Managing records#

Most records in Silverstripe CMS are managed in a GridField - whether in the GridField of some other record or directly in a ModelAdmin. The notable exceptions to this are SiteConfig and SiteTree.

Getting an edit link#

The DataObject::getCMSEditLink() method will give you the edit link if there is one, but by default it just returns null.

There is a CMSEditLinkExtension specifically for the purpose of generating links to the edit forms of records. It operates on the assumption that your record is being edited in a GridFieldDetailForm in some GridField (be it on another record or in a ModelAdmin).

When using this extension, your model must also declare its cms_edit_owner as a configuration property. The value must either be the class name of the ModelAdmin that directly manages the record, or the has_one relation for the record that this model is edited on, which is often the parent DataObject.

If the cms_edit_owner is a has_one relation, the class on the other end of the relation must have a reciprocal has_many relation as documented in Relations. For best results, use dot notation on the has_many relation. It must also implement a getCMSEditLinkForManagedDataObject() method. The easiest way to do that is for it to apply the CMSEditLinkExtension to the reciprocal class.

// app/src/Model/MyModel.php
namespace App\Model;

use SilverStripe\Admin\CMSEditLinkExtension;
use SilverStripe\ORM\DataObject;

class MyModel extends DataObject
{
    private static string $cms_edit_owner = 'Parent';

    private static $has_one = [
        'Parent' => MyParentModel::class,
    ];

    private static $extensions = [
        CMSEditLinkExtension::class,
    ];
}

// app/src/Model/MyParentModel.php
namespace App\Model;

use App\Admin\MyModelAdmin;
use SilverStripe\Admin\CMSEditLinkExtension;
use SilverStripe\ORM\DataObject;

class MyParentModel extends DataObject
{
    private static string $cms_edit_owner = MyModelAdmin::class;

    private static $has_many = [
        'Children' => MyModel::class,
    ];

    private static $extensions = [
        CMSEditLinkExtension::class,
    ];
}

With the above code examples, you can call getCMSEditLink() on any instance of MyModel or MyParentModel and it will produce an appropriate edit link for that record (assuming the relations are set up). This can be used, for example, in email reminders to update content, or as a link (available to admins) on the front-end to go straight to the edit form for the record.

It is also useful when making a previewable DataObject, as getCMSEditLink() is one of the methods in the CMSPreviewable interface.