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Inline Editing (Edit+)

When to Use

Enable inline editing on fields that editors change frequently. Disable it on computed, read-only, or complex-validation fields.

Decision

Field Type Enable? Handle
Plain text, formatted text Yes form_item
Entity reference Yes wrapper
Image/Media Yes (with media library) wrapper
Computed/read-only fields No (disable) N/A
Fields with complex validation Consider disabling N/A
Password/sensitive fields No (disable) N/A

Pattern

Edit+ adds the "Change" tool (edit_plus plugin, hotkey c). When active, fields render with data-edit-plus-* attributes; clicking a field loads the form inline.

Handle types:

Handle Behavior Use For
form_item Replace the individual form element Single-value fields (text, select)
wrapper Replace the entire field wrapper Entity reference, multi-value fields

Field third-party settings (via Manage Fields → Field Settings):

third_party_settings:
  edit_plus:
    disable: false
    handle: form_item  # or 'wrapper'

Tempstore save flow: 

1. User edits field inline
2. Form submitted via AJAX
3. InlineEntityFormAlter::update() stores in tempstore
4. UpdateMarkup AJAX command refreshes the rendered field
5. Top bar shows "unsaved changes" indicator
6. User clicks Save → Tempstore applies changes to real entity

InlineTextarea — for text fields, replaces textarea with CKEditor 5 inline editing: - Extends core's TextFormat render element - Applies XSS filtering during editing - Adds data-inline-editor-for attribute for JS correlation

FieldAttributes events for customizing form preparation: - FieldAttributes::ALTER — modify form items before rendering (priority chain: 200, 100, default, -1) - FieldAttributes::AFTER_BUILD — modify form items after Drupal's form building

Common Mistakes

  • Wrong: Setting wrong handle type → Right: Use wrapper for entity reference and multi-value fields; form_item for simple single-value fields
  • Wrong: Enabling inline editing on complex-validation fields → Right: Inline validation errors can't display fully; disable for those fields

See Also