Use a custom serialization format instead of theming to render the edit form to the intermediary representation that XB's React code consumes

• I know for sure this was extracted out of https://www.drupal.org/project/jsx.
• AFAIK @effulgentsia advocated for this to be built.
• I think that in principle what you propose could work…
• … but I don't know all considerations that went into building https://www.drupal.org/project/jsx the way it was built.

So rather than me theorizing, I'd rather have somebody with more distance to the XB code base, but deep insight into the https://www.drupal.org/project/jsx codebase, to respond here. That person would be @effulgentsia.

P.S.: the term "hijacking" has a very negative connotation. I don't think that is necessary.

I agree that experience_builder_system_info_alter() is too heavy handed in terms of overriding all themes to use the semi_coupled engine, and that this will need refactoring prior to XB being suitable for production sites.

we already have a way to serialize things, and that's the serialization module

Do we have any precedent for using the serialization module to serialize render arrays? I think of the serialization module as there to serialize models, but render arrays are views (not in the Views module sense, but in the MVC sense). And serializing render arrays to HTML is exactly what the render and theme systems do.

Conceptually, the *--xbxb.html.twig files function exactly like theme hook suggestions. They override the base template and render different HTML than what the base template renders. In this case, that "different HTML" is an HTML custom element.

I agree that it's weird that the *--xbxb.html.twig files contain JSON instead of Twig. I think there's ways that that can be refactored. For example, the JSON could be moved to a different filename, like *--xbxb.spec.json, and the semi_coupled engine could be refactored to a Twig function, so that the *--xbxb.html.twig files could become regular Twig files that just do something like:

{{ renderSemiCoupledCustomElment(_variables, 'NAME.spec.json') }}

That would then also remove the need for experience_builder_system_info_alter().

Not sure if the above is the best DX though, and there might be better ideas for how to bridge XB's theme hook suggestions to rendering the desired custom element, but I don't see how or why the serialization module belongs in the mix for this. Maybe I'm wrong though and am just underestimating the scope or utility of the serialization module?

But no other module that defines theme hook suggestions does that. E.g., field_ui.module adds form_element__new_storage_type to its hook_theme(); it doesn't define a new serializer. How much of the theme system would we need to duplicate into an XB template serializer?

Just been digging into the semi-coupled theme engine a bit, and I think that if theme engines were tagged services, instead of using hook-style function names, then you could hopefully just decorate the Twig engine in order to extend it?

By the way, if I understand the desired UX correctly, we're wanting to render the forms in the right-hand sidebar using a set theme, neither the site's front-end theme, nor the admin theme. If this is correct, then even if we did no refactoring to the semicoupled theme engine, we could just use it as it was initially designed for: as the theme engine of the theme that we use for rendering the forms in the right-hand sidebar, so we wouldn't need to hack-alter the engine of themes we don't control.

That said, I'm not opposed to refactorings that decouple it from being a theme engine, so that it could be more cleanly integrated with any theme.

If this is correct, then even if we did no refactoring to the semicoupled theme engine, we could just use it as it was initially designed for: as the theme engine of the theme that we use for rendering the forms in the right-hand sidebar, so we wouldn't need to hack-alter the engine of themes we don't control.

It's not entirely correct.

@lauriii has indeed indicated that XB needs its own look and feel.

• In Drupal, "look and feel" is defined in Drupal Themes.
• But for XB, the intent is to do that in React, using the semi-coupled theme engine. IOW: just like a Drupal Theme would impose its decisions wrt markup/class names/…, in XB those decisions should happen in *.tsx files.
• To make that possible, the starting point must be reliable — just like it must be for Drupal Themes. "stable starting point" implies no theme interacts with markup before XB's React code. Which is why #3469686: Changing default theme can break HTML forms generated by XB API routes: always negotiate the Stark theme made it so that we always negotiate the "Stark" Drupal Theme, which actually means "No Drupal Theme": it's only the raw render arrays/default templates that Drupal Modules provide.

we always negotiate the "Stark" Drupal Theme, which actually means "No Drupal Theme"

I don't get that. If we always negotiate the Stark theme, why can't we instead create an xb_stark theme that's just like Stark (whether a fork or subtheme) but that sets semicoupled as its theme engine, and always negotiate that theme? That would allows us to remove experience_builder_system_info_alter() which is the part that's "taking over the twig theme engine for the whole site" that this issue's title is referring to.

🤔

Ohhhhhhhh! 🤓😁

TIL that's possible! 🤯 Quoting core/modules/system/tests/themes/test_theme_nyan_cat_engine/test_theme_nyan_cat_engine.info.yml:

name: 'Test theme for Nyan Cat engine'
type: theme
description: 'Theme for testing the theme system with the Nyan Cat theme engine'
version: VERSION
engine: nyan_cat
base theme: false

… built by a certain "lauri" 9 years ago at #2574717: Remove PHPTemplate, and add test coverage for multiple theme engine support … during DrupalCon Barcelona … 2015! 😄

I think this should be the next thing for @deepakkm to tackle now that #3477164: Lift all methods out of `SdcController` into separate invokable services-as-controllers is 99% done.

Captured #13 into a concrete proposed solution. @effulgentsia, can you review/confirm, and then assign back to @deepakkm if you do agree? 🙏

I agree with #14, but that wouldn't fully address @larowlan's original goals in this issue. He may still want to pursue the "custom serialization format" part, which I disagree with, but who knows, maybe he'll come up with an MR that convinces me. Therefore, I think we should open a child issue to do just the part that's in #13 and what's minimally required for that, and leave this issue as potentially still having @larowlan's more ambitious goals.

Fair! Done: #3478287: Introduce the `xb_stark` theme that uses the Semi-Coupled theme engine, removes the need for taking over the Twig theme engine for the whole site.

Let's wait for #3478287 to land, and then ask @larowlan to re-assess 😊

Restored original issue summary.

#3478287: Introduce the `xb_stark` theme that uses the Semi-Coupled theme engine, removes the need for taking over the Twig theme engine for the whole site is in.

Unpostponing and assigning to @larowlan per @effulgentsia in #17.

With #3478287: Introduce the `xb_stark` theme that uses the Semi-Coupled theme engine, removes the need for taking over the Twig theme engine for the whole site in, we're no longer "taking over the Twig theme engine for the whole site", so retitling the issue to what I understand @larowlan's proposal to be. However, per #5, I still don't really see why we would want to circumvent the theme system when rendering to HTML, and I think trying to do so would lead to a lot of difficulties when the form has a mix of some elements that have XB suggestion overrides and some that don't interspersed through the tree (e.g., either can be a child of the other).

Agreed with @effulgentsia. Perhaps this is the more appropriate issue status 😇

Bump, @larowlan: can we close this? 😇