Exposing novice users to the Drupal (7 or 8) block admin interface is problematic yet those users still need to be able to edit block content. This presentation proposes a solution I call "snippets" that allows content editors to edit every little bit of content on their site without them needing access to the block admin interface. It provides a much more intuitive user experience.

1. Taming Drupal Blocks
for Content Editors
Drupal Brisbane Meetup
Tuesday, 12 January 2016
Brian Hay
brian@virtualrealms.com.au

2. Virtual Realms Pty Ltd
www.OrbitOwl.com www.Construct3D.com
www.DrupalEnso.org

3. Block Admin & Client Authors.
Should.
NEVER.
Mix!

4. Quandary: Block Editing by Clients
● Novice clients invariably want to be able to edit EVERYTHING
that looks like content
● And blocks often contain chunks of text or markup that should
be able to be edited by clients
● But exposing clients to the block admin interface …
○ is RISKY, as sometimes site layout, styling & design
integrity rely on block position & content (inline classes &
ids etc) not changing
○ adds COMPLEXITY to the authoring experience
○ increases COSTS of training, support & maintenance

5. Quick demo ...
● Block admin
○ Easy to mess up layout & design
○ Yet another interface to learn
○ Lots of extraneous information

6. What if clients could ...
● edit every little bit of content on their site without
needing access to the block admin interface or
‘administer blocks’ permissions?
● edit everything via the familiar content overview (or
workbench) page & node edit interfaces?
● Bonus extra:
○ edit complex multipart page elements on one page?

7. One Solution: ‘Snippets’
Snippets are:
● Small chunks of text or markup
● That can be used within blocks and views
● Initially created by site builders
● But fully editable by novice clients in exactly the same
way as any other content
● Block content can now benefit from node revisions
Some may be using this technique already!

8. Another Solution: Block Access
● Block Access module
● Have not used this extensively myself
● Would suit some use cases
● However …
○ Still requires client familiarity with block admin interface
○ Doesn’t address editing of text within views headers & footers
○ ‘Snippets’ handle both cases with ease
So let’s get on with it!

9. Snippets: What You’ll Need
● Drupal 7 + Views
○ This ‘problem’ and proposed solution also apply to Drupal 8 but some of these modules
not yet Drupal 8 ready
● Nodeblock
○ Allows setting a content type as a block
● Custom Search (optional)
○ Exclude snippet nodes from search. Not generally a good look if they show in search
results! Note: for SEO you should also exclude from sitemaps! (not covered here)
● Exclude Node Title (optional)
○ Optionally exclude node titles. Very flexible.
● Simplify (optional)
○ Dramatically simplify the content editing experience for clients

10. Snippet: Basic Setup
1. Install required contrib modules
○ ‘Nodeblock’, ‘Exclude Node Title’, ‘Simplify’ & ‘Custom Search’
2. Create ‘Snippet’ content type
○ Title & Body (with no summary) fields
○ Enable Nodeblock ‘Available as block’
○ Hide extra fields using Simplify
3. Exclude ‘Snippet’ nodes from search
○ ‘Custom Search’ > ‘Content tab’ > ‘Content exclusion’
4. Setup ‘Snippet’ node title exclusion option
○ ‘Exclude Node Title’ config > ‘Snippet’ = ‘User defined nodes …’ and check all view modes
5. Create client user, role & permissions
○ Create test user ‘client’
○ Create ‘client author’ role & assign role to user ‘client’
○ Grant permissions for ‘client author’ role:
■ ‘use contextual links’, ‘access content overview page’, ‘view published content’, view
own unpublished content’, ‘snippet: edit own content’, ‘snippet: edit any content’

11. Snippet: Basic Usage
1. Site builder:
○ Create a snippet node e.g. ‘About Us’ with initial placeholder content
○ Nodeblock automatically creates a new block of the same title
○ Place new ‘About Us’ block in region using block admin interface
○ Set block title to ‘<none>’ so that title comes from snippet node instead
2. Client:
○ Edit ‘About Us’ block content via contextual link or content overview page

12. Snippet: Views Setup
1. Create new snippet node for view header
2. Create a new view e.g. ‘Latest Headlines’ block display
○ Unformatted list of node titles filtered by ‘Articles’ & ‘Published’
3. Add header
○ ‘Entity: Rendered Entity’
○ Enter node id of previously created snippet
4. Save view
5. Add new views block ‘Latest Headlines’ to region
○ Set block title to ‘<none>’ so that title comes from snippet node instead

13. Now, if you apply this consistently ...
● Client should have complete editing control
over all content
● You as site builder or developer can sleep
easy knowing that there’ll be fewer problems
and questions

14. Bonus Extra
How to provide single page content editing for multipart
page elements like …
● Group of calls to action
● Group of buttons
● Social media follow links
● Slideshow / carousel
● Etc ...
Client editors shouldn’t have to
edit each node separately!

15. Two Options
There’s at least two decent options I know of:
1. Field collection
○ Popular
○ Relatively easy to setup, configure & theme
2. Inline entity form
○ More low level / technical
○ Will be used as backend for ‘field collection’ in D8

16. Other Lesser Options
Ordering modules:
○ Weight, Nodequeue or DraggableViews modules
○ Can create a page for client authors to change order
○ Still not ‘one-page’ editing / ordering solutions

17. Demo: Bring it all together
‘Follow Us’ block
● New content type
● Nodeblock so it can be used as block
● Multi-entity creation / editing / ordering on one page using field collection
● Template overrides (per collection) possible
Adds up to a faster, easier client editing experience!

18. Lastly ...
● Package these techniques up for easy reuse
with D8 CMI and/or D7 features!

19. Questions?

20. ~ END ~
Thanks!