Adding a Custom TV Type - MODX 2.2

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{note}This tutorial is for MODX Revolution 2.2 or greater.{note}

h2. What are Custom TV Input Types?

MODx Revolution allows you to create your own custom TV input types (similar to the textbox, radio, textarea, richtext, etc types already available) for your [Template Variables]. This tutorial will show a very simple example by loading a simple Template dropdown for us in the mgr, and then in the frontend will render our Template ID wrapped in a special div. We'll call it "TemplateSelect". We'll also make this an Extra called "OurTVs", meaning that we'll have the files outside of the normal TV input renders directory, and put it in our own Extra's directory in core/components/ourtvs/.

h2. Create a Namespace

If you haven't already, go ahead and create a Namespace called "ourtvs" with the path "\{core_path\}components/ourtvs/". This will help us later on.

h2. Creating the Pathing Plugin

We'll need a plugin to tell MODX where our custom TV directories are. Go ahead and make a plugin called "OurTvsPlugin", and assign it to the following events:

* _OnTVInputRenderList_ - For rendering the actual TV input in the backend
* _OnTVOutputRenderList_ - For rendering the TV output in the frontend
* _OnTVInputPropertiesList_ - For loading any custom properties for the input render in the manager
* _OnTVOutputRenderPropertiesList_ - For loading any custom properties for the output render (front-end) of the TV
* _OnDocFormPrerender_ - For loading any custom JS/CSS for our TV

Now put in the Plugin code:

{code}
$corePath = $modx->getOption('core_path',null,MODX_CORE_PATH).'components/ourtvs/';
switch ($modx->event->name) {
case 'OnTVInputRenderList':
$modx->event->output($corePath.'tv/input/');
break;
case 'OnTVOutputRenderList':
$modx->event->output($corePath.'tv/output/');
break;
case 'OnTVInputPropertiesList':
$modx->event->output($corePath.'tv/inputoptions/');
break;
case 'OnTVOutputRenderPropertiesList':
$modx->event->output($corePath.'tv/properties/');
break;
case 'OnManagerPageBeforeRender':
break;
}
{code}

{code}
<?php
class TemplateSelectInputRender extends modTemplateVarInputRender {
public function getTemplate() {
return $this->modx->getOption('core_path').'components/ourtvs/tv/input/tpl/templateselect.tpl';
}
public function process($value,array $params = array()) {

}
}
return 'TemplateSelectInputRender';
{code}

Here we tell it where to find our smarty template for rendering the TV, as well as having a process() method to do any business logic we want to do prior to rendering the TV.

{code}<select id="tv{$tv->id}" name="tv{$tv->id}" class="combobox"></select>
<script type="text/javascript">
// <![CDATA[
{literal}
MODx.load({
{/literal}
xtype: 'modx-combo-template'
,name: 'tv{$tv->id}'
,hiddenName: 'tv{$tv->id}'
,transform: 'tv{$tv->id}'
,id: 'tv{$tv->id}'
,width: 300
,value: '{$tv->value}'
{literal}
,listeners: { 'select': { fn:MODx.fireResourceFormChange, scope:this}}
});
{/literal}
// ]]>
</script>{code}

{note}You don't have to use the ExtJS code as shown here to have a custom input type. It could even just be a straight HTML input. It's really up to you.{note}

And that should render us a nice template dropdown in the backend:

{pagetree:root=Template Variables}

{scrollbar}