README

Maintained by Restruct. If this module saves you time, you can support ongoing maintenance.

Two form fields for putting help text in CMS forms:

InfoField - a block of text or HTML in a styled info box (an info icon on a light background), between the other fields of a form.
InlineInfoField - a small info icon next to another field's label. Its text stays hidden until the editor hovers over the icon (or taps it, on a touch device), so it adds instructions without taking up space.

Requirements

Silverstripe 5 or 6 (silverstripe/framework)
PHP 8.1 or newer
The CMS admin (silverstripe/admin 2 or 3, required): the module configures LeftAndMain and its script and stylesheet are loaded on CMS screens only (see Assets).

Installation

composer require restruct/silverstripe-inline-infofield

Version compatibility

Branch	Module version	Silverstripe	PHP
`master`	`3.x`	`^5 \|\| ^6`	`^8.1`
(tags only)	`2.0` - `2.1.1`	`^4.4`	not declared

Silverstripe 4 reached end of life in April 2025 and is no longer supported or tested here. Projects still on it should stay on the 2.x tags, which remain available.

The default branch is the only maintained line: it supports every Silverstripe version this module still targets, so there is no separate maintenance branch. A version branch will be created only when a change cannot be made compatible across the supported range.

composer.json is the source of truth for exact constraints; this table is a quick reference.

Usage

Both fields live in the Restruct\InfoField namespace.

InfoField

use Restruct\InfoField\InfoField;

$fields->addFieldToTab(
    'Root.Main',
    InfoField::create('LayoutInfo', 'Save the page first, then edit the <b>blocks</b> from their tabs.'),
    'Title' // optional: insert before this field
);

InfoField::create($name, $content) - $name is only an identifier (the field holds no data); $content is a string of HTML, or an object such as a DBHTMLText from DBField::create_field() or renderWith().
Renders <div class="message info ...">$content</div>. Classes added with addExtraClass() are appended to the box.
The content is output as HTML, unescaped. Escape any user-supplied text yourself, for example with Convert::raw2xml().

InfoField extends LiteralField, so everything else a LiteralField offers (setContent(), getContent(), readonly transformation) applies.

InlineInfoField

use Restruct\InfoField\InlineInfoField;

$fields->push(InlineInfoField::create('Title', 'Keep titles short: they are also used in the menu.'));

InlineInfoField::create($targetField, $content) - $targetField is the name of the field whose label gets the info icon (for example Title, MenuTitle or Content); $content is the help text as a string of HTML, output unescaped.
The field's own name is <targetField>_InlineInfoField, so use that name to remove or move it.
Where you add it to the field list does not matter much: in the CMS its script moves the icon into the target field's label as soon as the form loads.
It renders <span class="message info small inline-info" data-target="<targetField>">, with the help text in an inner <span> that the script shows on hover (or toggles on tap on a touch device).

Which forms it works in. The script finds the target by the holder id Form_EditForm_<targetField>_Holder, or an id ending in that. This matches the CMS edit forms whose form is named EditForm, such as the page editor. A GridField detail form (for example in a ModelAdmin) has ids starting Form_ItemEditForm_, which the script does not match, so there the icon is not moved into the label. Outside the CMS the script is not loaded at all (see below).

Assets

The module adds its script and stylesheet to every CMS screen through LeftAndMain config (_config/config.yml):

SilverStripe\Admin\LeftAndMain:
  extra_requirements_javascript:
    - 'restruct/silverstripe-inline-infofield:client/dist/js/InlineInfoField.js'
  extra_requirements_css:
    - 'restruct/silverstripe-inline-infofield:client/dist/css/InlineInfoField.css'

Both are published by Composer from the directories listed under extra.expose in the module's composer.json. On the front end nothing is loaded, so a front-end form that uses these fields must include its own styling (and InlineInfoField stays where it was placed).

The stylesheet styles .message.info elements in general, not only the ones these fields output, so other CMS messages with those classes also get the info box look.

InlineInfoField::get_module_dir() returns the module's directory name. It is not used by the module itself and is kept for code that called it.

Running the tests

The module cannot be tested on its own: it needs a host Silverstripe project (with silverstripe/recipe-cms and silverstripe/recipe-testing). Require it there through a Composer path repository with symlink: true - /tests is export-ignore, so a dist or mirrored install contains no tests - add Restruct\InfoField\Tests\ pointing at the module's tests/ to the host's autoload-dev, copy phpunit.xml.dist to the host root as phpunit.xml, then:

# Silverstripe 5 (PHPUnit 9) - the path must come before flush=1
vendor/bin/phpunit vendor/restruct/silverstripe-inline-infofield/tests flush=1

# Silverstripe 6 (PHPUnit 11) - a flush=1 argument is ignored, use the env var
SS_PHPUNIT_FLUSH=1 vendor/bin/phpunit --testsuite infofield

The suite checks the rendered markup, the CMS requirements and their publication, and renders a real CMS page edit form. It does not run the script in a browser.

CI runs the same suite against Silverstripe 5 and 6 on every push; see .github/workflows/ci.yml.

Credits

InlineInfoField is derived from nathancox/silverstripe-helpfield by Nathan Cox, which the 2.0 README credited.

License

MIT, see LICENSE. Releases before 3.0.1 declared no licence.

restruct / silverstripe-inline-infofield

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