DS Entities - Layout builder

Build your page layout with this new Strapi plugin inspired by Drupal. DS Entities gives you a chance to organize and position you contents through API to display them in your project.

Entity types

• Node: contains the web content data
• Region: a portion of page layout
• Block: a slot that can be positioned inside region
• View: used for display list of nodes
• Tag: used for tagging nodes

Node entity

The main entity used for display the web content. It can be organized in node types and used for represent a web page, an article, etc... The node content is represented by an unique machine name and by a slug string useful for routing path.

Region entity

A layout page can be organized in regions like header, footer, etc... The region entity represents a portion of layout that can be filled with one or more blocks.

Block entity

The block entity can be organized in block types and it's useful like a slot placed inside a region to display a view of nodes. The block can be positioned/related into a region and displayed in specific context of view like nodes or node types. The block content is represented by an unique machine name.

View entity

The view entity can be organized in view types and it's useful for represent list of nodes. It's possible display specific nodes, or list of nodes types or per tag types and also attach specific blocks into the header or footer view ensuring maximum customization. The view content is represented by an unique machine name.

Tag entity

The tag entity it's useful for tagging node contents and display them into the views.

Installation

DS Entities requires Strapi 5 and can be installed with:

npm install ds-entities

API

DS Entities organizes all the entities in different layout structures that can be used for build the web page on your frontend application.

Layout

All the entities are organized as block renderer inside each regions and can be used for create a layout builder. That structure is available calling the following endpoint:

http://localhost:1337/api/ds-entities/layout

That endpoint returns an optimized data structure like the example below:

{
    "unassigned": [
        {
            id": 3,
            "documentId": "hmo5qnsarnx5b4q6kdd745e9",
            "Title": "Sample Block",
            "HideTitle": true,
            "Entity": "block",
            "Uid": "block_sample-block",
            "Body": [...],
            ...
        },
        ...
    ],
    "custom-region": [ ... ]
}

Map

DS Entities provides all the entities organized in a new other useful structure that can be used as data source registry for handling translations. This structure is available calling the following endpoint:

http://localhost:1337/api/ds-entities/map

That endpoint will return entities data organized per Type and Uid

{
    "nodes": {
        "page": {
            "node_page-node": {
                ...
                "Title": "Page Node",
                "HideTitle": false,
                "Slug": "page-node",
                "Entity": "node",
                "Uid": "node_page-node",
                ...
            }
            ...
        },
    ],
    "blocks": {
        "default": {
            "block_sample-block": {
                ...
                Title": "Sample block",
                "HideTitle": true,
                "Entity": "block",
                "Uid": "block_sample-block",
                ...
            }
            ...
        },
    }
    "views": {
        "default": {
            "view_sample-view": {
                ...
                "Title": "Sample view",
                "HideTitle": false,
                "Uid": "view_sample-view",
                "Entity": "view",
                ...
            }
            ...
        },
    }
}

Slugs

DS Entities provides all the node entities organized in a new useful structure that can be used as registry for handling routing. This structure is available calling the following endpoint:

http://localhost:1337/api/ds-entities/slugs

That endpoint will return node entities data organized per Slug

{
    "nodes": {
        "page-node": {
             ...
                "Title": "Page Node",
                "HideTitle": false,
                "Slug": "page-node",
                "Entity": "node",
                "Uid": "node_page-node",
                ...
            ...
        },
        ...
    ]
}

General

Other DS entities are available on their specific endpoints

http://localhost:1337/api/ds-entities/nodes
http://localhost:1337/api/ds-entities/blocks
http://localhost:1337/api/ds-entities/views
http://localhost:1337/api/ds-entities/tags

Multilingual

It's possible to select layout data for each language using the locale query param:

http://localhost:1337/api/ds-entities/layout?locale=en
http://localhost:1337/api/ds-entities/map?locale=en
http://localhost:1337/api/ds-entities/slugs?locale=en

Extensions

It's possible to extend all the main entities with other properties and make them available into the API using the Strapi populate syntax:

http://localhost:1337/api/ds-entities/layout?populate[nodes][populate][NEW_PROPERTY][fields]=*&populate[blocks][populate][NEW_PROPERTY][populate][NESTED_NEW_PROPERTY][fields]=*
http://localhost:1337/api/ds-entities/map?populate[nodes][populate][NEW_PROPERTY][fields]=*&populate[blocks][populate][NEW_PROPERTY][populate][NESTED_NEW_PROPERTY][fields]=*&populate[views][populate][NEW_PROPERTY][fields]=*
http://localhost:1337/api/ds-entities/slugs?populate[NEW_PROPERTY][populate][NESTED_NEW_PROPERTY][fields]=*

All these properties are filterable with the usual Strapi filter syntax like the following example:

http://localhost:1337/api/ds-entities/layout?filters[nodes][NEW_PROPERTY][NEW_PROPERTY_FIELD][$eq]=[NEW_PROPERTY_VALUE]&filters[blocks][NEW_PROPERTY][NEW_PROPERTY_FIELD][$eq]=[NEW_PROPERTY_VALUE]
http://localhost:1337/api/ds-entities/map?filters[nodes][NEW_PROPERTY][NEW_PROPERTY_FIELD][$eq]=[NEW_PROPERTY_VALUE]&filters[blocks][NEW_PROPERTY][NEW_PROPERTY_FIELD][$eq]=[NEW_PROPERTY_VALUE]
http://localhost:1337/api/ds-entities/slugs?filters[nodes][NEW_PROPERTY][NEW_PROPERTY_FIELD][$eq]=[NEW_PROPERTY_VALUE]

It's possible to remove the default properties from the response of the following requests with the usual Strapi filter syntax:

http://localhost:1337/api/ds-entities/map?exclude[nodes][populate]=localizations&exclude[blocks][populate]=Views

Permissions and RBAC

Every endpoints can be controlled inside the Strapi users permission plugin. It's also possible assign some permission rules for admin user roles and decide what kind of node type can be edited by specific admin roles. This can be done becasue DS Entities plugin create a permission condition for each node type created.

Example: Only Editor admin role can edit and publish Page nodes types:

1. Go to Editor role panel
2. Click on Settings for Node permissions
3. Assign condition on Read permission as "Is Page node type"