Swap in your own React components
While designing the Payload Admin panel, we determined it should be as minimal and straightforward as possible to allow easy customization and control. There are many times where you may want to completely control how a whole view or a field works. You might even want to add in new views entirely. In order for Payload to support this level of customization without introducing versioning / future-proofing issues, Payload provides for a pattern to supply your own React components via your Payload config.
To swap in your own React component, first, consult the list of available component overrides below. Determine the scope that corresponds to what you are trying to accomplish, and then author your React component accordingly.
Base Component Overrides
You can override a set of admin panel-wide components by providing a component to your base Payload config's admin.components
property. The following options are available:
Path | Description |
---|---|
Nav | Contains the sidebar / mobile menu in its entirety. |
BeforeNavLinks | Array of components to inject into the built-in Nav, before the links themselves. |
AfterNavLinks | Array of components to inject into the built-in Nav, after the links. |
BeforeDashboard | Array of components to inject into the built-in Dashboard, before the default dashboard contents. |
AfterDashboard | Array of components to inject into the built-in Dashboard, after the default dashboard contents. Demo |
BeforeLogin | Array of components to inject into the built-in Login, before the default login form. |
AfterLogin | Array of components to inject into the built-in Login, after the default login form. |
logout.Button | A custom React component. |
graphics.Icon | Used as a graphic within the Nav component. Often represents a condensed version of a full logo. |
graphics.Logo | The full logo to be used in contexts like the Login view. |
providers | Define your own provider components that will wrap the Payload Admin UI. More |
actions | Array of custom components to be rendered in the Payload Admin UI header, providing additional interactivity and functionality. |
views | Override or create new views within the Payload Admin UI. More |
Here is a full example showing how to swap some of these components for your own.
payload.config.js
Views
You can easily swap entire views with your own by using the admin.components.views
property. At the root level, Payload renders the following views by default, all of which can be overridden:
Property | Description |
---|---|
Account | The Account view is used to show the currently logged in user's Account page. |
Dashboard | The main landing page of the Admin panel. |
To swap out any of these views, simply pass in your custom component to the admin.components.views
property of your Payload config. For example:
For more granular control, pass a configuration object instead. Each view corresponds to its own <Route />
component in React Router v5. Payload exposes all of the properties of React Router:
Property | Description |
---|---|
Component * | Pass in the component that should be rendered when a user navigates to this route. |
path * | React Router path . See the React Router docs for more info. |
exact | React Router exact property. More |
strict | React Router strict property. More |
sensitive | React Router sensitive property. More |
* An asterisk denotes that a property is required.
Adding new views
To add a new view to the Admin Panel, simply add another key to the views
object with at least a path
and Component
property. For example:
For more examples regarding how to customize components, look at the following examples.
For help on how to build your own custom view components, see building a custom view component.
Collections
You can override components on a collection-by-collection basis via the admin.components
property.
Path | Description |
---|---|
BeforeList | Array of components to inject before the built-in List view |
BeforeListTable | Array of components to inject before the built-in List view's table |
AfterList | Array of components to inject after the built-in List view |
AfterListTable | Array of components to inject after the built-in List view's table |
edit.SaveButton | Replace the default Save button with a custom component. Drafts must be disabled |
edit.SaveDraftButton | Replace the default Save Draft button with a custom component. Drafts must be enabled and autosave must be disabled. |
edit.PublishButton | Replace the default Publish button with a custom component. Drafts must be enabled. |
edit.PreviewButton | Replace the default Preview button with a custom component. |
views | Override or create new views within the Payload Admin UI. More |
Here is a full example showing how to swap some of these components for your own:
Collection.ts
Collection views
To swap out entire views on collections, you can use the admin.components.views
property on the collection's config. Payload renders the following views by default, all of which can be overridden:
Property | Description |
---|---|
Edit | The Edit view is used to edit a single document for a given collection. |
List | The List view is used to show a list of documents for a given collection. |
To swap out any of these views, simply pass in your custom component to the admin.components.views
property of your Payload config. This will replace the entire view, including the page breadcrumbs, title, tabs, etc, as well as all nested routes.
For help on how to build your own custom view components, see building a custom view component.
Customizing Nested Views within 'Edit' in Collections
The Edit
view in collections consists of several nested views, each serving a unique purpose. You can customize these nested views using the admin.components.views.Edit
property in the collection's configuration. This approach allows you to replace specific nested views while keeping the overall structure of the Edit
view intact, including the page breadcrumbs, title, tabs, etc.
Here's an example of how you can customize nested views within the Edit
view in collections, including the use of the actions
property:
Adding New Tabs to 'Edit' View
You can also add new tabs to the Edit
view by adding another key to the components.views.Edit[key]
object with a path
and Component
property. See Custom Tabs for more information.
Globals
As with Collections, you can override components on a global-by-global basis via the admin.components
property.
Path | Description |
---|---|
elements.SaveButton | Replace the default Save button with a custom component. Drafts must be disabled |
elements.SaveDraftButton | Replace the default Save Draft button with a custom component. Drafts must be enabled and autosave must be disabled. |
elements.PublishButton | Replace the default Publish button with a custom component. Drafts must be enabled. |
elements.PreviewButton | Replace the default Preview button with a custom component. |
views | Override or create new views within the Payload Admin UI. More |
Global views
To swap out views for globals, you can use the admin.components.views
property on the global's config. Payload renders the following views by default, all of which can be overridden:
Property | Description |
---|---|
Edit | The Edit view is used to edit a single document for a given Global. |
To swap out any of these views, simply pass in your custom component to the admin.components.views
property of your Payload config. This will replace the entire view, including the page breadcrumbs, title, and tabs, as well as all nested views.
