If you have multiple blocks that are used in multiple places, this can quickly blow up the size of your Payload Config. This will incur a performance hit, as more data is
1. sent to the client (=> bloated `ClientConfig` and large initial html) and
2. processed on the server (permissions are calculated every single time you navigate to a page - this iterates through all blocks you have defined, even if they're duplicative)
This can be optimized by defining your block **once** in your Payload Config, and just referencing the block slug whenever it's used, instead of passing the entire block config. To do this, the block can be defined in the `blocks` array of the Payload Config. The slug can then be passed to the `blockReferences` array in the Blocks Field - the `blocks` array has to be empty for compatibility reasons.
```ts
import { buildConfig } from 'payload'
import { lexicalEditor, BlocksFeature } from '@payloadcms/richtext-lexical'
// Payload Config
const config = buildConfig({
// Define the block once
blocks: [
{
slug: 'TextBlock',
fields: [
{
name: 'text',
type: 'text',
},
],
},
],
collections: [
{
slug: 'collection1',
fields: [
{
name: 'content',
type: 'blocks',
// Reference the block by slug
blockReferences: ['TextBlock'],
blocks: [], // Required to be empty, for compatibility reasons
},
],
},
{
slug: 'collection2',
fields: [
{
name: 'editor',
type: 'richText',
editor: lexicalEditor({
BlocksFeature({
// Same reference can be reused anywhere, even in the lexical editor, without incurred performance hit
blocks: ['TextBlock'],
})
})
},
],
},
],
})
```
## v4.0 Plans
In 4.0, we will remove the `blockReferences` property, and allow string block references to be passed directly to the blocks `property`. Essentially, we'd remove the `blocks` property and rename `blockReferences` to `blocks`.
The reason we opted to a new property in this PR is to avoid breaking changes. Allowing strings to be passed to the `blocks` property will prevent plugins that iterate through fields / blocks from compiling.
## PR Changes
- Testing: This PR introduces a plugin that automatically converts blocks to block references. This is done in the fields__blocks test suite, to run our existing test suite using block references.
- Block References support: Most changes are similar. Everywhere we iterate through blocks, we have to now do the following:
1. Check if `field.blockReferences` is provided. If so, only iterate through that.
2. Check if the block is an object (= actual block), or string
3. If it's a string, pull the actual block from the Payload Config or from `payload.blocks`.
The exception is config sanitization and block type generations. This PR optimizes them so that each block is only handled once, instead of every time the block is referenced.
## Benchmarks
60 Block fields, each block field having the same 600 Blocks.
### Before:
**Initial HTML:** 195 kB
**Generated types:** takes 11 minutes, 461,209 lines
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/11d49a4e-5414-4579-8050-e6346e552f56
### After:
**Initial HTML:** 73.6 kB
**Generated types:** takes 2 seconds, 35,810 lines
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/3eab1a99-6c29-489d-add5-698df67780a3
### After Permissions Optimization (follow-up PR)
Initial HTML: 73.6 kB
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a909202e-45a8-4bf6-9a38-8c85813f1312
## Future Plans
1. This PR does not yet deduplicate block references during permissions calculation. We'll optimize that in a separate PR, as this one is already large enough
2. The same optimization can be done to deduplicate fields. One common use-case would be link field groups that may be referenced in multiple entities, outside of blocks. We might explore adding a new `fieldReferences` property, that allows you to reference those same `config.blocks`.
- Blocks can now be selected (only inline blocks were possible before).
- Any DecoratorNode that users create will have the necessary logic out
of the box so that they are selected with a click and deleted with
backspace/delete.
- By having the code for selecting and deleting centralized, a lot of
repetitive code was eliminated
- More performant code due to the use of event delegation. There is only
one listener, previously there was one for each decoratorNode.
- Heuristics to exclude scenarios where you don't want to select the
node: if it is inside the DecoratorNode, but is also inside a button,
input, textarea, contentEditable, .react-select, .code-editor or
.no-select-decorator. That last one was added as a means of opt-out.
- Fix#10634
Note: arrow navigation will be introduced in a later PR.
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/92f91cad-4f70-4f72-a36f-c68afbe33c0d
### What?
Ensures `path` is required and only present on the fields that expect it
(all fields except row).
Deprecates `useFieldComponents` and `FieldComponentsProvider` and
instead extends the RenderField component to account for all field
types. This also improves type safety within `RenderField`.
