Issues with Umbraco Flavored Markdown

[glombek]

Which Umbraco version are you using? (Please write the exact version, example: 10.1.0)

14.1.0

Bug summary

Sticking these all in 1 issue so as not to pollute the issue tracker with issues you're probably already aware of!

1. In a collection view, the value outputted by the {=x} syntax always outputs the value of the field selected
2. Null fields (or fields with a default value of null) render the name of the label, with no option to coalesce to something else
3. Null-like values will not render (e.g. a 0 in a numeric field)
4. I could not get localization ({#general_chose}) to work in the dynamic labels

Specifics

1. Using the template **{=heading}** - {=subheading} {=foo} in a collection view will render the result:

   My heading - My heading My heading

2. Empty fields rendering nothing would be preferential. Or ideally, allowing a coalesce for null values
3. This is written specifivally for text strings, other types need consideration (numeric, toggle, etc)
4. It might just be me - is this meant to work in this area? Maybe I'm doing something wrong!

Steps to reproduce

See above

Expected result / actual result

No response

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This item has been added to our backlog AB#42328

[github-actions]

Hi there @glombek!

Firstly, a big thank you for raising this issue. Every piece of feedback we receive helps us to make Umbraco better.

We really appreciate your patience while we wait for our team to have a look at this but we wanted to let you know that we see this and share with you the plan for what comes next.

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We wish we could work with everyone directly and assess your issue immediately but we're in the fortunate position of having lots of contributions to work with and only a few humans who are able to do it. We are making progress though and in the meantime, we will keep you in the loop and let you know when we have any questions.

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[leekelleher]

Thanks @glombek, we appreciate the early feedback! 🙏 I'll review and feedback properly soon.

A quick note about the localization syntax, I'd just noticed that I had a typo in my original PR description, so it should have been {#general_choose} instead of {#general_chose}! 🤦 (I assume that's where you got the example from?)

[leekelleher]

@glombek In reply to the specifics...

1. In a collection view, the value outputted by the {=x} syntax always outputs the value of the field selected
   Using the template **{=heading}** - {=subheading} {=foo} in a collection view will render the result: My heading - My heading My heading

In collection views, the dynamic label would only have access to that property's (cell) value, so that is what gets rendered regardless of the alias used (e.g. heading, subheading, foo). Other properties can't be accessed/renders, (that's the same for v13 ListView).

But in v13, the docs for ListView do say that {{ value }} is the syntax to render the value, so we'll look at revising how it works for UFM, e.g. it should use {=value}. I'll get a fix for the 14.2.

2. Null fields (or fields with a default value of null) render the name of the label, with no option to coalesce to something else
   Empty fields rendering nothing would be preferential. Or ideally, allowing a coalesce for null values

Good point, noted. I had opted for returning the alias as a fallback for debugging purposes, but I can see how that appears confusing.

re: coalesce, it's a tricky one. The idea of introducing UFM is to add a syntax sugar on top of Markdown, to render custom web-components - we've deliberately avoided re-introducing runtime string-to-JS evaluation; I did try it out, but caused issues with performance and reactivity (of the Lit components).

We are intending to add more UFM components in future releases that cover typical use-cases, (of which your AngularJS filters post has been super useful! 🙏). In terms of UFM syntax, (e.g. between the curly brackets { ... }), we're open for suggestions.

That said, in the meantime, in case it wasn't apparent, developers can use their own custom web-components within UFM. They don't have to create a ufmComponent extension, raw HTML markup can be used directly in the dynamic labels, (Markdown is there to help simplify the input).

Note: as long as the custom web-component name starts with ufm-, umb-, uui-, otherwise it'll be omitted.

3. Null-like values will not render (e.g. a 0 in a numeric field)
   This is written specifically for text strings, other types need consideration (numeric, toggle, etc)

Good point, we'll review and fix this. 👍

4. I could not get localization ({#general_chose}) to work in the dynamic labels
   It might just be me - is this meant to work in this area? Maybe I'm doing something wrong!

Doh, yup a typo! 🤦 {#general_choose}

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Thanks for the immediate feedback, it is very much appreciated. We're open to any suggestions for future UFM features.