Make style_formats controllable from Grid/Rich Text Editor data types

[jaandrews]

In umbraco 9, the tinymce configuration has moved to appsettings.json. Unfortunately, this makes entering the configuration clunky because the value has to be a string instead of raw json. While escaped json does work, it's not very readable and is more difficult to edit than it was in umbraco 8. This is discussed in more detail here

One potential solution would be to move control of these under the Grid/Rich Text Editor data types. It may be as simple as a textarea, though a more structured option for entering style formats would be useful, since users wouldn't need to look up documentation for how to add options to the format dropdown (would need to support grouping formats). If nothing is entered, it could fall back the format configured in appsettings.json.

[huwred]

Agree with this, it is very clunky having to have a large config section in a string that has to be on a single line!

[amperjess]

Yes!! Just had to do this for the first time in Umbraco 9, and what a step backwards. The tinyMceConfig.config method at least could be formatted in a human-readable way.

[MarkMcDonald]

Has anyone found where this appSetting is read in the code? Search on Github isn't revealing anything for me.

Seems slightly ironic as 'style_formats' is json so was wondering if there was a way of editing the core to treat it as json.

[jaandrews]

The value is set here and is loaded into the backoffice via an api call to that method. Some progress has been made on this front, since appsettings.json now allows a raw json object under "CustomConfig" when I test in umbraco 10.0.1 (created this issue when I was still running umbraco 9). It still fails to work though, as umbraco errors out when trying to read that data with the following error.

System.InvalidOperationException, System.Private.CoreLib, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e: Cannot create instance of type 'System.String' because it is missing a public parameterless constructor.
at Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.ConfigurationBinder.CreateInstance(Type type)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.ConfigurationBinder.BindInstance(Type type, Object instance, IConfiguration config, BinderOptions options)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.ConfigurationBinder.BindDictionary(Object dictionary, Type dictionaryType, IConfiguration config, BinderOptions options)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.ConfigurationBinder.BindInstance(Type type, Object instance, IConfiguration config, BinderOptions options)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.ConfigurationBinder.BindProperty(PropertyInfo property, Object instance, IConfiguration config, BinderOptions options)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.ConfigurationBinder.BindNonScalar(IConfiguration configuration, Object instance, BinderOptions options)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.ConfigurationBinder.BindInstance(Type type, Object instance, IConfiguration config, BinderOptions options)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.ConfigurationBinder.Bind(IConfiguration configuration, Object instance, Action`1 configureOptions)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.Options.OptionsFactory`1.Create(String name)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.Options.UnnamedOptionsManager`1.get_Value()
   at Umbraco.Cms.Web.BackOffice.PropertyEditors.RichTextPreValueController.GetConfiguration()
   at lambda_method306(Closure , Object , Object[] )
   at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ActionMethodExecutor.SyncObjectResultExecutor.Execute(IActionResultTypeMapper mapper, ObjectMethodExecutor executor, Object controller, Object[] arguments)
   at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionMethodAsync()
   at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.Next(State& next, Scope& scope, Object& state, Boolean& isCompleted)
   at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeNextActionFilterAsync()
--- End of stack trace from previous location ---
   at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.Rethrow(ActionExecutedContextSealed context)
   at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.Next(State& next, Scope& scope, Object& state, Boolean& isCompleted)
   at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeInnerFilterAsync()
--- End of stack trace from previous location ---
   at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ResourceInvoker.<InvokeNextExceptionFilterAsync>g__Awaited|26_0(ResourceInvoker invoker, Task lastTask, State next, Scope scope, Object state, Boolean isCompleted)

[MarkMcDonald]

Am on 10.0.1 and still get the error as well. Am currently trying options for replacing the value for CustomConfig post the .AddBackOffice() call if possible - I'll update if I find a way.

[MarkMcDonald]

Unfortunately not had any success trying to hijack the options so far, and there seems to be a real lack of DI that would allow you to swap out implementations without replacing vast swathes of code.

Relevant files are below but I can see any easy way of overriding or replacing the bits of functionality needed to improve this.

https://github.com/umbraco/Umbraco-CMS/blob/e626fca2432582f052cb13654eedd9e60ef8723f/src/Umbraco.Web.BackOffice/PropertyEditors/RichTextPreValueController.cs
https://github.com/umbraco/Umbraco-CMS/blob/e626fca2432582f052cb13654eedd9e60ef8723f/src/Umbraco.Core/Configuration/Models/RichTextEditorSettings.cs
https://github.com/umbraco/Umbraco-CMS/blob/e626fca2432582f052cb13654eedd9e60ef8723f/src/Umbraco.Core/DependencyInjection/UmbracoBuilder.Configuration.cs