A plugin for Strapi CMS that adds a preview button and live view button to the content manager edit view.
- Adds a new button in content manager sidebar which links the user to a preview or live view of a frontend app view.
- Include optional button to copy the preview link to your clipboard.
- Customize which content types should use the preview button.
- Customize endpoints for draft and published URLs.
- Map values from an entry's data into preview URLs.
- Supports collection and single types.
- Supports localization with the
i18nStrapi plugin. - Optionally include preview and copy icons in list view.
yarn add strapi-plugin-preview-button@latest| property | type (default) | description |
|---|---|---|
| contentTypes | array ([]) |
An array of objects describing which content types should use the preview button. |
| contentTypes[].uid | string | The uid value of either a single or collection type. |
| contentTypes[].draft | object ({}) |
A configuration object to enable a draft preview button. |
| contentTypes[].published | object ({}) |
A configuration object to enable a live view button. |
| injectListViewColumn | boolean (true) |
Set to false to disable the preview and copy link buttons from displaying in list view. |
| openTarget | string | Set to _blank to always open preview page in a new tab or window. Otherwise the preview will re-use the same preview tab or window. |
An array of objects describing which content types should use the preview button.
Each object in the array requires the uid as well as draft and/or published props, which require a url prop at minimum.
| property | type (default) | description |
|---|---|---|
| url | string | The destination URL. See section about mapping data into the URLs for greater customization. |
| query | object ({}) |
Optional query string params to include in the final URL. |
| copy | boolean (true) |
Set to false to disable the copy link button that appears below the preview button. |
Consider we have a Home single type as well as Page and Post collection types, where each has a simple title and content field. The Page and Post models will also use a uid field named slug so they can create many entries with unique paths. Here is the minimum recommended config for this scenario.
module.exports = {
'preview-button': {
config: {
contentTypes: [
{
uid: 'api::home.home',
published: {
url: 'http://localhost:3000',
},
},
{
uid: 'api::page.page',
draft: {
url: 'http://localhost:3000/api/preview',
query: {
type: 'page',
slug: '{slug}',
},
},
published: {
url: 'http://localhost:3000/{slug}',
},
},
{
uid: 'api::post.post',
draft: {
url: 'http://localhost:3000/api/preview',
query: {
type: 'post',
slug: '{slug}',
},
},
published: {
url: 'http://localhost:3000/blog/{slug}',
},
},
],
},
},
};In this example, the Home page is a single type and does not have draftAndPublish enabled so we do not use the draft prop.
For Pages and Posts, the slug value from the entry data is dynamically populating into the url and query props. This allows you to populate any number or string property from the entry data into the preview URL by using curly braces around the property name.
This configuration will result in the following preview URLs for Home, Pages, and Posts.
// Draft URLs
http://localhost:3000/api/preview?slug=my-page&type=page
http://localhost:3000/api/preview?slug=my-post&type=post
// Published URLs
http://localhost:3000/
http://localhost:3000/my-page
http://localhost:3000/blog/my-post
The
queryprop can actually take any params you want to pass to your frontend app.
By using {curly_braces}, you can map values from the entry data into your preview URLs to customize the URL however you like.
For example, depending on how you are choosing to handle your preview method, you could pass an id value to your draft preview but pass a slug value to your live view.
Unmatched values will be replaced with an empty string.
{
uid: 'api::page.page',
draft: {
url: 'http://localhost:3000/api/preview',
query: {
type: 'page',
id: '{id}',
},
},
published: {
url: 'http://localhost:3000/{slug}',
},
}If you have localization enabled for a content type, the locale value will be included in the entry data and replaced like the rest. You can simply use {locale} to include it where you like in the URL or query string.
