There is definitely one less smart person in the world than I thought there was yesterday. Sigh.

All of the questions on this topic are into such minutia that the big stuff like "Why doesn't the edit form edit?" must be completely obvious. But not to me.

I want to create a substitute for the standard (ugly) node edit form for my content type. Very simple need. I want to create a substitute node edit form for my content type.

I create a panel and it works fine for displaying a node, but even though I specify "Node being edited is type" it will not give me entry fields. I specify "http://myhost/drupal/node/123" and I get the nice new panel with the node displayed; I specify "http://myhost/drupal/node/123/edit" and I get the same thing -- no edit fields. Nothing in demos, documentation, questions, Panel 2, issues, NOTHING shows an edit screen. Always "It's as easy as falling off a cliff -- a three-year-old could do it" -- well, I don't have a three-year-old handy. Could someone PLEASE point me to an article that explains EDIT PANELS -- not display panels.

In all of the documentation I have never seen a custom edit panel -- why is that? Does it have to be themed? Can it not be done? Where do I go for information?

Thank you.

Comments

merlinofchaos’s picture

So what content panes are you putting in your edit panel? It's difficult to say why you can't get something to work when you do not explain what how you're actually configuring it.

gluestick’s picture

Thanks for the response. I'm not sure if the details are important -- I think I'm missing the "Aha!" moment about panels. Here are some details.

On "Pages" screen --
Type: system
Name: node_edit
Title: node add/edit form
Path: /node/%node/edit
Operations: enabled (toggle prompt says "Disable", so currently enabled)

Click "Edit". "Summary" panel --
Status: enabled
Selection rule: this panel will be selected if Node being edited is type "Patient Demographics"
Layout: two column stacked
Contexts: Argument 1 - Node being edited (no additional contexts than default)
Content: (a few fields from the Patient Demographics node in various sections for playing around)

http://gluestick/node/153 --> uses default core view template (good)
http://gluestick/node/153/edit --> uses the "panels" layout I defined, but as displayed fields, not edit fields.

One big clue is that for /node/153, I see the themed page (node is displayed inside the Garland content area), and for /node/153/edit, the panel takes over the whole page. (Obviously -- I'm defining a "Page" not a "Panel".) But when I define a panel, I can't get individual fields for the layout sections -- just "Node Content" as a lump.

That's why I think I have a conceptual problem. Pointing me to the correct page of documentation would probably help. The http://panels.demo.logrus.com/ didn't help me much because I think that is Panels 2 and things are different.

merlinofchaos’s picture

Ok, it is -- and the part you're missing (now that I have the details I can clearly see that it is missing) -- is that there are items under the 'Form' section in add content that you need. Specifically the 'general form' which will contain all of the buttons and gadgetry of node edit.

gluestick’s picture

Merlin,

I understand how including form objects should fix my problem. However, it seems that if I want to *DISPLAY* a node, I can pick and choose fields and place them within panel sections, but if I want to *EDIT* a node, I have to take the whole enchilada at once (using the "general form" and "submit buttons" objects) without control of fields or placement. Yes?

I like being able to place selected fields from a content type like the "Panels" interface allows, but then I'd like that layout to become an entry form. I'm sure you understand my need. That is not what "Panels" is all about? I need to get into theming for that kind of control?

I appreciate the attention.

cmillet1’s picture

I'm trying to do the same thing. I have a content type with quite a few vocabularies that makes the edit form rather long (vertically), and it would be great to move the whole set of vocabularies in that form over to a second column, and leave the rest of the form elements in a left column. Basically what this tutorial for Panels 2 does: http://drupal.org/node/201916

Being able to layout each and every form field from my content type (much like overriding node view) would be very nice as well.

Merlin - Panels 3 is excellent. Thanks so much for your hard work.

merlinofchaos’s picture

Basically yes. Panels does not give you the ability to control which fields you edit at this time. That is something that is very difficult to do in Drupal, as evidenced by the many mediocre (to outright broken) efforts to try that.

gluestick’s picture

I think I get it now. Thanks a lot for your help and your work.

helior’s picture

Even if we can't include certain fields at a time, is it still possible to add the entire "General Form" and then via a hook_form_alter assign a different theme function to render the form any way you'd like? I've tried doing this myself but whenever Panels is taking over the node/add form, it simply ignores the theme I've assigned to it.

What can developers do to control the layout of node/add forms rendered via Panels?

willieseabrook’s picture

@heliorcolorado

Example: if your create a module test.module the following code will alter the node edit form no matter whether it's being displayed via panels or via core.


function test_form_alter(&$form, &$form_state, $form_id) {
  if ($form_id == 'page_node_form') {
    $form['title']['#title'] = 'This is my changed form field label'; // I want to change the label
    $form['menu']['#access'] = FALSE; // Lets hide the menu for some reason.
  }
}

Check through the forums and the form API for how to manipulate each form element.

drupalok’s picture

+1 for being able to put the edit fields where i want. this is one of the big problems of drupals usability. the edit screens look really ugly (compared to most other CMS...) - panels could be the solution to this.

trevorkjorlien’s picture

Subscribing.

arekanderu’s picture

I have been trying all afternoon through Panels to override the default node edit form in order to have a minimized node edit form for some cases without the need to write a module and use hook alters...and now i realize that it can not be done. So, why install Panels for something like this in the first place if i still need to make calls to hook_form_alter? The options in Panels are kinda misleading if such a functionality is not provided. At least it can be mentioned in the project page or in project FAQ.