### Why?
`path` being optional just adds DX overhead and annoyance.
### How?
Added `FieldPaths` type which is added to iterable field types. Placed
`path` back onto the ClientFieldBase type.
Currently, Payload renders all custom components on initial compile of
the admin panel. This is problematic for two key reasons:
1. Custom components do not receive contextual data, i.e. fields do not
receive their field data, edit views do not receive their document data,
etc.
2. Components are unnecessarily rendered before they are used
This was initially required to support React Server Components within
the Payload Admin Panel for two key reasons:
1. Fields can be dynamically rendered within arrays, blocks, etc.
2. Documents can be recursively rendered within a "drawer" UI, i.e.
relationship fields
3. Payload supports server/client component composition
In order to achieve this, components need to be rendered on the server
and passed as "slots" to the client. Currently, the pattern for this is
to render custom server components in the "client config". Then when a
view or field is needed to be rendered, we first check the client config
for a "pre-rendered" component, otherwise render our client-side
fallback component.
But for the reasons listed above, this pattern doesn't exactly make
custom server components very useful within the Payload Admin Panel,
which is where this PR comes in. Now, instead of pre-rendering all
components on initial compile, we're able to render custom components
_on demand_, only as they are needed.
To achieve this, we've established [this
pattern](https://github.com/payloadcms/payload/pull/8481) of React
Server Functions in the Payload Admin Panel. With Server Functions, we
can iterate the Payload Config and return JSX through React's
`text/x-component` content-type. This means we're able to pass
contextual props to custom components, such as data for fields and
views.
## Breaking Changes
1. Add the following to your root layout file, typically located at
`(app)/(payload)/layout.tsx`:
```diff
/* THIS FILE WAS GENERATED AUTOMATICALLY BY PAYLOAD. */
/* DO NOT MODIFY IT BECAUSE IT COULD BE REWRITTEN AT ANY TIME. */
+ import type { ServerFunctionClient } from 'payload'
import config from '@payload-config'
import { RootLayout } from '@payloadcms/next/layouts'
import { handleServerFunctions } from '@payloadcms/next/utilities'
import React from 'react'
import { importMap } from './admin/importMap.js'
import './custom.scss'
type Args = {
children: React.ReactNode
}
+ const serverFunctions: ServerFunctionClient = async function (args) {
+ 'use server'
+ return handleServerFunctions({
+ ...args,
+ config,
+ importMap,
+ })
+ }
const Layout = ({ children }: Args) => (
<RootLayout
config={config}
importMap={importMap}
+ serverFunctions={serverFunctions}
>
{children}
</RootLayout>
)
export default Layout
```
2. If you were previously posting to the `/api/form-state` endpoint, it
no longer exists. Instead, you'll need to invoke the `form-state` Server
Function, which can be done through the _new_ `getFormState` utility:
```diff
- import { getFormState } from '@payloadcms/ui'
- const { state } = await getFormState({
- apiRoute: '',
- body: {
- // ...
- },
- serverURL: ''
- })
+ const { getFormState } = useServerFunctions()
+
+ const { state } = await getFormState({
+ // ...
+ })
```
## Breaking Changes
```diff
- useFieldProps()
- useCellProps()
```
More details coming soon.
---------
Co-authored-by: Alessio Gravili <alessio@gravili.de>
Co-authored-by: Jarrod Flesch <jarrodmflesch@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: James <james@trbl.design>
## Description
### TL;DR:
It's currently not possible to render our field components from a server
component because their `field` prop is the original field config, not
the _client_ config which our components require. Currently, the `field`
prop passed into custom fields changes type depending on whether it's a
server or client component, leaving server components without any access
to the client field config or mechanism to acquire it.
This PR passes the client config to all server field components through
a new `clientField` prop. This allows the following in a server
component, which is very similar to how client field components
currently work:
Server component:
```tsx
import { TextField } from '@payloadcms/ui'
import type { TextFieldServerComponent } from 'payload'
export const MyCustomServerField: TextFieldServerComponent = ({ clientField }) => {
return <TextField field={clientField} />
}
```
Client component:
```tsx
'use client'
import { TextField } from '@payloadcms/ui'
import type { TextFieldClientComponent } from 'payload'
export const MyCustomClientField: TextFieldClientComponent = ({ field }) => {
return <TextField field={field} />
}
```
### Full Background
If you have a custom field component, and it's a server component, there
is currently no way to pass the field prop into Payload's client-side
field components.
