I was thinking about inline references in the context of blocks and I thought it would be worth it to bump this thread up again and hopefully get it tagged as related to “blocks” and linked to the block-based rewrite of rich text fields [IN DEV] Migrate Entity View to Blocks.
Current State
As discussed in the thread above fibery currently shows inline entities in a very particular/fixed way:
While the inline reference is quite powerful, the inability to customize it is a real paint point for me. One of the suggestions/workarounds has been to either manually include some of the details in the name or use a name formulas so that the information at least remains dynamic. I think this approach is very problematic because now the entity name is not really the entity name but an amalgamation of a few different fields. There can also be different contexts in which the entity needs to be referenced where some of this information is not needed or desirable to be visible. Finally, I think this approach adds additional complexity, duplication and an opportunity for contradictory and out of sync information to be added.
Possible Future State
General Idea
- Provide users/admins/designers ability to define some templates/styles for each entity type that can be used in rich text areas/documents and offer different information in different context.
- There could be a default template that is used by default but when a reference is inserted, the user has the ability to change the template used.
- I assume this means that a template id will also have to saved alongside the entity UUID but hoping it doesn’t add a lot more complexity.
- I know building a tool to develop the templates visually is no easy ask. However, I am thinking that a starting point might be a basic text-based template language (or something html/css based) that allows some of the power users to start with customization.
Inline Reference Possibilities
The above approach enables some really helpful customization such as:
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Controlling display of the text (i.e. enable/disable strikethrough when not appropriate) or changing display icon (text, icon or nothing):
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Showing entities as texts only:
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Controlling the attributes that are shown inline:
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And of course enabling some items to be quickly editable (like dropdowns similar to workflow items):
Block View of Entities
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When creating new entities in documents and rich text fields, one of the biggest pain points is that after you created the entity, you still need to click through to populate it and so you end up breaking your flow.
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This is particularly problematic with entities that have formula generated names as you absolutely need to add some details before the new entity makes any sense
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However, it would be great if when you created a new entity:
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While the item is still in focus, you would be presented with select (preselected fields based again on a template) to enter additional details you generally capture when the entity is created:
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Once editing is over and focus is moved, then some of the information is shown (again based on a template) without the field editing boxes:
Or to keep things more simple, something like (with ability to fold the details):
This allows users to maintain the context but ensure that the relevant information is captured in the entity where it makes sense rather than in another field somewhere else
I think a template approach would be the best way of addressing this so that the admin/designers can determine what makes sense for their users.