Content Editor Styling

Rhythmyx Technical Discussion
1

All,

where is the file that controls the look and feel of the form controls in the content editor? All the input boxes seem to be aligned to the center which i would like to change?

Thanks in advance

2

Page 38 of the Technical Reference Manual has some information on customizing the controls in the content editor.

Writing Custom Controls

Content Editors use a set of controls defined in XSL stylesheets.

Standard controls are defined in <CMServerroot>/ sys_resources /Stylesheets/sys_Templates.xsl.Customers should not modify controls defined in this file as it is overwritten on upgrade and modifications will be lost. Customers should not modify controls defined in this file as it is overwritten on upgrade and modifications will be lost. All controls provided by Percussion Software begin with the string “sys_”; for example, sys_DatePicker. User-developed controls should not begin with this prefix.

Custom controls can be defined in two ways.

Custom controls that can be included in a package must be defined in XSL files in the directory <CMServerroot>/rx_resources/stylesheets/controls. Each custom control must have a unique XSL file, and the XSL file should have the same name as the control; for example, if you wanted to make a new calendar control named rff_newCalendar, the XSL file containing the control would be rff_newCalendar.xsl.

Custom controls that will be included in a package can be defined in the file <CMServerroot>/rx_resources /Stylesheets/rx_Templates.xsl. If you want to package a control that is already defined in this file, you must re-implement it as described in the previous paragraph.

You can also use the class and style properties for the control via the field properties in Workbench to specify styling, which may be the simplest route.

If you do end up customizing the system XSL file for the controls, make sure that you keep a backup of that file, as it may be overwritten in a patch or upgrade.

-nate

3

I’ve created a 6.7 alternative to sys_templates.xsl (rx_templates.xsl along with a modified ActiveEdit.xsl) which has the usual replacements for all sys_* field controls to allow help text to be added with an icon after the field, but also a javascript character countdown and, the thing users find most helpful, the ability to insert divider text (headings) above any individual field. This means you can divide the content editor into neat sections with titles above those sections such as System Data, Meta-data, Content Item Data etc etc.

If anyone’s interested I can send send the changes to them.

Andrew

4

In answer to the OP:

Yes. The files you are looking for are:

  • Rhythmyx/rx_resources/stylesheets/rx_Templates.xsl
  • Rhythmyx/sys_resources/stylesheets/sys_Templates.xsl (you should avoid making changes to this file… copy content into rx_Templates.xsl instead.)
  • Rhythmyx/sys_resources/stylesheets/ActiveEdit.xsl (edit this only if you can’t do what you need in rx_resources.xsl)
5

I am interested in seeing your changes.

6

I’ll post these up later with some notes on how to use them.

7

Hi Andrew

I would be interested in seeing your changes to create headings and the character countdown.

Kevin

8

I too would be interested in this!

9

Hi Andrew,

I would be very interested. Would you be able to share this work?

Thanks,
Rajesh

10

Finally…

Here’s a folder with updated/augmented rx_resources and sys_resources for 6.7, that adds the ability to add in divider headings, helptext and character countdown within a content editor as in the following images, it also adds properly working buttons at top of the CE screen (ie pressing update disables both update buttons and no duplication of IDs). You may want to BeyondCompare any changes to system files before deploying, and also if you need to create your own rx_templates.xsl essentially in this case it’s just an exact copy of the sys_templates.xsl with extra bits added.

CE_styling.zip (39.7 KB)