The title of this article, http://drupal.org/node/201916, should be "Overriding the LAYOUT of the node edit form" because that's what mislead me in the first place and I am pretty sure it will mislead others too.

Good work though, too bad I need to write once again a module to handle this....

apmsooner’s picture

Although you can't add fields to node-add-edit template, the template is awesome for being able to add additional content within the panel and style it all like you want without any custom theming involved. Otherwise you left with the regions defined by your theme to put blocks into and styling those blocks individually is still much tougher than using panels.

baff’s picture

subscribe e.g. image field (cck, upload)

Alessandraaa’s picture

subscribing

bryancasler’s picture

subscribe

elektrorl’s picture

subscribe

alex.skrypnyk’s picture

Version: 6.x-3.3 » 6.x-3.8
Issue tags: +node add/edit form

I want to ask Panels maintainers: "How hard it is to write in large letters on the main page of the Panel project that CCK fields are not supported on the add/edit pages?!".

I've spent 3 hours reading all the comments and trying to find the way to add CCK fields to node edit form as EDITABLE fields. There SO MANY misleading posts that it is too hard to understand what is actually going on with CCK field support (pathes, settings, tutorials etc).

And the most interesting thing - there is no clear answer anywhere! In 5 posts about this issue there is no clear answer from maintainers.

Please add clarification to the Panels 3 documentation and to the project page that CCK fields can not be added to the node add/edit form as editable fields.

bryancasler’s picture

I had the same problem, some documentation of this current limitation would be helpful.

Ayesh’s picture

Version: 6.x-3.8 » 6.x-3.9

Same problem here.
http://drupal.org/project/arrange_fields module is a handy one that lets you rearrange node forms and additional forms via form ID input. I don't know much about that module's functionality but it works decently.
As Panels has better control over other pages, it would be a great idea -- I hope -- to put that module's functionality (that module is not using ctools though) to Panels.

muddypaws’s picture

Version: 6.x-3.9 » 7.x-3.2
Assigned: Unassigned » muddypaws

I have trawled through all the active issues and this is the closest to my current problem. If no response after a couple of days I will try posting as a new issue/support request.
I followed the suggestions listed here as closely as I can but I still run up agains the same problem since I started to create customises node/add node/edit panels for my site.
Background info first: Drupal and Panels versions as listed in the comment settings.
Custom panel layout - basically 2-column.
The steps I have taken are:
structure/pages/System-Node-Edit (/node/%node/edit)
Enabled
Created a title
Added selection rule: Node-bundle (though I have tried other variations)
Made this the Node add context for this selection
Ticked the node type for this variant (I have tried several of my content types)
Disabled Drupal/blocks/regions
Added Form- General Form - Node Add Form - to the left panel and custom content - explanatory help text to the left panel
Created Variant
Update and Save
Preview - asks for node ID -Why? I am wanting to add new content so this is surely not relevant. I have tried putting in the node ID of a single Acronym piece of content it makes no difference.
Thinking it might be ok if I then go and try and add content in the normal manner.
Wrong.
In every variation of what I have tried (also with node/edit as well as node/add), my theme is blown away and I get single strip across the whole screen with a single word in it - Array.
To recover I have to go back to Structure and not just disable the variant but I have to delete it completely before I can get the standard drupal node/add form again.

I would greatly appreciate any assistance anyone can offer on this. Again it is probably something very simple that I am missing.

paulbuk’s picture

GREAT! That is all VERY helpful.
I was trying to create an additional User Form for specific content users who had limited Role access to editing and not back-end. I was stumped at the "Form" level as even though my 'edit' Body content was showing, I couldn't even as Admin, edit it the body text. The ANSWER is as Merlin has stated, use "General" Form and all the WYSIWYG content edit icons appear.
Now I'm 'onward and upward'!

nikkwong’s picture

arrange fields module seems to have done the trick. pretty decently.

lynnylove’s picture

Thank god I found this post - after 3 days of hacking around panels...it's really too bad - it seems from text that panels will do this and wow, at least I finally know it's not me! I'll give arrange fields a try - seems like a module that advertises "allows you to override the edit node form" would do that - but it doesn't. Form and edit both imply that it will - oh well. Thanks for all ye I finally found this post! so I can stop with panels and forget about it...

Drapik’s picture

Issue summary: View changes

Thanks everyone for all contributions! After long time I finally get Panels edit forms to present edit fields. It's possible to add individual fields and choose if you want them to be visible as editable. All you need is Editablefields module: https://www.drupal.org/project/editablefields

crutch’s picture

After many years, finally got around to trying the node edit form variants assuming it would be similar to node display variants. It is not what it seems so I will style my edit forms with css as usual. It could be useful for certain cases.

delacosta456’s picture

hi
on my own side the body default body field that comes with content type still not display