frontend-lib-content-components

A library of high-level components for content handling (viewing, editing, etc. of HTML, video, problems, etc.), to be shared by multiple MFEs.

How to set up development workflow of V2 content Editors in Studio and course Authoring MFE.

This guide presumes you have a functioning devstack.

1. Enable Studio to use an editor for your xblock using waffle flags
   1. Add the string name of your editor e.g. html to the flag check in the edx-platform repo.
   2. In devstack + venv, run $ make dev.provision.lms+studio+frontend-app-course-authoring to make up the required services. Minimum services required are lms, studio and frontend-app-course-authoring.
   3. In Studio Django Admin turn on new_core_editors.use_new_text_editor flag for HTML editor, new_core_editors.use_new_video_editor flag for new video editor, and new_core_editors.use_new_problem_editor flag for problems. The list of supported flags is in toggles.py. . you might have to add a flag for your xblock of choice.
2. Clone this repo into the ${DEVSTACK_WORKSPACE}/src directory the sibling repo of your edx devstack /src.
3. In the course authoring app, follow the guide to use your local verison of frontend-lib-content-components. The moduleconfig.js in the frontend-app-course-authoring repo will be:

    module.exports = {
    /*
    Modules you want to use from local source code.  Adding a module here means that when this app
    runs its build, it'll resolve the source from peer directories of this app.

    moduleName: the name you use to import code from the module.
    dir: The relative path to the module's source code.
    dist: The sub-directory of the source code where it puts its build artifact.  Often "dist".

    To use a module config:

    1. Copy module.config.js.example and remove the '.example' extension
    2. Uncomment modules below in the localModules array to load them from local source code.
    3. Remember to re-build the production builds of those local modules if they have one.
        See note below.
    */
    localModules: [
        /*********************************************************************************************
        IMPORTANT NOTE: If any of the below packages (like paragon or frontend-platform) have a build
        step that populates their 'dist' directories, you must manually run that step.  For paragon
        and frontend-platform, for instance, you need to run `npm run build` in the repo before
        module.config.js will work.
        **********************************************************************************************/

        // { moduleName: '@edx/brand', dir: '../brand-openedx' }, // replace with your brand checkout
        // { moduleName: '@edx/paragon/scss/core', dir: '../paragon', dist: 'scss/core' },
        // { moduleName: '@edx/paragon/icons', dir: '../paragon', dist: 'icons' },
        // { moduleName: '@edx/paragon', dir: '../paragon', dist: 'dist' },
        // { moduleName: '@edx/frontend-platform', dir: '../frontend-platform', dist: 'dist' },
        // NOTE: This is the relative path of the frontend-lib-content-components in the frontend-app-course-authoring container.
        { moduleName: '@edx/frontend-lib-content-components', dir: '../src/frontend-lib-content-components', dist: 'dist' },
    ],
    };

4. Open a terminal

   1. cd ${DEVSTACK_WORKSPACE}/src/frontend-lib-content-components
   2. run $ npm install
   3. run $ make build when you want to see your changes.

5. In devstack run make studio-static followed by $ make dev.down.frontend-app-course-authoring and $ make dev.up.frontend-app-course-authoring.

6. Go to studio and edit a course or add the Xblock with the developing editor, it should redirect to frontend-app-course-authoring MFE and the editor should load.

Using the gallery view.

The gallery view runs the editor components with mocked-out block data, and sometimes does not replicate all desired behaviors, but can be used for faster iteration on UI-related changes. To run the gallery view, from the root directory, run

$ cd www $ npm start

and now the gallery will be live at http://localhost:8080/index.html. use the toggle at the top to switch between available editors.

Creating Xblock Editor

To develop a custom Xblock editor, run the command:

$ npm run-script addXblock <name of xblock>

from the frontend-lib-content-components source directory. It will create an editor you can then view at src/editors/containers. It will also configure the editor to be viewable in the gallery view. Adding the editor to be used in studio will require the following steps:

1. Adding a flag in toggles.py
2. Activating the Flag in Studio Django Admin.
3. Add the function in studio_xblock_wrapper.html
4. Make appropriate changes in container.js in the edx-platform repo.
5. Activate the flag.
6. Follow steps 4 to 6 from above