Filter pages by a property using a custom SmartContent DataProvider

The smart_content content type allows for the configuration of a provider param, which is used for gathering the items that are passed to the twig template. As described in Smart content, Sulu comes with a few included providers and also allows to implement new ones to load custom entities.

In some cases, it might be useful to register an additional provider, which only returns pages including a property with a specific value. This is possible by registering a new instance of the PageDataProvider included in Sulu that uses a custom implementation of the QueryBuilder. In the following example a custom AuthorPageDataProvider is implemented, which filters the pages for a specific author:

1. Implement a custom QueryBuilder class that adds conditions

<?php
// src/SmartContent/AuthorPageQueryBuilder.php

namespace App\SmartContent;

use Sulu\Bundle\ContactBundle\Entity\ContactRepositoryInterface;
use Sulu\Component\Content\Compat\StructureManagerInterface;
use Sulu\Component\Content\Extension\ExtensionManagerInterface;
use Sulu\Component\Content\SmartContent\QueryBuilder;
use Sulu\Component\PHPCR\SessionManager\SessionManagerInterface;

class AuthorPageQueryBuilder extends QueryBuilder
{
    public function __construct(
        StructureManagerInterface $structureManager,
        ExtensionManagerInterface $extensionManager,
        SessionManagerInterface $sessionManager,
        $languageNamespace,
        private ContactRepositoryInterface $contactRepository
    )
    {
        parent::__construct($structureManager, $extensionManager, $sessionManager, $languageNamespace);
    }

    protected function buildWhere($webspaceKey, $locale)
    {
        // reuse existing functionality of the default QueryBuilder implementation
        $sql2Where = explode(' AND ', parent::buildWhere($webspaceKey, $locale));

        // Find authors by firstName and lastName
        $authors = $this->contactRepository->findBy(['firstName' => 'Adam', 'lastName' => 'Ministrator']);
        // Get the first author
        $author = reset($authors);

        // add custom condition to check the author of the page to the query
        $sql2Where[] = "(page.[i18n:" . $locale . "-author] = " . $author->getId() . ")";

        // optional: add custom condition to check the value of a specific property of the page to the query
        // $sql2Where[] = "(page.[i18n:" . $locale . "-propertyName] = 'propertyValue')";

        return implode(' AND ', $sql2Where);
    }
}

2. Register PageDataProvider service that uses custom QueryBuilder implementation

# config/services.yaml
services:
    app.smart_content.author_page_query_builder:
        class: App\SmartContent\AuthorPageQueryBuilder
        arguments:
            - '@sulu.content.structure_manager'
            - '@sulu_page.extension.manager'
            - '@sulu.phpcr.session'
            - '%sulu.content.language.namespace%'
            - '@sulu.repository.contact'

    app.smart_content.data_provider.author_pages:
        class: Sulu\Component\Content\SmartContent\PageDataProvider
        arguments:
            - '@app.smart_content.author_page_query_builder'
            - '@sulu.content.query_executor'
            - '@sulu_document_manager.document_manager'
            - '@sulu_page.smart_content.data_provider.content.proxy_factory'
            - '@sulu_document_manager.default_session'
            - '@sulu_page.reference_store.content'
            - '%sulu_document_manager.show_drafts%'
            - '%sulu_security.permissions%'
            - '@=container.hasParameter(\'sulu_audience_targeting.enabled\')'
            - '@sulu_admin.form_metadata_provider'
            - '@security.token_storage'
        tags:
            - { name: 'sulu.smart_content.data_provider', alias: 'author_pages' }

3. Use registered author_pages DataProvider in the template

<property name="authorPages" type="smart_content">
    <meta>
        <title lang="en">Author Pages</title>
    </meta>

    <params>
        <param name="provider" value="author_pages"/>
    </params>
</property>

Adding custom sorting

You can implement custom sorting criteria by creating a new DataProvider class that extends from the PageDataProvider class and using it instead. That way, you can sort by a property that isn’t provided by the PageDataProvider. When a lot of business logic it is probably better to create a custom entity instead.

1. Create a custom DataProvider class that overrides the PageDataProvider configuration.

<?php
// src/SmartContent/CustomPageDataProvider.php

namespace App\SmartContent;

use Sulu\Bundle\PageBundle\Admin\PageAdmin;
use Sulu\Component\Content\SmartContent\PageDataProvider;
use Sulu\Component\SmartContent\Configuration\ProviderConfiguration;
use Sulu\Component\SmartContent\Configuration\ProviderConfigurationInterface;

class EventPageDataProvider extends PageDataProvider
{
    public function getConfiguration(): ProviderConfigurationInterface
    {
        return $this->initConfiguration();
    }

    private function initConfiguration(): ProviderConfigurationInterface
    {
        /** @var ProviderConfiguration $configuration */
        $configuration = parent::getConfiguration();

        $configuration->setSorting([
            ...$configuration->getSorting(),
            ['column' => 'datetimeFrom', 'title' => 'sulu_admin.datetime_from'],
        ]);

        return $configuration;
    }
}

Other configuration settings can be overriden as well. The available options are:

Method	Parameters	Description
setTags	bool	Enable tags to be selecteable for smart_content.
setTags	bool	Enable categories.
setLimit	bool	Enable limit.
setPaginated	bool	Enable pagination.
setPresentAs	bool	Enable present as.
setAudienceTargeting	bool	Enable audience targeting.
setSorting	collection	Accepts a nested array of two-dimensional arrays. Each two-dimensional array should include a column key with the property to sort by, and a title key with the label to display in the sorting dropdown menu.
setView	array<string, string> $resultToView	Defines where the deep link when clicking on a smart content item should navigate to.

2. Use the custom DataProvider in the services.yaml .

app.smart_content.data_provider.author_pages:
    class: App\SmartContent\EventPageDataProvider

All other parameters remain the same as you would register a PageDataProvider service that uses a custom QueryBuilder implementation.