User Friendly Entity Reference Select Lists

1. User Friendly Entity Reference Select Lists Using Views, Views Entity View Widget, and References Dialog

2. Hello there! • My name is Chris Hoffman(hoff331 on Drupal.org) • Graphic Designer and Front-end Developer (yes, I know I am using PowerPoint) • Working with Drupal for 3 Years • Find me and my work atwww.GetJumpstartNow.com(available for freelance)

3. Situation(3 assumptions) • User has to create a node (Concert) that references another node (Performers) • Referenced node type (Performers) hasa lot of nodes (i.e. options) • We want to provide the user with an user-friendly way to find/select referenced nodes

4. Preview Site • Performer Content Typetitlebodymusical genre (taxonomy) • Concert Content Typetitlebodyperformers (entity reference)

5. Our Options(modules) • Views (Entity Reference View Display) • Entity Reference View Widget • Reference Dialog • Others not covered… Multiple Selects, Chosen, Dynamic Multiselect, etc. Each one has positives and negatives!

6. Option 1: Views Positives • Entity Reference comes with a view display • Great for filtering lists of referenced nodes(before the options before user sees them) • Great for adding node fields to select optionsex.) <option>Performer – genre</option> • Pass arguments from node to view(not covered) Negatives • Cannot group content (i.e. by genre) • Cannot use exposed filters

7. How To • Create an “Entity Reference” view display • Filter, sort, etc. view as normal • Select view in Entity Reference Field settings • Pass in additional arguments

8. Demo Views

9. Option 2: Ent. Ref.View Widget Positives • Also great for filtering and adding content to select options • Able to Group nodes • Great for e-Commerce Negatives • Hard to style – the view renders the node, the rendered node is controlled via the display manager (to customize display use .tplor similar)

10. How To • Configure “Ent. Ref. View Widget” view mode (i.e. full, teaser, etc.) via display manager • Create an “Ent. Ref. View Widget” view display • Filter, sort, etc. view as normal • Select view in Entity Reference Field settings(this will override settings below)

11. Demo Ent. Ref.Views Widget

12. Option 3:Reference Dialog Positives • Allows for inline entity creation combined with automatic entity reference (not possible using IEF) • Allows for inline entity editing • Search Dialog page (created using views) can be formatted, filtered, and grouped Negatives • Module is a bit buggy (still in alpha) • Requires lots of styling to make Search Dialog page effective

13. How To • Set entity reference field to Autocomplete widget • Select which “dialogs” to add to field(Edit, Add, and/or Search) • If “Search Dialog” enabled, you must createa “Reference dialog Search” view display • Associate the view to entity reference field • Filter, sort, etc. view as normal

14. DEMO Reference Dialog

15. Other Options • Multiple Selects • Chosen • Dynamic Multiselect • See article by Lullabot:http://www.lullabot.com/blog/articles/entityreference-multiselectors

16. Questions?