Content container templates: notice links

(Erwin Strobel) #1

Matrix Version: 5.4.3.1

Hello,

We are using content container templates for all our web components, and have come across an issue in regards to linking dependencies.

I understand that links created in metadata WYSWIYG fields do not get tracked in Matrix’s internal linking system, and as content container templates are metadata driven, no linking references are displayed on the linking screen.
This is causing a bit of chaos, as editors are unable to see linking dependencies when they wish to remove content.
I’m not sure if this shortfall has been considered by squiz? And am wondering if there is a work around that we can implement?

Thanks

#2

Hi @Bart this would be great to know. Any thoughts?

(Bart Banda) #3

Yea, this is currently not supported because of the way that Metadata is currently stored. We do know of this shortfall but haven’t been able to design a suitable solution to it yet.

We are planning on refactoring the Linking screen later this year which will include the abiltiy to report on assets that are linked to metadata fields.

We also need to do the same for Safe Trash checking, to make sure that when that’s on, you can’t delete assets that have ID references to related metadata fields or values in WYSIWYG metadata fields.

Linking not shown for image assets in CTA container
(John gill) #4

I think Bart and Erwin are talking about different things here.

Bart seems to be referring to the Metadata Related Asset Fields issue - they act like links but are not links so are very hard to discover.

Erwin is talking about Asset IDs referenced in WYSIWYG content which, if they were used directly in a WYSIWYG Content Type would have a corresponding NOTICE link created when the WYSIWYG content was saved. If those same asset IDs are referenced in a Metadata WYSIWYG Field instead (attached via a content container template), those NOTICE links are not created.

The change Bart mentions will be very welcome (does later this year mean 5.5.x or 6.x?), but distinct from what Erwin is talking about.

(Bart Banda) #5

Yes, so I mean both, there are currently no notice links created between any type of metadata field and other assets.

Later this year in a future 5.5.X.X release.

#6

Yeah this doesn’t work for 5.5.0.2 where we are currently testing, any cigar for this version Bart ( or patches). we use container templates heavily

(Jennifer Weiley) #7

I have also noticed that the linking can’t be seen when your asset appears within an accordion. In this example, I have created link assets for all of our phone numbers and published them inside an accordion on a contact page.

So I guess it applies to all content containers which makes it impossible to accurately audit connected content when you’re not seeing the full picture.

It means you could delete an asset thinking it isn’t linked to any content however if it is only linked to containers other than WYSIWYG containers, it could theoretically appear on every single page of your website.

Wondering @Bart if Funnelback can be used to audit and identify links to content assets and overcome this issue?

(Bart Banda) #8

We’re looking to add something like a new “Usage Screen” that tells you all assets that use an asset in their attributes or metadata. This will be a better way to track usage/linking rather than notice links, as it’s just a simple DB query and we don’t have to always manage the NOTICE link creation/deletion.
https://squizmap.squiz.net/matrix/12410

Would love to get some feedback on that idea to solve this problem.

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(Erwin Strobel) #9

Hi Bart,

That sounds like a good solution. In the case of content containers, would it be possible to list the name of the content container template that been applied (e.g “Content Container - Column layout”)?

Also, in regards to the field type for content containers, would it be possible to list the Attribute name as well. (e.g. something along the lines of “Attribute - Column 1 text”).

(John gill) #10

The biggest drawback with this approach is that links are an established concept, visible to Asset Listings, Keywords, Edit+, and the APIs. “Usage” would be yet another kind of information and would need new mechanisms in various places to be as usable.

Even if the Usage screen is the approach for finding references in attributes and Relate Asset Metadata fields, it would be very useful for links in WYSIWYG Metadata fields to be handled with the NOTICE link approach to bring them into line with regular pages.

(Bart Banda) #11

Yes, if it is found in the content template, then yes, that’s what it’d do.

Do you mean the metadata field on the content template? Either way, yes, we’d always print out the attribute name or the metadata field name.

The purpose of this screen I guess is a bit different to the NOTICE link concept. This is simply to find all occurrences of an asset in your system, globally. It also wouldn’t require you to run any scripts on upgrade to create the notice links and pollute the DB with extra data. On upgrade to a version that had this feature, you would instantly be able to report on this data, and it would be quite trivial for us to develop. Implementing NOTICE link generation to all areas where asset IDs can be placed is quite difficult and would be time consuming, and it would also substantially increase the DB and actually decrease performance overall when you do edits on assets in general.

(John gill) #12

That does sound useful, and as an admin user I would welcome the functionality, but I don’t think it’s a replacement for “NOTICE links for WYSIWYG fields in Content Templates”.

Any content in WYSIWYG fields via a template would, in a world without content templates, just exist in a regular html attribute where it would be correctly processed for the appropriate NOTICE links. I can see how the sheer scale of links required by Related Asset fields could be a problem, but for WYSIWYG fields it seems very unlikely to be an order-of-magnitude issue.

The loss of NOTICE links that accompanies the gradual increase of % of content stored in templates fields seems like an unintended regression, and it would be fantastic to restore this functionality for publishers regardless of what happens with new tooling like the Usage screen.

(Bart Banda) #13

To be clear, this wouldn’t be a replacement of the NOTICE link system, it’d be just another tool to report on where your data is effectively. The tricky thing with supporting NOTICE links on just WYSIWYG fields is that on the backend, it’s just all the same type of data storage, and metadata fields can easily be morphed as well.

We don’t necessarily have to have the usage screen as a completely separate screen either, we could introduce it somewhere on the linking screen as well and just manage the reporting of those asset ID locations consistently in the UI somehow on the linking screen.

We’re also looking to refactor the metadata system a bit in Matrix 6, so I was thinking if we could get this quick usage report feature through for 5.5, we could handle the link relationship of metadata fields a lot better with the refactoring in 6.