Customizing Fields

Fields within the Admin Panel can be endlessly customized in their appearance and behavior without affecting their underlying data structure. Fields are designed to withstand heavy modification or even complete replacement through the use of Custom Field Components, Conditional Logic, Custom Validations, and more.

For example, your app might need to render a specific interface that Payload does not inherently support, such as a color picker. To do this, you could replace the default Text Field input with your own user-friendly component that formats the data into a valid color value.

Admin Options

You can customize the appearance and behavior of fields within the Admin Panel through the admin property of any Field Config:

1import type { CollectionConfig } from 'payload'
2
3export const CollectionConfig: CollectionConfig = {
// ...
fields: [
  // ...
  {
    name: 'myField',
    type: 'text',
    admin: { 
      // ...
    },
  }
]
15}

The following options are available:

Option	Description
`condition`	Programmatically show / hide fields based on other fields. More details.
`components`	All Field Components can be swapped out for Custom Components that you define. More details.
`description`	Helper text to display alongside the field to provide more information for the editor. More details.
`position`	Specify if the field should be rendered in the sidebar by defining `position: 'sidebar'`.
`width`	Restrict the width of a field. You can pass any string-based value here, be it pixels, percentages, etc. This property is especially useful when fields are nested within a `Row` type where they can be organized horizontally.
`style`	CSS Properties to inject into the root element of the field.
`className`	Attach a CSS class attribute to the root DOM element of a field.
`readOnly`	Setting a field to `readOnly` has no effect on the API whatsoever but disables the admin component's editability to prevent editors from modifying the field's value.
`disabled`	If a field is `disabled`, it is completely omitted from the Admin Panel.
`disableBulkEdit`	Set `disableBulkEdit` to `true` to prevent fields from appearing in the select options when making edits for multiple documents. Defaults to `true` for UI fields.
`disableListColumn`	Set `disableListColumn` to `true` to prevent fields from appearing in the list view column selector.
`disableListFilter`	Set `disableListFilter` to `true` to prevent fields from appearing in the list view filter options.
`hidden`	Will transform the field into a `hidden` input type. Its value will still submit with requests in the Admin Panel, but the field itself will not be visible to editors.

Field Descriptions

Field Descriptions are used to provide additional information to the editor about a field, such as special instructions. Their placement varies from field to field, but typically are displayed with subtle style differences beneath the field inputs.

A description can be configured in three ways:

As a string.
As a function which returns a string. More details.
As a React component. More details.

To easily add a Custom Description to a field, use the admin.description property in your Field Config:

1import type { SanitizedCollectionConfig } from 'payload'
2
3export const MyCollectionConfig: SanitizedCollectionConfig = {
// ...
fields: [
  // ...
  {
    name: 'myField',
    type: 'text',
    admin: {
      description: 'Hello, world!' 
    },
  },
]
15}

Description Functions

Custom Descriptions can also be defined as a function. Description Functions are executed on the server and can be used to format simple descriptions based on the user's current Locale.

To easily add a Description Function to a field, set the admin.description property to a function in your Field Config:

1import type { SanitizedCollectionConfig } from 'payload'
2
3export const MyCollectionConfig: SanitizedCollectionConfig = {
// ...
fields: [
  // ...
  {
    name: 'myField',
    type: 'text',
    admin: {
      description: ({ t }) => `${t('Hello, world!')}` 
    },
  },
]
15}

All Description Functions receive the following arguments:

Argument	Description
`t`	The `t` function used to internationalize the Admin Panel. More details

Conditional Logic

You can show and hide fields based on what other fields are doing by utilizing conditional logic on a field by field basis. The condition property on a field's admin config accepts a function which takes three arguments:

data - the entire document's data that is currently being edited
siblingData - only the fields that are direct siblings to the field with the condition
{ user } - the final argument is an object containing the currently authenticated user

The condition function should return a boolean that will control if the field should be displayed or not.

Example:

1{
fields: [
  {
    name: 'enableGreeting',
    type: 'checkbox',
    defaultValue: false,
  },
  {
    name: 'greeting',
    type: 'text',
    admin: {
      condition: (data, siblingData, { user }) => {
        if (data.enableGreeting) {
          return true
        } else {
          return false
        }
      },
    },
  },
]
22}

Custom Components

Within the Admin Panel, fields are represented in three distinct places:

Field - The actual form field rendered in the Edit View.
Cell - The table cell component rendered in the List View.
Filter - The filter component rendered in the List View.

