converter.BaseIdentifierToPathConverter

Node name	Value
form
tabs
tabMain
fields
selectCategories
field
identifierToPathConverter
class	info.magnolia.ui.form.field.converter.BaseIdentifierToPathConverter
class	info.magnolia.ui.form.field.definition.LinkFieldDefinition
targetWorkspace	category
appName	categories
fieldType	multiValue
label	Select category

See Referencing fields for further information.

Field-specific properties

`<field name>`	required Name of field
`field`	required Parent node for the nested child field. Must be named "field".
`class`	required Child field definition class.
`<other properties>`	required/optional* Any other nodes and properties supported by the child field definition class. *Any required properties must be added.
`buttonSelectAddLabel`	optional, default is `Add` Button label for adding more fields.
`buttonSelectNewLabel`	optional, default is `Select new...` Button label for selecting an item.
`buttonSelectOtherLabel`	optional, default is `Select another...` Button label for selecting a different item.
`transformerClass`	optional, default is `info.magnolia.ui.form.field.transformer.multi.MultiValueTransformer` Property transformer class. Defines how the values are stored in the repository. See also Which transformer should I use?

Of the common field properties listed below, the optional ones you can use are name, type, label, description and styleName:

fieldType

or

class

required

Defines the field type via either a field alias name or a fully-qualified field definition class name. See Field definition: Field types.

Use the Definitions app to check the correct form of the name.

defaultValue

optional

Pre-filled default value displayed in the field. The value can be overwritten by the user. Use alphanumeric characters.

Applied only when creating a new item, not for already existing items.

description

optional

Help text displayed when the user clicks the help icon. The value can be literal or retrieved from the message bundle with a key such as products.product.description. Use alphanumeric characters in literal values. Not applicable to the Static field.

i18n

optional, default is false

Enables i18n authoring support which allows editors to write foreign-language or regionally targeted content. A two-letter language identifier (en, de, fr etc.) is displayed on controls where i18n is set to true.

i18nBasename

optional, default is the message bundle defined in the dialog definition

Message bundle such as com.example.messages for localized field labels. You can set this property in the parent dialog, form or tab definition. Child fields will inherit the bundle.

label

optional

Field label displayed to editors. The value can be literal such as Product name or retrieved from the message bundle with a key such as products.product.label. Use alphanumeric characters in literal values.

If you don't provide the property then Magnolia falls back to a generated i18n key and displays they key in the UI.

If you don't want a label at all then define the property and set its value to empty space such as label: " " in YAML.

name

optional, default is the name of the field's parent node

Name of the node where the value is saved. The name jcrName is reserved. Use alphanumeric characters.

placeholder

optional

The placeholder text to be displayed in the empty field. The property replaces the deprecated placeholder text field.

Applicable in text and link fields.

The field is optional, but you should provide a translation or a hard-coded label, otherwise the empty field will display its auto-generated 18n key instead.

readOnly

optional, default is false

Makes the field uneditable. Adding this property has the same effect as creating a Static field.

required

optional, default is false

Makes the field required (mandatory). An asterisk is displayed next to the field label. See also Checking for null values.

requiredErrorMessage

optional, default is "This field is required"

Error message displayed when required is true and the user saves an empty field. The value can be literal or retrieved from the message bundle with a key such as validation.message.required.

styleName

optional

Adds one or more style names to this component. Multiple styles can be specified as a space-separated list of style names such as checkbox disabled. The style name will be rendered as an HTML class name, which can be used in a CSS definition. The class name is added to the field by calling the Vaadin method addStyleName.

transformerClass

optional

Property transformer classes define how field values are stored in the repository. Each field has a default transformer class. You don't need to define a class unless you want to override the default. The value is a fully-qualified class name.

Complex field definitions may define a different default transformer in their constructor. See Transforming field values for more.

type

optional, most fields set a default value automatically

PropertyType of the stored value such as String, Boolean, Date or any other supported and defined data type.

Best practice

Use DelegatingMultiValueTransformer when nesting more than two levels of fields. The other multivalue transformers can only handle two levels max.

Multivalue containing a single field

Here is an example of a multivalue field that contains a single text field. The parent shopping list is the multivalue field, list items are text fields.

In configuration, define the parent multivalue field first, then add a field node, and define the child field's properties under it.

form:
  tabs:
    - name: tabMain
      label: Main
      fields:
        - name: shoppingList
          fieldType: multiValue
          label: Shopping list
          field:
            class: info.magnolia.ui.form.field.definition.TextFieldDefinition
            label: Title

Node name	Value
form
tabs
tabText
fields
shoppingList
field
class	info.magnolia.ui.form.field.definition.TextFieldDefinition
label	Title
fieldType	multiValue
label	Shopping list

Multivalue containing a composite field

Here is an example event list. The parent list is a multivalue field. Each event is a composite field that consists of a text field and a date field.

Note how the NoOpCompositeTransformer is used to prevent the composite field from saving the field values. The NoOpCompositeTransformer hands the responsibility of saving values to the multivalue parent. The default transformer for the multivalue field is the MultiValueTransformer. However, here we cannot use it because it would store the child values in one multivalue property that looks like a comma separated list. That single property is bound to a single type. It cannot handle two different types of values: strings and dates. The solution is to use the MultiValueSubChildrenNodePropertiesTransformer which stores each value in a separate property, allowing them to be of different types.

form:
  tabs:
    - name: tabText
      label: Multivalue composite
      fields:
        - name: events
          fieldType: multiValue
          label: Events
          transformerClass: info.magnolia.ui.form.field.transformer.multi.MultiValueSubChildrenNodePropertiesTransformer
          field:
            name: compositeField
            fieldType: composite
            transformerClass: info.magnolia.ui.form.field.transformer.composite.NoOpCompositeTransformer
            fields:
              - name: title
                fieldType: text
                label: Title
              - name: date
                fieldType: date
                label: Date

Node name	Value
form
tabs
tabText
fields
events
field
fields
title
fieldType	text
label	Title
date
fieldType	date
label	Date
fieldType	composite
transformerClass	info.magnolia.ui.form.field.transformer.composite.NoOpCompositeTransformer
fieldType	multiValue
label	Events
transformerClass	info.magnolia.ui.form.field.transformer.multi.MultiValueSubChildrenNodePropertiesTransformer

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Multivalue field properties

Multivalue containing a single field

Multivalue containing a composite field

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