Possibility to copy (child) nodes from another node

[jonnitto]

With NodeTemplates version 1.2 I've created the possibility to create template sites where you can add content elements to have a fast quick start (e.g. for blog posts).

For this, I've created following mixin

'Base.Templates:Mixin.CreationDialog':
  ui:
    creationDialog:
      elements:
        templateNodeIdentifier:
          type: reference
          ui:
            label: Template
            editorOptions:
              nodeTypes: ['Base.Templates:Mixin.Template']
  options:
    template:
      childNodes:
        mainContentCollection:
          when: '${data.templateNodeIdentifier}'
          name: main
          options:
            childNodesToCopy: "${q(node).find('#' + data.templateNodeIdentifier).children('main').children().get()}"

And following Package.php

<?php

namespace Base\Templates;

use Base\Templates\Service\ChildNodeCopyService;
use Flowpack\NodeTemplates\Template;
use Neos\Flow\Core\Bootstrap;
use Neos\Flow\Package\Package as BasePackage;

/**
 * The Node Templates Magic Package
 */
class Package extends BasePackage
{
    /**
     * @param Bootstrap $bootstrap The current bootstrap
     * @return void
     */
    public function boot(Bootstrap $bootstrap)
    {
        $dispatcher = $bootstrap->getSignalSlotDispatcher();

        $dispatcher->connect(
            Template::class,
            "nodeTemplateApplied",
            ChildNodeCopyService::class,
            "copyChildNodesAfterTemplateApplication"
        );
    }
}

The ChildNodeCopyService.php looks like that

<?php

namespace Base\Templates\Service;

use Flowpack\NodeTemplates\Service\EelEvaluationService;
use Neos\ContentRepository\Domain\Model\NodeInterface;
use Neos\Eel\Package as EelPackage;
use Neos\Flow\Annotations as Flow;
use Neos\Neos\Service\NodeOperations;

/**
 */
class ChildNodeCopyService
{
    /**
     * @var EelEvaluationService
     * @Flow\Inject
     */
    protected $eelEvaluationService;

    /**
     * @var NodeOperations
     * @Flow\Inject
     */
    protected $nodeOperations;

    /**
     * @param NodeInterface $node
     * @param array $context
     * @param array $options
     * @return void
     */
    public function copyChildNodesAfterTemplateApplication(
        NodeInterface $node,
        array $context,
        array $options
    ): void {
        // Copy child nodes from template
        if (
            isset($options["childNodesToCopy"]) &&
            preg_match(
                EelPackage::EelExpressionRecognizer,
                $options["childNodesToCopy"]
            )
        ) {
            $childNodes = $this->eelEvaluationService->evaluateEelExpression(
                $options["childNodesToCopy"],
                $context
            );
            /** @var NodeInterface $childNode */
            foreach ($childNodes as $childNode) {
                $this->nodeOperations->copy($childNode, $node, "into");
            }
        }
    }
}

With the new version, it is not possible to create this helpful feature. Should we create an API for that, to make this possible?

[mhsdesign]

Funnily we just discussed this but dindt think of this perfectly legit and cool usecase - thanks for reminding us. https://github.com/Flowpack/Flowpack.NodeTemplates/issues/50

Our options to solve this usecase are:

1 - use a custom NodeCreationHandler yourself -> but i dislike this, as the api will change with 9.0 (one could extract it into an own package then) 2 - introduce this as a feature with support for neos8 and neos9

[theilm]

Yes that's the use case I was mentioning in #50 - I introduced the signal exactly for that (cool that you are using it :)). It will be more complex to solve this for neos9, but I think it should be possible - and I agree, it should be part of the NodeTemplates package.

[bweinzierl]

We are using it too for every customer. We have a template section nodetype where the editor is able to create template sections in a hidden part of the document tree. When creating sections on any page the creation dialogue will ask if a template should be used and if so the childnodes will be copied. This is a killer feature imho.

This uses the mentioned logic with a custom datasource for making the created templates selectable.

So +1 for reimplementing this :)

[MiauzGenau]

For our use-case (which also involves copying), I was able to migrate to the nodeCreationHandlersApplied Signal (from Neos\Neos\Ui\Domain\Model\Changes\AbstractCreate). (Which also gets triggered after the NodeTemplates are fully applied.)

If somebody is looking for an alternative/ in between solution.

[jonnitto]

@MiauzGenau Could you provide an example, so we can add it to the readme?

[MiauzGenau]

This is the current example from the readme: https://github.com/mindscreen/neos-nodetemplates-demo/blob/master/Classes/Service/ChildNodeCopyService.php

What we do, is hook into Neos\Neos\Ui\Domain\Model\Changes\AbstractCreate -> nodeCreationHandlersApplied(). With this function and some custom code:

public function nodeCreationHandlersAppliedHandler(NodeInterface $node): void
{
    if (!$node->getNodeType()->isOfType('Paessler.Demo:Content.Section')) {
        return;
    }

    // do some flowqueries
    $q = new FlowQuery([$node]);
    $childNodesToCopy = $q->children()->get();
    $documentNode = $q->closest('[instanceof Neos.Neos:Document]')->get(0);

    [...]

    // do some copy operation
    $this->nodeOperations->copy($childNode, $page, 'into');
}

This is not suited for the readme I would assume. I'm unsure what you expect/ want.

[jonnitto]

But how can you get the selection option from the creation dialog? With the parameter $node it seems not possible. The power of this signal was that you are able to react on the options given in the creation dialog

[mhsdesign]

Hi btw the long term plan is definitely to allow this requested feature in the core. A year ago i made a draft of how that could look like: https://github.com/Flowpack/Flowpack.NodeTemplates/pull/80/files#diff-4026ac608fda12fc5dc44d704d88e08fde47e4bb910e3d4f298aca5f399cab08 but i currently hadn't had capacities to follow up on that.

[Sebobo]

Why is it not possible to solve this with a second handler that is applied after the TemplateNodeCreationHandler? The second handler gets the same information and could do something else with it?