• 
• Updated On 4.0.1

Crafter Studio Dashboard Plugin Example

The dashboard contains different dashlets that show at a glance all items currently in workflow, all items recently modified by the current user, etc. Dashlets shown vary depending on the user’s role. For more information on the Dashboard, see here

Let’s take a look at an example of creating a Dashboard plugin in Studio using a project called My Editorial created using the Website Editorial blueprint.

1. The first thing we have to do is to create the folder structure where we will be placing the JS file for our dashboard plugin. We’ll follow the convention listed in UI Plugin Directory Structure. For our example, CATEGORY is dashboard and the NAME is test-dashboard

   In a local folder, create the descriptor file for your plugin craftercms-plugin.yaml with the plugin.id set to org.craftercms.plugin.exampletoolbar, then create the following folder structure:

   Dashboard Plugin Directory Structure

   <plugin-folder>/
     craftercms-plugin.yaml
     authoring/
       static-assets/
         plugins/
           org/
             craftercms/
               plugin/
                 exampledashboard/
                   dashboard/
                     test-dashboard/
   

   
   

   We will be placing the JS file implementing the toolbar plugin under the test-toolbar folder For our example, the <plugin-folder> is located here: /users/myuser/myplugins/toolbar-plugin

2. We’ll create the JavaScript file for our plugin by following the instructions in the plugin example here which will generate the index.js file.

   Inside the test-dashboard folder, create two empty files, index.css and script.js, and place the index.js file in it.

3. To setup our dashboard plugin to be automatically wired in the corresponding configuration file in Studio (which for a dashboard, is the User Interface Configuration file) during the installation, add the following to your craftercms-plugin.yaml descriptor file

   craftercms-plugin.yaml

   installation:
     - type: preview-app
       parentXpath: /siteUi/widget[@id='craftercms.components.Dashboard']
       testXpath: //plugin[@id='org.craftercms.plugin.dashboard']
       element:
         name: configuration
         children:
         - name: widgets
           children:
           - name: widget
             attributes:
             - name: id
               value: org.craftercms.sampleComponentLibraryPlugin.components.reactComponent
             children:
             - name: plugin
               attributes:
               - name: id
                 value: org.craftercms.plugin.dashboard
               - name: type
                 value: dashboard
               - name: name
                 value: test-dashboard
               - name: file
                 value: index.js
   
    |
   

   Remember to use the same value used in plugin.id (found at the top of the descriptor file) for the installation section plugin.id which for our example is org.craftercms.plugin

4. After placing your plugin files and setting up auto-wiring, the plugin may now be installed for testing/debugging using the crafter-cli command copy-plugin.

   
   
   

   When running a crafter-cli command, the connection to CrafterCMS needs to be setup via the add-environment command. Once the connection has been established, we can now install the plugin to the project my-editorial by running the following:

   ./crafter-cli copy-plugin -e local -s my-editorial --path /users/myuser/myplugins/dashboard-plugin
   

   
   

5. Let’s take a look at our plugin in action by clicking on the CrafterCMS logo at the top left of your browser to open the sidebar, then click on Dashboard:

   
   
   

   You may also open the Dashboard anywhere via the Launcher, which is opened by clicking the apps icon on the top right:

   
   
   

   Here’s the auto-wired section in the configuration after installing the plugin:

   <siteUi>
     ...
     <widget id="craftercms.components.Dashboard">
       <configuration>
         <widgets>
           <widget id="craftercms.components.AwaitingApprovalDashlet">
             <permittedRoles>
               <role>admin</role>
               <role>developer</role>
               <role>publisher</role>
             </permittedRoles>
           </widget>
           ...
           <widget id="org.craftercms.sampleComponentLibraryPlugin.components.reactComponent">
             <plugin id="org.craftercms.plugin.dashboard"
                     type="dashboard"
                     name="test-dashboard"
                     file="index.js"/>
           </widget>
           ...