{
uid: 'api::page.page',
draft: {
url: 'http://localhost:3000/api/preview',
query: {
type: 'page',
locale: '{locale}',
slug: '{slug}',
},
},
published: {
url: 'http://localhost:3000/{locale}/{slug}',
},
}You can optionally use a secret key with your preview URLs by taking advantage of environment vars and the query prop. See example below.
module.exports = ( { env } ) => {
'preview-button': {
config: {
contentTypes: [
{
uid: 'api::page.page',
draft: {
url: 'http://localhost:3000/api/preview',
query: {
type: 'page',
slug: '{slug}',
secret: env( 'STRAPI_PREVIEW_SECRET' ),
},
},
published: {
url: 'http://localhost:3000/{slug}',
},
},
],
},
},
};This configuration will result in the following preview URLs for Pages.
// Draft URL
http://localhost:3000/api/preview?slug=my-page&type=page&secret=YOUR_SECRET_KEY
// Published URL
http://localhost:3000/my-page
Before granting access to the preview in your frontend app, you will want to compare and validate the secret key between both Strapi and frontend apps.
It may be important to note that this plugin does not offer any validation or other handling for a secret key. The goal of including a secret key is simply to give your frontend app some way of "shaking hands" with your backend app to approve of the preview access.
The "copy link" button located beneath the preview button can be disabled with the copy: false prop applied to draft and published configurations. This value is true by default.
{
uid: 'api::home.home',
published: {
url: 'http://localhost:3000',
copy: false,
},
}Set to false to disable the preview and copy link buttons from displaying in list view. This applies to all configured content types.
module.exports = {
'preview-button': {
config: {
injectListViewColumn: false,
contentTypes: [
// etc.
],
},
},
};Ideally, the preview and copy link buttons in list view should appear alongside the other action icons for each row in the table. However, Strapi does not currently provide a hook to append new icons to that column. For now, this plugin will add its own "Preview" column with the extra icon actions.
By default this value is set to StrapiPreview. It is used in the window.open function for the preview button to always open in the same tab.
If you would rather disable this and, for example, have the preview button always open in a new tab, you could use _blank as the value. Any special target keywords such as _blank, _top, _self, or _parent are acceptable values.
module.exports = {
'preview-button': {
config: {
openTarget: '_blank',
contentTypes: [
// etc.
],
},
},
};If you need to apply more advanced logic to the preview URL, you can accomplish this with the plugin/preview-button/before-build-url hook included with this plugin.
Your Strapi app will need a custom plugin in order to use this hook.
See Plugins Development in Strapi docs for more info.
In this example, we will create the bare minimum for a Strapi plugin that allows us to run our custom hook. The file structure for the plugin will look like the code below.
/src/plugins/example
/admin
/src
index.js
package.json
strapi-admin.js
The package.json is required for a Strapi plugin.
// package.json
{
"name": "example",
"version": "0.1.0",
"description": "Example.",
"strapi": {
"displayName": "Example",
"name": "example",
"description": "Example",
"kind": "plugin"
},
"dependencies": {}
}// strapi-admin.js
'use strict';
module.exports = require( './admin/src' ).default;In the main plugin file below, we register the plugin in the register method and we register the hook with the bootstrap method.
The state argument is the original config object from config/plugins.js. So if you are editing a Page in draft mode, you will get the draft config for Pages from your plugin config passed into the callback.
Here you can modify and return state while using data to make decisions.
// admin/src/index.js
export default {
register( app ) {
app.registerPlugin( {
id: 'example',
name: 'example',
} );
},
bootstrap( app ) {
app.registerHook( 'plugin/preview-button/before-build-url', ( { state, data } ) => {
// Return modified `state` object here.
return {
state: {
...state,
example: 'EXAMPLE',
},
};
} );
},
};Finally, don't forget to enable your plugin in your app by adding it to config/plugins.js.
// config/plugins.js
'use strict';
module.exports = {
'example': {
enabled: true,
resolve: './src/plugins/example',
},
};The Open live view button will lead directly to the live page URL.
The Open draft preview button should lead to an endpoint that redirects to the appropriate preview page based on the query parameters passed to it.
For in-depth examples and instructions, please reference the links below to learn how this can be accomplished with Next.js and Strapi.
Follow the migration guides to keep your preview button plugin up-to-date.
If you are enjoying this plugin and feel extra appreciative, you can buy me a beer or 3 🍺🍺🍺.