Neos Media Ui

This package contains the new interface to manage media in Neos CMS (5.2+).

During the initial development the package will be in the Flowpack namespace and will later replace neos/media-browser. Having two modules allows us currently to install them both and be able to test them without losing features.

If you want to use Neos, please have a look at the Neos documentation.

Installation

Run the following command to install it:

composer require flowpack/media-ui 

What changes?

This package will currently add a second media backend module called Media (new) and a new media selection screen for asset and image editors. The old media module will still be available until this package replaces it completely with Neos 8.0 (planned).

Disabling the new media selection

If you want to use this package in a real project you might want to disable the new media selection if it doesn't work as expected. You can do this by adding the following setting to your Settings.yaml:

Neos:
  Neos:
    Ui:
      frontendConfiguration:
        Flowpack.Media.Ui:
          useNewMediaSelection: false

Optional features

Fast asset usage calculation & unused assets view

The default asset usage in Neos is very slow as it is calculated when required. For that it checks your whole project where an asset might be used. For the new media ui a new method has been implemented via the package Flowpack.Neos.AssetUsage.

The package provides a service that stores all asset usage references in a database table (other storages can be implemented). After you install the package and its peer dependencies you should therefore update the usage reference index:

./flow assetusage:update

You have to do this only once for each instance of the application, f.e. dev / staging / production. Afterwards the index will be automatically be kept up-to-date. Make sure you run the command manually again after you run imports or change the content repository in any other unusual way. This will clean up any outdated usage.

You can now enable the feature via the following setting:

Neos:
  Neos:
    Ui:
      frontendConfiguration:
        Flowpack.Media.Ui:
          queryAssetUsage: true

Now the "delete" action for assets will be disabled if an asset is in use, and the filter dropdown contains a new item "Unused". Selecting it will switch the main view to show all unused assets.

Show similar assets

This package provides a SimilarAssetStrategyInterface. Other packages can implement this interface and provide a list of other assets based on a given asset.

Example for this could be perceptually similar images or assets with similar filenames.

Given that you installed a package with a strategy, enable the feature in the ui with the following setting:

Neos:
  Neos:
    Ui:
      frontendConfiguration:
        Flowpack.Media.Ui:
          showSimilarAssets: true

Architecture

API / GraphQL

This module introduces a GraphQL API for the Neos Media system. The API is open and can be reused for custom apps. A valid Neos backend user is required to access it, but you can define custom policies and an authentication provider to allow access without a user and f.e. use a token based authentication.

The API is public and will be stable with the 1.0.0 release. Until then, changes might still happen.

Schema

The GraphQL schema can be found here.

Interface

This module uses React for the implementation of the UI. Currently all components are built with hooks and integrate with other plugins via hooks. This gives a lot of flexibility for future extensions and during the current prototype phase of this package.

State management

Query variables

Query related state variables are stored via GraphQL Mutations in the Apollo Client Cache. Some of those variables are then persisted into the localstorage of the browser.

Resolved query result state

The MediaUI provider currently stores the results in its state and provides them to all child components via provider values. This will be probably changed to only set shared states than all components can access.

Component states

Component state should be stored with React hooks.

Shared component states

The shared component states are current implemented via React Recoil atoms and selectors. See the state folders in the various modules in Resources/Private/JavaScript for examples.

Those should be used every time multiple components share a state that is not relevant for the GraphQL queries.

Fund the development

We need your help to develop this package. You can find supporter badges on the official Neos funding site.

Contributing

To start with development make sure you have nvm and yarn installed and run the following command in the packages folder:

yarn

Running the standalone dev server without Neos

The dev server allows to run the module without a Neos instance. This is also the basis for running most tests and implementing new features.

yarn dev

Enter localhost:8000 in your browser and you will have a running media ui instance without neos.

Building the module assets

This will create a production build of the module assets.

yarn build

Recompile files during development

The following command will recompile and reload the media module when changes to the scripts happen:

yarn watch

Only watch the backend module code

yarn watch:module

Only watch the UI plugin

yarn watch:editor

Check for code quality

Run the following command to verify the TypeScript files:

yarn lint

Run e2e tests

First start the dev server via yarn dev and the run the following command to execute all end-to-end tests:

yarn e2e

The test configuration is defined in .testcaferc.json. Change the options there if you want to use a different browser or make some other changes.

Run phpstan for codestyle checks

First make sure you have phpstand installed.

When the package is installed in a Neos distribution:

phpstan analyse --autoload-file ../../Libraries/autoload.php

When the package is standalone

composer run phpstan

Other development hints

Register additional icons

Font Awesome icons are registered in Resources/Private/JavaScript/src/lib/FontAwesome. This way the bundle size is kept to a minimum.

Patches

Several patches are applied during installation via patch-package. Additional patches can be generated and stored there with the same tool if necessary.

Connection between the backend module and UI plugin

The codebase is 99% reused between the backend module and the asset selection in the Neos UI. Make sure changes work in both worlds or provide a compatiblity layer in the corresponding initialisation.

Development helpers

• Extension for debugging GraphQL schema and queries in the browser
• Plugin for code completion and helpers in PHPStorm

License

See license.