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`.
Having the `scripts` dir re-use all packages from the top-level was
getting quite unwieldy. Created new `tools` directory that is part of
the workspace. Packages are exported with the `@tools` package
namespace.
Bumps Next.js to the latest version `15.1.3`. This affects only internal
`package.json` files (in the root dir and test)
Fixes errors from here https://github.com/payloadcms/payload/pull/10209
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>
### What?
Fixes https://github.com/payloadcms/payload/issues/5152 issue related to
sorting by a localized field with SQLite / Postgres database adapters.
### Why?
It was an incorrect behaviour.
### How?
Modifies the `getTableColumnFromPath` file to have correct join
conditions. Previously if you had this structure in the _locales table
_locale title parent
en A 1
es B 1
we sorted by everything that's here, but we need to sort only by the
passed locale.
Additionally fixes a typescript error in `dev.ts` that I added here
https://github.com/payloadcms/payload/pull/8834
Also, removes the condition with `joins.length` in `countDistinct`. It
was there as for this issue
https://github.com/payloadcms/payload/issues/4889 because sorting by a
localized property caused duplication. This can simnifically improve
performance for `.find` with nested querying/sorting on large data sets,
because `count(*)` is faster than `count(DISTINCT id)`
Apparently, `nextDev` seems to run in a different process and has its
own env variables, we can run the dev server the same way we run it for
E2Es instead via `createServer`.
This noticeably improves performance in the admin panel, for example
when there are multiple richtext editors on one page (& likely
performance in other areas too, though I mainly tested rich text).
The babel plugin currently only optimizes files with a 'use client'
directive at the top - thus we have to make sure to add use client
wherever possible, even if it's imported by a parent client component.
There's one single component that broke when it was compiled using the
React compiler (it stopped being reactive and failed one of our admin
e2e tests):
150808f608
opting out of it completely fixed that issue
Fixes https://github.com/payloadcms/payload/issues/7366
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>