To easily swap in Field Components with your own, use the admin.components property in your Field Config:

1import type { CollectionConfig } from 'payload'
2
3export const CollectionConfig: CollectionConfig = {
// ...
fields: [
  // ...
  {
    // ...
    admin: {
      components: { 
        // ...
      },
    },
  }
]
16}

The following options are available:

Component	Description
`Field`	The form field rendered of the Edit View. More details.
`Cell`	The table cell rendered of the List View. More details.
`Filter`	The filter component rendered in the List View. More details.
`Label`	Override the default Label of the Field Component. More details.
`Error`	Override the default Error of the Field Component. More details.
`Description`	Override the default Description of the Field Component. More details.
`beforeInput`	An array of elements that will be added before the input of the Field Component. More details.
`afterInput`	An array of elements that will be added after the input of the Field Component. More details.

Field

The Field Component is the actual form field rendered in the Edit View. This is the input that user's will interact with when editing a document.

To easily swap in your own Field Component, use the admin.components.Field property in your Field Config:

1import type { CollectionConfig } from 'payload'
2
3export const CollectionConfig: CollectionConfig = {
// ...
fields: [
  // ...
  {
    // ...
    admin: {
      components: {
        Field: '/path/to/MyFieldComponent', 
      },
    },
  }
]
16}

For details on how to build Custom Components, see Building Custom Components.

Default Props

All Field Components receive the following props by default:

Property	Description
`docPreferences`	An object that contains the Preferences for the document.
`field`	In Client Components, this is the sanitized Client Field Config. In Server Components, this is the original Field Config. Server Components will also receive the sanitized field config through the`clientField` prop (see below).
`locale`	The locale of the field. More details.
`readOnly`	A boolean value that represents if the field is read-only or not.
`user`	The currently authenticated user. More details.
`validate`	A function that can be used to validate the field.
`path`	A string representing the direct, dynamic path to the field at runtime, i.e. `myGroup.myArray.0.myField`.
`schemaPath`	A string representing the direct, static path to the Field Config, i.e. `posts.myGroup.myArray.myField`.
`indexPath`	A hyphen-notated string representing the path to the field within the nearest named ancestor field, i.e. `0-0`

In addition to the above props, all Server Components will also receive the following props:

Property	Description
`clientField`	The serializable Client Field Config.
`field`	The Field Config. More details.
`data`	The current document being edited.
`i18n`	The i18n object.
`payload`	The Payload class.
`permissions`	The field permissions based on the currently authenticated user.
`siblingData`	The data of the field's siblings.
`user`	The currently authenticated user. More details.
`value`	The value of the field at render-time.

Sending and receiving values from the form

When swapping out the Field component, you are responsible for sending and receiving the field's value from the form itself.

To do so, import the useField hook from @payloadcms/ui and use it to manage the field's value:

1'use client'
2import { useField } from '@payloadcms/ui'
3
4export const CustomTextField: React.FC = () => {
5  const { value, setValue } = useField() 
6
7  return (
8    <input
9      onChange={(e) => setValue(e.target.value)}
10      value={value}
11    />
12  )
13}

TypeScript

When building Custom Field Components, you can import the client field props to ensure type safety in your component. There is an explicit type for the Field Component, one for every Field Type and server/client environment. The convention is to prepend the field type onto the target type, i.e. TextFieldClientComponent:

1import type {
TextFieldClientComponent,
TextFieldServerComponent,
TextFieldClientProps,
TextFieldServerProps,
// ...and so on for each Field Type
7} from 'payload'

Cell

The Cell Component is rendered in the table of the List View. It represents the value of the field when displayed in a table cell.

To easily swap in your own Cell Component, use the admin.components.Cell property in your Field Config:

1import type { Field } from 'payload'
2
3export const myField: Field = {
4  name: 'myField',
5  type: 'text',
6  admin: {
7    components: {
8      Cell: '/path/to/MyCustomCellComponent', 
9    },
10  },
11}

All Cell Components receive the same Default Field Component Props, plus the following:

Property	Description
`link`	A boolean representing whether this cell should be wrapped in a link.
`onClick`	A function that is called when the cell is clicked.