Here's an example of the problem:
```tsx
import { TextField } from '@payloadcms/ui'
import type { TextFieldServerComponent } from 'payload'
import React from 'react'
export const MyServerComponent: TextFieldServerComponent = (props) => {
const { field } = props
return (
<TextField field={field} /> // This is not possible
)
}
```
The config needs to be transformed into a client config, however,
because of the sheer number of hard-to-find arguments that the
`createClientField` requires, we cannot use it in its raw form.
Here is another example of the problem:
```tsx
import { TextField } from '@payloadcms/ui'
import { createClientField } from '@payloadcms/ui/utilities/createClientField'
import type { TextFieldServerComponent } from 'payload'
import React from 'react'
export const MyServerComponent: TextFieldServerComponent = ({ createClientField }) => {
const clientField = createClientField({...}) // Not a good option bc it requires many hard-to-find args
return (
<TextField field={clientField} />
)
}
```
Theoretically, we could preformat a `createFieldConfig` function so it
can simply be called without arguments:
```tsx
import { TextField } from '@payloadcms/ui'
import type { TextFieldServerComponent } from 'payload'
import React from 'react'
export const MyServerComponent: TextFieldServerComponent = ({ createClientField }) => {
return <TextField field={createClientField()} />
}
```
But this means the field config would be evaluated twice unnecessarily,
including label functions, etc.
The right way to fix this is to simply pass the client config to server
components through a new `clientField` prop:
```tsx
import { TextField } from '@payloadcms/ui'
import type { TextFieldServerComponent } from 'payload'
import React from 'react'
export const MyServerComponent: TextFieldServerComponent = ({ clientField }) => {
return <TextField field={clientField} />
}
```
- [x] I have read and understand the
[CONTRIBUTING.md](https://github.com/payloadcms/payload/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md)
document in this repository.
## Type of change
- [x] New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
## Checklist:
- [x] Existing test suite passes locally with my changes
- [x] I have made corresponding changes to the documentation
## Description
Currently, there is no way of typing custom server field components.
This is because internally, all field components are client components,
and so these were never fully typed. For example, the docs currently
indicate for all custom fields to be typed in this way:
Old:
```tsx
export const MyClientTextFieldComponent: React.FC<TextFieldProps>
```
But if your component is a server component, you will never receive the
fully typed `field` prop, `payload` prop, etc. unless you've typed that
yourself using some of the underlying utilities. So to fix this, every
field now explicitly exports a type for each environment:
New:
- Client component:
```tsx
'use client'
export const MyClientTextFieldComponent: TextFieldClientComponent
```
- Server component:
```tsx
export const MyServerTextFieldComponent: TextFieldServerComponent
```
This pattern applies to every field type, where the field name is
prepended onto the component type.
```ts
import type {
TextFieldClientComponent,
TextFieldServerComponent,
TextFieldClientProps,
TextFieldServerProps,
TextareaFieldClientComponent,
TextareaFieldServerComponent,
TextareaFieldClientProps,
TextareaFieldServerProps,
// ...and so on for each field type
} from 'payload'
```
## BREAKING CHANGES
We are no longer exporting `TextFieldProps` etc. for each field type.
Instead, we now export props for each client/server environment
explicitly. If you were previously importing one of these types into
your custom component, simply change the import name to reflect your
environment.
Old:
```tsx
import type { TextFieldProps } from 'payload'
```
New:
```tsx
import type { TextFieldClientProps, TextFieldServerProps } from 'payload'
```
Related: #7754.
- [x] I have read and understand the
[CONTRIBUTING.md](https://github.com/payloadcms/payload/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md)
document in this repository.
## Type of change
- [x] New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
- [x] This change requires a documentation update
## Checklist:
- [x] Existing test suite passes locally with my changes
- [x] I have made corresponding changes to the documentation
This PR makes three major changes to the codebase:
1. [Component Paths](#component-paths)
Instead of importing custom components into your config directly, they
are now defined as file paths and rendered only when needed. That way
the Payload config will be significantly more lightweight, and ensures
that the Payload config is 100% server-only and Node-safe. Related
discussion: https://github.com/payloadcms/payload/discussions/6938
2. [Client Config](#client-config)
Deprecates the component map by merging its logic into the client
config. The main goal of this change is for performance and
simplification. There was no need to deeply iterate over the Payload
config twice, once for the component map, and another for the client
config. Instead, we can do everything in the client config one time.
