Would it be technically possible to add Stacked Content items inside a RTE. Just like you do with Macros today? If not, would this be something to consider for future versions of SC?
I can see the use case for more complex content inside BodyContent blocks that gives more control over a Macro.
The other way around would not allow for injection of items inside the text, today you solve that with macros but I thought it would be nicer if you could have more control over it, like you do with Stacked Content.
For instance, if you want a
content inside a text block.
Grid Content might have worked but I still prefer the regular due to the easier management of content itself. Also, even if you use Grid Content, you still would have no way of doing this without lots of micro management.
The grid was one way of solving this. By building blocks that can be moved around, instead of large text blobs that can't be used in responsive layouts.
We only use the RTE as a place to add formatted text (bold, italic etc). For inserting everything else, the customers normally have specific requirements that make them perfect candidates for grid editors.
By having these implemented as marcos (or how it is spelled in umbraco), an editor needs to spend alot more time getting an overview of the content on a page.
That is why Macros are a minus compared to eg Stacked Content.
SC can easily be previewed as you wish.
Obviously the page is responsive, however. if you have large articles, then it would be a bit disruptive to create tons of blocks in a grid rather than one big.
I think there are still some pretty good use cases for RTE first solutions, at least if you work with large Articles.
In the long term, maybe a more modern rich editor would be better. There are some really cool ones for Vue where you have very good control over the text.
The other way around would not allow for injection of items inside the text
I suppose that's a matter of perception of what qualifies as "inside". Sure, maybe you're not actually tossing something inside the rich text editor. However, surrounding an element with rich text is much the same as inserting an element within rich text, is it not?
That is, you could have three stacked blocks:
[ Rich Text Part 1 ]
[ Image Element ]
[ Rich Text Part 2 ]
Would that work for your situation? If not, in what ways would this not work? Do you have a concrete example scenario?
Only downside is, I don't know how to run the values through a value converter, so for editors like grid / NC / etc. your are on your own.
There is just one thing macros can't do, and that is inline elements. Say you have a paragraph of text, and in the middle of that, you need some macro content, like an icon or an input field or something else.
Currently macro content gets added as a block level element in the source, and there is nothing you can do about it. But that would be the same if you had a Stacked Content editor instead of your RTE.
Stacked Content inside Rich Text Editor?
Would it be technically possible to add Stacked Content items inside a RTE. Just like you do with Macros today? If not, would this be something to consider for future versions of SC?
I can see the use case for more complex content inside BodyContent blocks that gives more control over a Macro.
Maybe Matt Brailsford can enlighten me :).
I'm not Matt Brailsford, but why not the other way around? Having Rich Text Editors in Stacked Content.
I think this is the closest I can get to that today. It was mostly a though, I can see use cases for the other way around :).
The RTE is complex enough as is, it would make it rather weird to put other editors inside it
I would suggest looking into a grid approach or maybe just let each content in the stack have an RTE as Søren Kottal suggested
The other way around would not allow for injection of items inside the text, today you solve that with macros but I thought it would be nicer if you could have more control over it, like you do with Stacked Content.
For instance, if you want a
Grid Content might have worked but I still prefer the regular due to the easier management of content itself. Also, even if you use Grid Content, you still would have no way of doing this without lots of micro management.
The grid was one way of solving this. By building blocks that can be moved around, instead of large text blobs that can't be used in responsive layouts.
We only use the RTE as a place to add formatted text (bold, italic etc). For inserting everything else, the customers normally have specific requirements that make them perfect candidates for grid editors.
By having these implemented as marcos (or how it is spelled in umbraco), an editor needs to spend alot more time getting an overview of the content on a page.
That is why Macros are a minus compared to eg Stacked Content. SC can easily be previewed as you wish.
Obviously the page is responsive, however. if you have large articles, then it would be a bit disruptive to create tons of blocks in a grid rather than one big.
I think there are still some pretty good use cases for RTE first solutions, at least if you work with large Articles.
In the long term, maybe a more modern rich editor would be better. There are some really cool ones for Vue where you have very good control over the text.
I suppose that's a matter of perception of what qualifies as "inside". Sure, maybe you're not actually tossing something inside the rich text editor. However, surrounding an element with rich text is much the same as inserting an element within rich text, is it not?
That is, you could have three stacked blocks:
Would that work for your situation? If not, in what ways would this not work? Do you have a concrete example scenario?
I know, this is of course one way I have solved it BUT. It can be inconvenient when you have large articles.
Just a simple Block Quote for instance, only somewhat time saving way I can see today, is to use Macros.
If you have a long (i mean several thousand words) Article, then the above method can be quite tough :).
Main reason I even thought of this, is because I see how awesome Stacked Content is, and how much potential it has.
I really hope it becomes part of Core.
I think macros can help you a long way. If you need some better property editors inside macros, I have made a package that lets you convert data types from your site into macro parameter editors. You can get it here: https://our.umbraco.org/projects/developer-tools/parameter-editor-generator/
Only downside is, I don't know how to run the values through a value converter, so for editors like grid / NC / etc. your are on your own.
There is just one thing macros can't do, and that is inline elements. Say you have a paragraph of text, and in the middle of that, you need some macro content, like an icon or an input field or something else.
Currently macro content gets added as a block level element in the source, and there is nothing you can do about it. But that would be the same if you had a Stacked Content editor instead of your RTE.
There is an issue on the issue tracker adressing this: http://issues.umbraco.org/issue/U4-11382
Interesting Package. I think I will keep it simple for now.
In the long term I hope new ways to edit rich text is investigated. There are some really cool examples with both React and Vue around.
Matt is lobbying for Vue so maybe ;).
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