Overview
Nova ships with a variety of field types; however, sometimes you may need a field type that isn’t provided out of the box. For this reason, Nova allows you to build custom fields. Custom fields consist of three Vue components that determine how the field is displayed in various contexts.Defining Fields
Custom fields may be generated using thenova:field
Artisan command. By default, all new fields will be placed in the nova-components
directory of your application. When generating a field using the nova:field
command, the field name you pass to the command should follow the Composer vendor/package
format. So, if we were building a color-picker field, we might run the following command:
composer.json
file. All custom fields are registered with your application as a Composer “path” repository.
Nova fields include all of the scaffolding necessary to build your field. Each field even contains its own composer.json
file and is ready to be shared with the world on GitHub or the source control provider of your choice.
Registering Fields
Nova fields may be registered in your resource’sfields
method. This method returns an array of fields available to the resource. To register your field, add your field to the array of fields returned by this method:
Field Options
Often, you will need to allow the consumers of your field to customize run-time configuration options on the field. You may do this by exposing methods on your field class. These methods may call the field’s underlyingwithMeta
method to add information to the field’s metadata, which will be available within your field’s Vue components. The withMeta
method accepts an array of key / value options:
Accessing Field Options
Your field’s Vue components receive afield
Vue prop
. The field
property provides access to any field options that may be available:
Building Fields
Each field generated by Nova includes its own service provider and “field” class. Using thecolor-picker
field as an example, the field class will be located at src/ColorPicker.php
.
The field’s service provider is also located within the src
directory of the field, and is registered within the extra
section of your field’s composer.json
file so that it will be auto-loaded by Laravel.
Index Fields
When Nova generates your field, it creates aresources/js/components/IndexField.vue
Vue component. This component contains the template and logic for your field when it is displayed on a resource index page. By default, this component simply displays the field’s value in a simple <span>
element; however, you are free to modify this field component as needed.
Detail Fields
When creating fields, Nova also creates aresources/js/components/DetailField.vue
Vue component. This component contains the template and logic for your field when it is displayed on a resource detail page. By default, this template contains the necessary mark-up needed to display your field’s value. However, you are free to adjust this template as required by your application.
Form Fields
Finally, Nova creates aresources/js/components/FormField.vue
Vue component. This component contains the template and logic for your field when it is displayed on a creation or update form. By default, this template contains a simple input
control to modify your field’s underlying value; however, you are free to customize this template. For example, we may update the template to display a color-picker control:
Setting the Form Value
Before creating or updating a resource, Nova asks each field on the form to “fill” the outgoing FormData object with key / value pairs. Each field may add as many elements to theFormData
as needed. This may be done in your FormField.vue
file’s fill
method:
Dependent Form Field
By default, all custom fields will be created such that they use theFormField
mixin. However, if you are building a dependent field, you should replace FormField
with DependentFormField
:
this.currentField
instead of this.field
:
Laravel\Nova\Fields\SupportsDependentFields
trait on your Field
class:
Hydrating the Model
By default, when saving a model, your field class will simply copy the incoming form field value into the field’s associated model attribute. However, you may customize how your field hydrates the resource model. To accomplish this, override thefillAttributeFromRequest
method on your field class:
$requestAttribute
, which is the name of the incoming form field on the HTTP request. Additionally, it receives the $attribute
, which is the name of the model attribute the field’s value should be placed in.
Assets
When Nova generates your field,resources/js
and resources/css
directories are generated for you. These directories contain your field’s JavaScript and CSS.
Registering Assets
Your Nova field’s service provider registers your field’s compiled assets so that they will be available to the Nova front-end:Your components are bootstrapped and registered in the
resources/js/field.js
file. You are free to modify this file or register additional components here as needed.Compiling Assets
Your Nova field contains awebpack.mix.js
file, which is generated when Nova creates your field. You may build your field using the NPM dev
and prod
commands:
watch
command to auto-compile your assets when they are changed:
The
nova:install
NPM command installs the mixins used by Nova’s built-in fields for use in your field. Please refer to the Nova mixins documentation for more information.