This has also dramatically simplified the client side prop drilling
through the UI library. Now, all components can share the same client
config which matches the exact shape of their Payload config (with the
exception of non-serializable props and mapped custom components).
3. [Custom client component are no longer
server-rendered](#custom-client-components-are-no-longer-server-rendered)
Previously, custom components would be server-rendered, no matter if
they are server or client components. Now, only server components are
rendered on the server. Client components are automatically detected,
and simply get passed through as `MappedComponent` to be rendered fully
client-side.
## Component Paths
Instead of importing custom components into your config directly, they
are now defined as file paths and rendered only when needed. That way
the Payload config will be significantly more lightweight, and ensures
that the Payload config is 100% server-only and Node-safe. Related
discussion: https://github.com/payloadcms/payload/discussions/6938
In order to reference any custom components in the Payload config, you
now have to specify a string path to the component instead of importing
it.
Old:
```ts
import { MyComponent2} from './MyComponent2.js'
admin: {
components: {
Label: MyComponent2
},
},
```
New:
```ts
admin: {
components: {
Label: '/collections/Posts/MyComponent2.js#MyComponent2', // <= has to be a relative path based on a baseDir configured in the Payload config - NOT relative based on the importing file
},
},
```
### Local API within Next.js routes
Previously, if you used the Payload Local API within Next.js pages, all
the client-side modules are being added to the bundle for that specific
page, even if you only need server-side functionality.
This `/test` route, which uses the Payload local API, was previously 460
kb. It is now down to 91 kb and does not bundle the Payload client-side
admin panel anymore.
All tests done
[here](https://github.com/payloadcms/payload-3.0-demo/tree/feat/path-test)
with beta.67/PR, db-mongodb and default richtext-lexical:
**dev /admin before:**
**dev /admin after:**
---
**dev /test before:**
**dev /test after:**
---
**build before:**
**build after::**
### Usage of the Payload Local API / config outside of Next.js
This will make it a lot easier to use the Payload config / local API in
other, server-side contexts. Previously, you might encounter errors due
to client files (like .scss files) not being allowed to be imported.
## Client Config
Deprecates the component map by merging its logic into the client
config. The main goal of this change is for performance and
simplification. There was no need to deeply iterate over the Payload
config twice, once for the component map, and another for the client
config. Instead, we can do everything in the client config one time.
This has also dramatically simplified the client side prop drilling
through the UI library. Now, all components can share the same client
config which matches the exact shape of their Payload config (with the
exception of non-serializable props and mapped custom components).
This is breaking change. The `useComponentMap` hook no longer exists,
and most component props have changed (for the better):
```ts
const { componentMap } = useComponentMap() // old
const { config } = useConfig() // new
```
The `useConfig` hook has also changed in shape, `config` is now a
property _within_ the context obj:
```ts
const config = useConfig() // old
const { config } = useConfig() // new
```
## Custom Client Components are no longer server rendered
Previously, custom components would be server-rendered, no matter if
they are server or client components. Now, only server components are
rendered on the server. Client components are automatically detected,
and simply get passed through as `MappedComponent` to be rendered fully
client-side.
The benefit of this change:
Custom client components can now receive props. Previously, the only way
for them to receive dynamic props from a parent client component was to
use hooks, e.g. `useFieldProps()`. Now, we do have the option of passing
in props to the custom components directly, if they are client
components. This will be simpler than having to look for the correct
hook.
This makes rendering them on the client a little bit more complex, as
you now have to check if that component is a server component (=>
already has been rendered) or a client component (=> not rendered yet,
has to be rendered here). However, this added complexity has been
alleviated through the easy-to-use `<RenderMappedComponent />` helper.
This helper now also handles rendering arrays of custom components (e.g.
beforeList, beforeLogin ...), which actually makes rendering custom
components easier in some cases.
## Misc improvements
This PR includes misc, breaking changes. For example, we previously
allowed unions between components and config object for the same
property. E.g. for the custom view property, you were allowed to pass in
a custom component or an object with other properties, alongside a
custom component.
Those union types are now gone. You can now either pass an object, or a
component. The previous `{ View: MyViewComponent}` is now `{ View: {
Component: MyViewComponent} }` or `{ View: { Default: { Component:
MyViewComponent} } }`.