For help on how to build your own custom view components, see building a custom view component.
Customizing Nested Views within 'Edit' in Globals
Similar to collections, Globals allow for detailed customization within the Edit
view. This includes the ability to swap specific nested views while maintaining the overall structure of the Edit
view. You can use the admin.components.views.Edit
property in the Globals configuration to achieve this, and this will only replace the nested view, leaving the page breadcrumbs, title, and tabs intact.
Here's how you can customize nested views within the Edit
view in Globals, including the use of the actions
property:
You can also add new tabs to the Edit
view by adding another key to the components.views.Edit[key]
object with a path
and Component
property. See Custom Tabs for more information.
Custom Tabs
You can easily swap individual collection or global edit views. To do this, pass an object to the admin.components.views.Edit
property of the config. Payload renders the following views by default, all of which can be overridden:
Property | Description |
---|---|
Default | The Default view is the primary view in which your document is edited. |
Versions | The Versions view is used to view the version history of a single document. More details |
Version | The Version view is used to view a single version of a single document for a given collection. More details. |
API | The API view is used to display the REST API JSON response for a given document. |
LivePreview | The LivePreview view is used to display the Live Preview interface. More details |
Here is an example:
To add a new tab to the Edit
view, simply add another key to components.views.Edit[key]
with at least a path
and Component
property. For example:
Building a custom view component
Your custom view components will be given all the props that a React Router <Route />
typically would receive, as well as two props from Payload:
Prop | Description |
---|---|
user | The currently logged in user. Will be null if no user is logged in. |
canAccessAdmin * | If the currently logged in user is allowed to access the admin panel or not. |
Example
You can find examples of custom views in the Payload source code /test/admin/components/views
folder. There, you'll find two custom views:
- A custom view that uses the
DefaultTemplate
, which is the built-in Payload template that displays the sidebar and "eyebrow nav" - A custom view that uses the
MinimalTemplate
- which is just a centered template used for things like logging in or out
To see how to pass in your custom views to create custom views of your own, take a look at the admin.components.views
property of the Payload test admin config.
Fields
All Payload fields support the ability to swap in your own React components. So, for example, instead of rendering a default Text input, you might need to render a color picker that provides the editor with a custom color picker interface to restrict the data entered to colors only.
Fields support the following custom components:
Component | Description |
---|---|
Filter | Override the text input that is presented in the List view when a user is filtering documents by the customized field. |
Cell | Used in the List view's table to represent a table-based preview of the data stored in the field. More |
Field | Swap out the field itself within all Edit views. More |
As an alternative to replacing the entire Field component, you may want to keep the majority of the default Field component and only swap components within. This allows you to replace the Label
or Error
within a field component or add additional components inside the field with beforeInput
or afterInput
. beforeInput
and afterInput
are allowed in any fields that don't contain other fields, except UI and Rich Text.
Component | Description |
---|---|
Label | Override the default Label in the Field Component. More |
Error | Override the default Error in the Field Component. More |
beforeInput | An array of elements that will be added before input /textarea elements. More |
afterInput | An array of elements that will be added after input /textarea elements. More |
Cell Component
These are the props that will be passed to your custom Cell to use in your own components.
Property | Description |
---|---|
field | An object that includes the field configuration. |
colIndex | A unique number for the column in the list. |
collection | An object with the config of the collection that the field is in. |
cellData | The data for the field that the cell represents. |
rowData | An object with all the field values for the row. |
Example
Field Component
When writing your own custom components you can make use of a number of hooks to set data, get reactive changes to other fields, get the id of the document or interact with a context from a custom provider.
Sending and receiving values from the form
When swapping out the Field
component, you'll be responsible for sending and receiving the field's value
from the form itself. To do so, import the useField
hook as follows:
Label Component
These are the props that will be passed to your custom Label.
Property | Description |
---|---|
htmlFor | Property used to set for attribute for label. |
label | Label value provided in field, it can be used with i18n. |
required | A boolean value that represents if the field is required or not. |
Example
Error Component
These are the props that will be passed to your custom Error.
Property | Description |
---|---|
message | The error message. |
showError | A boolean value that represents if the error should be shown. |
Example
afterInput and beforeInput
With these properties you can add multiple components before and after the input element. For example, you can add an absolutely positioned button to clear the current field value.
Example
Custom providers
As your admin customizations gets more complex you may want to share state between fields or other components. You can add custom providers to add your own context to any Payload app for use in other custom components within the admin panel. Within your config add admin.components.providers
, these can be used to share context or provide other custom functionality. Read the React context docs to learn more.
Styling Custom Components
Payload exports its SCSS variables and mixins for reuse in your own custom components. This is helpful in cases where you might want to style a custom input similarly to Payload's built-in styling, so it blends more thoroughly into the existing admin UI.
To make use of Payload SCSS variables / mixins to use directly in your own components, you can import them as follows:
Getting the current language
When developing custom components you can support multiple languages to be consistent with Payload's i18n support. The best way to do this is to add your translation resources to the i18n configuration and import useTranslation
from react-i18next
in your components.
For example:
Getting the current locale
In any custom component you can get the selected locale with useLocale
hook. useLocale
returns the full locale object, consisting of a label
, rtl
(right-to-left) property, and then code
. Here is a simple example: