Feature Request: Fallback Title

[ryanleichty]

I've got a curious question as well as perhaps a feature request. I want to use the title field without it being required, and I also want to define the fallback title in cases where it has no title (instead of Entry 622688) while keeping the title field itself empty. I can't use default title format because it will populate the title field (in some cases this might be desirable).

To work around this, I have to add a custom field (with the handle customTitle) so that I can use the default title format without it populating the customTitle field. This is fine, but it would be great if I could still use the actual title field.

I'm not sure what the right answer is here or if there even is one, but I figured I would throw it out there.

The fallback title if the entry has no title

[brandonkelly]

You could sortof achieve that by making the Title field optional, and setting the Default Title Format to:

{{ id ? "Entry #{id}" }}

With that, the Title field will be blank the first time the Edit page is loaded, but if it’s not filled in on save, then the Default Title Format will be applied (e.g. “Entry 12345”) and the input will start showing that auto-generated title, which can be manually edited from there.

So the only awkward part is that the auto-generated title will be shown in the input and manually-editable going forward. To me that feels more intuitive though, as it will always be clear where the title is coming from.

[ryanleichty]

I think what I'm ultimately after is something closer to this #15593. I want a completely optional title field—using that exact handle—while also having the ability to control the "preview" title (the title used in cards, etc).

In Sanity, a document (e.g., entry) can have a preview property that allows you to control what's displayed in the UI (cards, lists, etc). Somewhat similar to the auto generated title in Craft, though the auto-generated title affects the actual entry title and the title displayed in the UI/control panel.

[ryanleichty]

Ok, I know the above comment is probably less realistic, but I was exploring this again and hitting the same problems, and ultimately I think what might work is having the ability to control the title displayed in these cards.

For example, these surface category entries are acting as overrides where every field is optional. For the card title, I just want to display the selected products (not that this is the actual title of the entries, but as a communication mechanism for the cards). With my current setup, I can't really get this to work unless I duplicate the surface category entry type and completely remove the title field so that I have more control over the card title.

[thupsi]

So, basically, you would like to be able to select a field to "pull" the fallback title from when there's no title (nor an auto-generated one) , like you can select a field to "pull" the thumbnail from, correct?

I can see how that could be useful, in fact not only for cards but for all element view modes, since currently a fallback exists, but it's Entry {id}, which is not always desirable.

+1 from me!

[thupsi]

Also, I think, for your specific case and in general, a generated field should be eligible to use as a "fallback title".

[ryanleichty]

Yes, exactly!

Overall, I think having more control over the "title" of the card would be helpful. Like in Sanity, you can completely customize the displayed title that's shown in the CMS via the preview object:

export default {
  name: 'movie',
  type: 'document',
  fields: [
    {
      title: 'Title',
      name: 'title',
      type: 'string'
    },
    {
      name: 'director',
      type: 'reference',
      to: [{ type: 'person' }]
    }
  ],
  preview: {
    select: {
      title: 'title',
      director: 'director.name' // if the movie has a director, follow the reference and get the name
    },
    prepare(selection) {
      const {title, director} = selection
      return {
        title: `${title}: Directed by ${director ? director : 'unknown'}`,
      }
    }
  }
}

It's very similar to the card customizations you can do in Craft, though you can't change the title.

[brandonkelly]

Resolved this by adding a new “UI Label Format” setting to entry types for Craft 5.9 (#18044).

[ryanleichty]

Awesome, thank you! 🚀