How can I generate XpmMetadata so that linked components are editable

Question

I have a situation where I have a Component Link which contains fields that I'd like to be editable within Experience Manager. Component A contains a link to component B, which has a link to multimedia component C.

Component B has some fields related-ish to Component C. I would like to render C, allow the content author to edit fields in B, and also in A.

Component B has no template. Component A is the only template.

I understand that DXA does not add XpmMetadata to linked components on its own. But I can generate XpmMetadata for this.

So I'm trying to create a helper that does this for me. XpmMetadata Contains five properties:

• ComponentTemplateID
• ComponentModified
• ComponentID
• ComponentTemplateModified
• IsRepositoryPublished

If I want fields within a linked component to be editable, I'm guessing that ComponentID is for the linked Component. And I would guess that ComponentModified is, too.

I can get the ComponentID, but how do I get the ComponentModified property? OR, can I use the ComponentModified property from "Component A".

I've developed a solution that I think would work, but I'm not 100% sure because I don't know the rules around these fields

Below is the class I'ved added to a helper:

   public static class DXAComponentLinkHelper
    {
       public static IDictionary<string,object> getXpmMetadata(EntityModel entity, Dictionary<string, object> parentXpmData)
        {
            Dictionary<string, object> xpmMedatadata = new Dictionary<string, object>();

        object parentTemplate = null;
        object parentCompModified = null;
        parentXpmData.TryGetValue("ComponentTemplateID", out parentTemplate);
        parentXpmData.TryGetValue("ComponentModified", out parentCompModified);

        xpmMedatadata.Add("ComponentID", entity.Id);
        xpmMedatadata.Add("ComponentModified", parentCompModified);
        xpmMedatadata.Add("ComponentTemplateID", parentTemplate);
        xpmMedatadata.Add("ComponentTemplateModified", parentCompModified);

        xpmMedatadata.Add("IsRepositoryPublished", false);

        return xpmMedatadata;

    }
}

Is this a viable solution? is there a better one? How can I XPM-enable inline editing on a linked component without creating a component template?

Answer 1

Let me start with making one thing clear (I gather you know it already, but just for the sake of others coming across this question), what we are doing here is a hack to make linked Components editable in XPM (since XPM currently only supports editing Component presentations, and you are missing a Component Template).

Now on to your questions:

With XPM you have to be very careful when faking data or using dummy data, since it always has to reflect actual data of the CMS. So when faking a Component Template, make sure you use an existing Component Template URI, from the correct context Publication and with the right modification date. The same counts for the modification date of your Component. If you use an incorrect date, XPM will notify you that your page is out of date and you need to refresh it (and it will keep complaining about that).

See Inline editing of linked Components via a custom model builder in DXA for a possible solution on how to get the correct information of the Component, and merge that with using the "parent" Component Template information and you should have a working solution.

Answer 2

Let me elaborate Bart's statement that "this is a hack to maked linked Components editable in XPM"... Note that XPM currently doesn't fully support editable linked Components.

This is visible from the fact that there is no XPM markup for a Component and thus you will have to fake a Component Presentation in XPM markup.

But there is more: XPM allows the user to change Component Template and reorder Component Presentations on a Page. Obviously, that doesn't make sense for these fake Component Presentations.

Last but not least, XPM may get confused by these fake Component Presentations which are not really on the Page in CM. There is a mechanism for such dynamically queried Component Presentations, though: set IsQueryBased to true in the XPM markup of the Component Presentation.