dynamic / silverstripe-elemental-blog

4.0.2 2026-07-27 16:45 UTC

Requires

• php: ^8.3
• dnadesign/silverstripe-elemental: ^6.0
• sheadawson/silverstripe-dependentdropdownfield: ^4.0
• silverstripe/blog: ^5.0

Requires (Dev)

• silverstripe/recipe-testing: ^4
• silverstripe/standards: ^1
• squizlabs/php_codesniffer: ^3.0

BSD-3-Clause

• Dynamic

• blog
• block
• silverstripe
• element

Published on Packagist.org on 2026-07-27 17:26 UTC

README

Recent Blog Posts Element for the SilverStripe Elemental module.

Requirements

• PHP ^8.3
• dnadesign/silverstripe-elemental: ^6.0
• sheadawson/silverstripe-dependentdropdownfield: ^4.0
• silverstripe/blog: ^5.0

Installation

composer require dynamic/silverstripe-elemental-blog

Upgrading from version 3.0

SilverStripe Elemental Blog 4.0 is compatible with SilverStripe 6. Key changes:

• Updated to SilverStripe CMS 6
• Requires PHP 8.3 or higher
• Updated silverstripe/blog to ^5.0 (SS6 compatible)
• Updated dnadesign/silverstripe-elemental to ^6.0 (SS6 compatible)
• Removed widget support - The SilverStripe widget module is no longer supported in SS6
  • ElementBlogWidgets block has been removed
  • Widget-related configuration options have been removed
  • If you were using widget functionality, you will need to migrate to alternative solutions

For more information about SilverStripe 6, see the SilverStripe 6 Upgrade Guide.

Usage

There are three blocks available for you to use. It is likely that you will not want all of them to be available to content authors, so it is recommended that you review what the purpose of each block is, and then add the ones you do not need to disallowed_elements.

The three blocks are:

• ElementBlogPosts
• ElementBlogOverview
• ElementBlogPagination

ElementBlogPosts

A block to show a list of recent posts by a featured blog. Ideal for home pages or dashboards.

ElementBlogOverview

The purpose of this block is to replicate the output that was originally being given by the Blog module's Layout template.

Including:

• Title (including Category/Archive/etc titles)
• Content
• Blog Posts
• Pagination

You will likely want to override the very basic default template that has been provided, you can do so by overriding the template found with the namespace Dynamic\Elements\Blog\Elements\ElementBlogOverview.ss.

Controlling pagination for this block

Pagination config:

• pagination_field_default: 1 (pagination is enabled by default)
• show_pagination_field: true (content authors have the ability to turn pagination on or off)

With the default configuration, when an author creates a new Overview block, they will be presented with a checkbox to "Show pagination" (which will be ticked by default). If you do not want your authors to be able to disable pagination, then you can update the show_pagination_field config to false.

Dynamic\Elements\Blog\Elements\ElementBlogOverview:
  show_pagination_field: false

If you would like pagination to be turned off by default, then you can update the pagination_field_default to 0.

Dynamic\Elements\Blog\Elements\ElementBlogOverview:
  pagination_field_default: 0

Overriding posts per page for this block

By default an Overview block shows the same number of posts per page as the Blog page it sits on (the Blog module's "posts per page" setting). Each block can override that with its own Posts per page (PageLength) field: enter a number to use it for that block, or 0 (the default, or blank) to inherit the Blog page's setting.

# or set a default for every block of this type
Dynamic\Elements\Blog\Elements\ElementBlogOverview:
  defaults:
    PageLength: 5

Because the value is applied before the updatePaginatedList extension point runs, your own extensions can still replace it.

If you would rather your authors did not see the field at all - EG: because you always want the page length to come from the Blog page or from your own extension - set show_page_length_field to false.

Please consider: if you display pagination with a separate ElementBlogPagination block, that block works out its page links from its own posts-per-page value, so it has to be set to the same number as the Overview block it paginates. A mismatch gives a page count that does not match the posts on screen, and page links that jump past posts the Overview block never displayed.

Please consider: the Blog module's own rel="next" / rel="prev" meta tag helpers (BlogController::PaginationAbsoluteNextLink() and PaginationAbsolutePrevLink()) build their list from the Blog page's "posts per page" setting, so they do not know about a block level override. The Blog module's shipped templates do not use them; if your theme does, those links will describe the page length of the Blog page rather than of this block.

Using this block on Page types other than Blog

Please consider: While the Overview block does support you using it on other page types, it is primarily designed to be used on Blog page types. This is because it is Blog and BlogController that provide the relevant info to this block.

Please consider whether you want this block to be available to other page types, and if you do not, you might want to add this block to disallowed_elements on your other page types. EG:

App\Model\Page\MyPage:
  disallowed_elements:
    - Dynamic\Elements\Blog\Elements\ElementBlogOverview

If you do wish this block to be available on other page types, then please review the contents on the class to see how you can dictate what data should be provided to this block.

ElementBlogPagination

You might decide that you would like Pagination to be displayed quite separately to the Overview block. This can be achieved by using ElementBlogPagination as a separate block.

Please consider: the pagination block counts pages using its own "posts per page" value, so if an Overview block on the same page overrides that value (PageLength, see Overriding posts per page for this block above), this block must be given the same value. Set it on both blocks, or set it once for both through config:

Dynamic\Elements\Blog\Elements\ElementBlogOverview:
  defaults:
    PageLength: 5
Dynamic\Elements\Blog\Elements\ElementBlogPagination:
  defaults:
    PageLength: 5

Please consider: Like the Overview Block, please consider removing this block from any/all Page types that you do not want it available on. EG, if you do not want to use it at all, you can disallow it for all pages by default:

Page:
  disallowed_elements:
    - Dynamic\Elements\Blog\Elements\ElementBlogPagination

Getting more elements

See Elemental modules by Dynamic

Configuration

See SilverStripe Elemental Configuration

Maintainers

• Dynamic ([e-mail])

Bugtracker

Bugs are tracked in the issues section of this repository. Before submitting an issue please read over existing issues to ensure yours is unique.

If the issue does look like a new bug:

• Create a new issue
• Describe the steps required to reproduce your issue, and the expected outcome. Unit tests, screenshots and screencasts can help here.
• Describe your environment as detailed as possible: SilverStripe version, Browser, PHP version, Operating System, any installed SilverStripe modules.

Please report security issues to the module maintainers directly. Please don't file security issues in the bugtracker.

Development and contribution

If you would like to make contributions to the module please ensure you raise a pull request and discuss with the module maintainers.

License

See License