README

General description

Exponential Layouts Content Browser UI (explayouts_content_browser_ui) is the server-rendered content browser UI for Exponential Layouts on Exponential Legacy / Exponential 6. It provides a module view that browses, searches and selects content items using the explayouts_content_browser_core backend, rendered entirely with legacy templates — no JavaScript build step required.

This extension is an Exponential Legacy port inspired by netgen/content-browser-ui (the original React package); it replaces the React application with a template/module based picker because the legacy stack does not run the Symfony/React toolchain. It provides the following capabilities:

Content browsing UI - Use this feature to browse and drill down through the content tree from a simple, server-rendered module view.
Subtree search - Use this feature to search a subtree with multi-term matching, straight from the browser's search form.
Item picking - Use this feature to let editors select a content item and return it to any form or view via a redirect with the selection appended.
Pagination - Use this feature to page through large listings with ready-made next/previous pagination helpers.

Features

The following features are provided by the Exponential Layouts Content Browser UI extension:

A complete, self-contained browser module view: /explayouts_content_browser_ui/browser/<LocationNodeID> lists the first 25 children of the given node (defaulting to node 2 when omitted). All content classes are shown; the view constructs its backend as new expLayoutsContentBrowserCoreBackend( array(), array( 'folder' ) ).
Search built in: the Search query parameter runs expLayoutsContentBrowserCoreBackend::searchItems() over the subtree (depth 10, up to 1000 nodes); every whitespace-separated term must match the node name, class identifier or class name.
Pagination built in: the offset query parameter combines with the fixed page size of 25, and the template receives ready-made has_next / next_offset / has_previous / previous_offset values.
A full picker workflow for other forms: open the browser with a return_uri, and when the editor selects an item (action=select&selected_node_id=<id>) the view loads it through expLayoutsContentBrowserCoreBackend::loadItem() and redirects back to return_uri with selected_node_id, selected_object_id and selected_name appended as query parameters.
Inline selection without a redirect: when no return_uri is given, the template is rendered with has_selection set and selected_item holding the picked item's toArray() hash, so a confirmation can be rendered in place.
Access control through the standard role/policy system: the browser view is guarded by the module's read policy function.
A single, easily overridable template (design/standard/templates/explayouts_content_browser_ui/browser.tpl) that renders the item list, search form and pagination, and receives a documented set of variables (items, total, location_node_id, search, offset, limit, pagination helpers, return_uri, has_selection, selected_item).
No JavaScript build step, no Node toolchain, no asset pipeline — plain module + template code that works on any Exponential Legacy install.

Version

The current version of Exponential Layouts Content Browser UI is 1.0.0
Last Major update: July 30, 2026

Copyright

Exponential Layouts Content Browser UI is copyright 1998 - 2026 7x
See: LICENSE.md for more information on the terms of the copyright and license

License

Exponential Layouts Content Browser UI is licensed under the GNU General Public License.

The complete license agreement is included in the LICENSE.md file.

Exponential Layouts Content Browser UI is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License or at your option a later version.

Exponential Layouts Content Browser UI is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

The GNU GPL gives you the right to use, modify and redistribute Exponential Layouts Content Browser UI under certain conditions. The GNU GPL license is distributed with the software, see the file LICENSE.md.

It is also available at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with Exponential Layouts Content Browser UI in LICENSE.md. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

Using Exponential Layouts Content Browser UI under the terms of the GNU GPL is free (as in freedom).

For more information or questions please contact info@se7enx.com

Requirements

The following requirements exist for using the Exponential Layouts Content Browser UI extension:

Exponential version

Make sure you use Exponential 6 / Exponential Legacy.

PHP version

Make sure you have PHP 8.1, 8.2, 8.3 or 8.4.

Extension dependencies

explayouts_content_browser — provides expLayoutsContentBrowserItem.
explayouts_content_browser_core — provides expLayoutsContentBrowserCoreBackend, which the browser view uses.
Activate both before this extension.

Installation

Installation is the standard extension procedure: place the extension in extension/explayouts_content_browser_ui, activate it after its dependencies via ActiveExtensions[] (or ActiveAccessExtensions[] for a single siteaccess), regenerate autoloads, clear caches, and grant a role policy for module explayouts_content_browser_ui, function read (or *) to the roles that should use the picker.

See INSTALL.md for the complete step-by-step installation instructions.

Usage

This extension ships no PHP classes of its own; it wires the sibling extensions into a browsable UI:

Component	File	Purpose
`explayouts_content_browser_ui/browser` module view	`modules/explayouts_content_browser_ui/browser.php`	Lists/searches children of a node, handles item selection and return redirects
Module definition	`modules/explayouts_content_browser_ui/module.php`	Declares the `browser` view with the `read` policy function and `LocationNodeID` parameter
Browser template	`design/standard/templates/explayouts_content_browser_ui/browser.tpl`	Renders the item list, search form and pagination
`settings/module.ini.append.php`		Registers the module (`ExtensionRepositories[]`, `ModuleList[]`)
`settings/design.ini.append.php`		Registers the design extension (`DesignExtensions[]`)

Quick start:

/explayouts_content_browser_ui/browser/43

lists the first 25 children of node 43. The supported query parameters are:

Parameter	Purpose
`Search`	Multi-term substring search within the subtree (via `searchItems()`)
`offset`	Pagination offset; the page size is fixed at 25
`action=select`	Select an item instead of browsing
`selected_node_id`	Node ID to select when `action=select`
`return_uri`	URI to redirect back to after a selection

Examples:

/explayouts_content_browser_ui/browser/43?Search=report
/explayouts_content_browser_ui/browser/43?offset=25
/explayouts_content_browser_ui/browser/43?action=select&selected_node_id=123&return_uri=/my/form

To use the browser as a picker for another form, open it with a return_uri pointing back to your form; after the editor picks an item the view redirects to return_uri with selected_node_id, selected_object_id and selected_name appended, which your receiving view reads from eZHTTPTool.

The full usage guide in doc/USAGE.md covers the URLs and parameters in depth, the template variables, the picker and inline selection scenarios, and the three customization layers of this stack: the settings layer (the two INI appends and the configuration cascade), the template layer (overriding browser.tpl through the design cascade in your own design extension) and the PHP layer (subclassing the backend classes in the sibling extensions instead of editing the view).

Documentation

Document	Description
INSTALL.md	Requirements, dependencies, activation steps and role policy setup
doc/USAGE.md	URLs, parameters, template variables, scenarios and the settings/template/PHP customization layers
doc/FAQ.md	Frequently asked questions and answers
doc/TODO.md	Known gaps and planned improvements
doc/SUPPORT.md	Where and how to get help
LICENSE.md	The complete GNU General Public License agreement

Troubleshooting

Read the FAQ

Some problems are more common than others. The most common ones are listed in doc/FAQ.md.

Use our support systems

If you find a bug or defect, please report it to the Exponential Layouts Content Browser UI: Issue Tracker
For commercial support and custom development please visit se7enx.com

se7enxweb / explayouts-content-browser-ui

Maintainers

Package info

Statistics

Security