Allowing users to rename tags globally across all pages

[iriseel]

Hi there! I’m working on a site where I want my client to be able to categorize pages (Research, Writing, etc.) with tags, but I also want them to be able to rename these tags site-wide. For example, if they decide “Research” should be called “Archival” instead, all pages tagged with “Research” would automatically update to “Archival.”

Currently I’m using a tags field with predefined options, but this requires manually updating each page if a tag name changes.

I know I could technically just set accept: all on a tags field, but that would be less than ideal since I don’t want clients to accidentally introduce minor differences between tags (like “research” vs “Research” vs “Reasearch”). I guess another option would be using the value and text properties, where the value stays fixed but the text label is editable by the client. The front-end would display the editable text label while the content files reference the stable value. Is it possible to make the text property client-editable?

In sum, I’m looking for something with a bit more structure than a totally open field, but more flexibility than a completely fixed list. Is there a built-in approach for this, or would it require a custom plugin/panel button? Has anyone implemented something similar?

Thanks!

[texnixe]

@iriseel

I guess another option would be using the value and text properties, where the value stays fixed but the text label is editable by the client.

Exactly, that would be the way forward. As for implementing this, you could do this for example in the site.yml (maybe a separate tab) using a structure field, where users could define key-value pairs (in this case, they keys would be editable as well, though). Another option could be a blocks field with only a single block type. Users would define only the labels, while the block id would be used as value by your select/multiselect/tags field. The latter is probably the better option because of the built-in unique id.

For example, you could have a custom block like this (the icon is optional)

title: category
preview: fields
wysiwyg: true
fields:
  category:
    type: text
  icon:
    type: text

Then a block definition like this in site.yml

fields:
  type: fields
  fields:
    categories:
      type: blocks
      pretty: true
      fieldsets:
        - category

Your tags field:

tags:
  type: tags
  options:
    type: query
    query: site.categories.toBlocks
    text: "{{ item.icon }} {{ item.category.value }}"
    value: "{{ item.id }}"

[iriseel]

Oooh I see, that’s super helpful. I didn’t know about block IDs and how those could come in handy for this scenario. Thank you!! I’ve applied that method to my project and it’s working great.