Parts
A page in Spina has many parts. By default these parts can be one of the following:
- Spina::Parts::Line
- Spina::Parts::MultiLine
- Spina::Parts::Text
- Spina::Parts::Image
- Spina::Parts::ImageCollection
- Spina::Parts::Repeater
- Spina::Parts::Option
These are the building blocks of your view templates. You can have an unlimited number of parts in a page. We prefer to keep the number of parts to a minimum so that managing your pages isn't too complex.
Spina uses an initializer to create the basic building blocks of your page. There are three steps to add a new building block or part to your app:
- Set up a new part in the initializer
- Set the new initializer into a view template
- Add it to the view
Create a new page part
When you install Spina, you will see the following in config/initializers/themes/default.rb
::Spina::Theme.register do |theme|
theme.name = 'default'
theme.title = 'Default Theme'
theme.parts = [{
name: 'content',
title: 'Content',
part_type: 'Spina::Parts::Text'
}]
theme.view_templates = [{
name: 'homepage',
title: 'Homepage',
parts: %w(content)
}, {
name: 'show',
title: 'Default',
description: 'A simple page',
usage: 'Use for your content',
parts: %w(content)
}]
theme.custom_pages = [{
name: 'homepage',
title: 'Homepage',
deletable: false,
view_template: 'homepage'
}]
end
Right now, the default theme is applying a title to the page, with a simple text div below it. Go to /admin on your app and have a look. Edit the textbox and go to preview the page.
Let's say I wanted to add another text box below this called portfolio. First I would add another hash to the parts array like so:
theme.parts = [{
name: 'content',
title: 'Content',
part_type: 'Spina::Parts::Text'
}, {
name: 'portfolio', # added this part
title: 'Portfolio',
part_type: 'Spina::Parts::Text'
}]
Add it to the view template
Now, we need to update the view_templates config. These view templates provide customization for the different views you might want. For example, you may have a 'blog' view or an 'about' view which add different parts. For this example we will add the portfolio part into the 'Default' view template.
theme.view_templates = [{
name: 'homepage',
title: 'Homepage',
parts: %w(content)
}, {
name: 'show',
title: 'Default',
description: 'A simple page',
usage: 'Use for your content',
parts: %w(content portfolio) # added 'portfolio'
}]
Add it to the view
Finally, let's go to views/default/pages/show.html.erb and add the following:
<h1><%= current_page.title %></h1>
<%= content.html :text %>
<%= content.html :portfolio %> # added this line
We have successfully added another textbox! Restart your server and load up the admin section again. You should see another text box below the content box.