This dramatically simplifies the way we read & process those properties,
especially in buildComponentMap. We can now simply check for the
existence of one specific property, which always has to be a component,
instead of running cursed runtime checks on a shared union property
which could contain a component, but could also contain functions or
objects.
- [x] I have read and understand the
[CONTRIBUTING.md](https://github.com/payloadcms/payload/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md)
document in this repository.
---------
Co-authored-by: PatrikKozak <patrik@payloadcms.com>
Co-authored-by: Paul <paul@payloadcms.com>
Co-authored-by: Paul Popus <paul@nouance.io>
Co-authored-by: Jacob Fletcher <jacobsfletch@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: James <james@trbl.design>
# Breaking Changes
### New file import locations
Exports from the `payload` package have been _significantly_ cleaned up.
Now, just about everything is able to be imported from `payload`
directly, rather than an assortment of subpath exports. This means that
things like `import { buildConfig } from 'payload/config'` are now just
imported via `import { buildConfig } from 'payload'`. The mental model
is significantly simpler for developers, but you might need to update
some of your imports.
Payload now exposes only three exports:
1. `payload` - all types and server-only Payload code
2. `payload/shared` - utilities that can be used in either the browser
or in Node environments
3. `payload/node` - heavy utilities that should only be imported in Node
scripts and never be imported into bundled code like Next.js
### UI library pre-bundling
With this release, we've dramatically sped up the compile time for
Payload by pre-bundling our entire UI package for use inside of the
Payload admin itself. There are new exports that should be used within
Payload custom components:
1. `@payloadcms/ui/client` - all client components
2. `@payloadcms/ui/server` - all server components
For all of your custom Payload admin UI components, you should be
importing from one of these two pre-compiled barrel files rather than
importing from the more deeply nested exports directly. That will keep
compile times nice and speedy, and will also make sure that the bundled
JS for your admin UI is kept small.
For example, whereas before, if you imported the Payload `Button`, you
would have imported it like this:
```ts
import { Button } from '@payloadcms/ui/elements/Button'
```
Now, you would import it like this:
```ts
import { Button } from '@payloadcms/ui/client'
```
This is a significant DX / performance optimization that we're pretty
pumped about.
However, if you are importing or re-using Payload UI components
_outside_ of the Payload admin UI, for example in your own frontend
apps, you can import from the individual component exports which will
make sure that the bundled JS is kept to a minimum in your frontend
apps. So in your own frontend, you can continue to import directly to
the components that you want to consume rather than importing from the
pre-compiled barrel files.
Individual component exports will now come with their corresponding CSS
and everything will work perfectly as-expected.
### Specific exports have changed
- `'@payloadcms/ui/templates/Default'` and
`'@payloadcms/ui/templates/Minimal`' are now exported from
`'@payloadcms/next/templates'`
- Old: `import { LogOut } from '@payloadcms/ui/icons/LogOut'` new:
`import { LogOutIcon } from '@payloadcms/ui/icons/LogOut'`
## Background info
In effort to make local dev as fast as possible, we need to import as
few files as possible so that the compiler has less to process. One way
we've achieved this in the Admin Panel was to _remove_ all .scss imports
from all components in the `@payloadcms/ui` module using a build
process. This stripped all `import './index.scss'` statements out of
each component before injecting them into `dist`. Instead, it bundles
all of the CSS into a single `main.css` file, and we import _that_ at
the root of the app.
While this concept is _still_ the right solution to the problem, this
particular approach is not viable when using these components outside
the Admin Panel, where not only does this root stylesheet not exist, but
where it would also bloat your app with unused styles. Instead, we need
to _keep_ these .scss imports in place so they are imported directly
alongside your components, as expected. Then, we need create a _new_
build step that _separately_ compiles the components _without_ their
stylesheets—this way your app can consume either as needed from the new
`client` and `server` barrel files within `@payloadcms/ui`, i.e. from
within `@payloadcms/next` and all other admin-specific packages and
plugins.
This way, all other applications will simply import using the direct
file paths, just as they did before. Except now they come with
stylesheets.
And we've gotten a pretty awesome initial compilation performance boost.
---------
Co-authored-by: James <james@trbl.design>
Co-authored-by: Alessio Gravili <alessio@gravili.de>