For details on how to build Custom Components themselves, see Building Custom Components.

Label

The Label Component is rendered anywhere a field needs to be represented by a label. This is typically used in the Edit View, but can also be used in the List View and elsewhere.

To easily swap in your own Label Component, use the admin.components.Label property in your Field Config:

1import type { Field } from 'payload'
2
3export const myField: Field = {
4  name: 'myField',
5  type: 'text',
6  admin: {
7    components: {
8      Label: '/path/to/MyCustomLabelComponent', 
9    },
10  },
11}

All Custom Label Components receive the same Default Field Component Props.

For details on how to build Custom Components themselves, see Building Custom Components.

TypeScript

When building Custom Label Components, you can import the component types to ensure type safety in your component. There is an explicit type for the Label Component, one for every Field Type and server/client environment. The convention is to append LabelServerComponent or LabelClientComponent to the type of field, i.e. TextFieldLabelClientComponent.

1import type {
2  TextFieldLabelServerComponent,
3  TextFieldLabelClientComponent,
4  // ...and so on for each Field Type
5} from 'payload'

Description

Alternatively to the Description Property, you can also use a Custom Component as the Field Description. This can be useful when you need to provide more complex feedback to the user, such as rendering dynamic field values or other interactive elements.

To easily add a Description Component to a field, use the admin.components.Description property in your Field Config:

1import type { SanitizedCollectionConfig } from 'payload'
2
3export const MyCollectionConfig: SanitizedCollectionConfig = {
// ...
fields: [
  // ...
  {
    name: 'myField',
    type: 'text',
    admin: {
      components: {
        Description: '/path/to/MyCustomDescriptionComponent', 
      }
    }
  }
]
17}

All Custom Description Components receive the same Default Field Component Props.

For details on how to build a Custom Components themselves, see Building Custom Components.

TypeScript

When building Custom Description Components, you can import the component props to ensure type safety in your component. There is an explicit type for the Description Component, one for every Field Type and server/client environment. The convention is to append DescriptionServerComponent or DescriptionClientComponent to the type of field, i.e. TextFieldDescriptionClientComponent.

1import type {
2  TextFieldDescriptionServerComponent,
3  TextFieldDescriptionClientComponent,
4  // And so on for each Field Type
5} from 'payload'

Error

The Error Component is rendered when a field fails validation. It is typically displayed beneath the field input in a visually-compelling style.

To easily swap in your own Error Component, use the admin.components.Error property in your Field Config:

1import type { Field } from 'payload'
2
3export const myField: Field = {
4  name: 'myField',
5  type: 'text',
6  admin: {
7    components: {
8      Error: '/path/to/MyCustomErrorComponent', 
9    },
10  },
11}

All Error Components receive the Default Field Component Props.

For details on how to build Custom Components themselves, see Building Custom Components.

TypeScript

When building Custom Error Components, you can import the component types to ensure type safety in your component. There is an explicit type for the Error Component, one for every Field Type and server/client environment. The convention is to append ErrorServerComponent or ErrorClientComponent to the type of field, i.e. TextFieldErrorClientComponent.

1import type {
2  TextFieldErrorServerComponent,
3  TextFieldErrorClientComponent,
4  // And so on for each Field Type
5} from 'payload'

afterInput and beforeInput

With these properties you can add multiple components before and after the input element, as their name suggests. This is useful when you need to render additional elements alongside the field without replacing the entire field component.

To add components before and after the input element, use the admin.components.beforeInput and admin.components.afterInput properties in your Field Config:

1import type { SanitizedCollectionConfig } from 'payload'
2
3export const MyCollectionConfig: SanitizedCollectionConfig = {
// ...
fields: [
  // ...
  {
    name: 'myField',
    type: 'text',
    admin: {
      components: {
        beforeInput: ['/path/to/MyCustomComponent'],
        afterInput: ['/path/to/MyOtherCustomComponent'],
      }
    }
  }
]
18}

All afterInput and beforeInput Components receive the same Default Field Component Props.

For details on how to build Custom Components, see Building Custom Components.

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Customizing Fields

Admin Options

Field Descriptions

Description Functions

Conditional Logic

Custom Components

Field

Default Props

Sending and receiving values from the form

TypeScript

Cell

Label

TypeScript

Description

TypeScript

Error

TypeScript

afterInput and beforeInput

React Hooks