InvenTree/docs/docs/extend/plugins/ui.md

title
User Interface Mixin

User Interface Mixin

The User Interface mixin class provides a set of methods to implement custom functionality for the InvenTree web interface.

Enable User Interface Mixin

To enable user interface plugins, the global setting ENABLE_PLUGINS_INTERFACE must be enabled, in the plugin settings.

Plugin Context

When rendering certain content in the user interface, the rendering functions are passed a context object which contains information about the current page being rendered. The type of the context object is defined in the PluginContext file:

{{ includefile("src/frontend/src/components/plugins/PluginContext.tsx", title="Plugin Context", fmt="javascript") }}

Custom Panels

Many of the pages in the InvenTree web interface are built using a series of "panels" which are displayed on the page. Custom panels can be added to these pages, by implementing the get_custom_panels method:

::: plugin.base.ui.mixins.UserInterfaceMixin.get_custom_panels
options:
show_bases: False
show_root_heading: False
show_root_toc_entry: False
show_sources: True
summary: False
members: []

The custom panels can display content which is generated either on the server side, or on the client side (see below).

Server Side Rendering

The panel content can be generated on the server side, by returning a 'content' attribute in the response. This 'content' attribute is expected to be raw HTML, and is rendered directly into the page. This is particularly useful for displaying static content.

Server-side rendering is simple to implement, and can make use of the powerful Django templating system.

Refer to the sample plugin for an example of how to implement server side rendering for custom panels.

Advantages:

• Simple to implement
• Can use Django templates to render content
• Has access to the full InvenTree database, and content not available on the client side (via the API)

Disadvantages:

• Content is rendered on the server side, and cannot be updated without a page refresh
• Content is not interactive

Client Side Rendering

The panel content can also be generated on the client side, by returning a 'source' attribute in the response. This 'source' attribute is expected to be a URL which points to a JavaScript file which will be loaded by the client.

Refer to the sample plugin for an example of how to implement client side rendering for custom panels.

Panel Render Function

The JavaScript file must implement a renderPanel function, which is called by the client when the panel is rendered. This function is passed two parameters:

• target: The HTML element which the panel content should be rendered into
• context: A dictionary of context data which can be used to render the panel content

Example

export function renderPanel(target, context) {
    target.innerHTML = "<h1>Hello, world!</h1>";
}

Panel Visibility Function

The JavaScript file can also implement a isPanelHidden function, which is called by the client to determine if the panel is displayed. This function is passed a single parameter, context - which is the same as the context data passed to the renderPanel function.

The isPanelHidden function should return a boolean value, which determines if the panel is displayed or not, based on the context data.

If the isPanelHidden function is not implemented, the panel will be displayed by default.

Example

export function isPanelHidden(context) {
    // Only visible for active parts
    return context.model == 'part' && context.instance?.active;
}

Sample Plugin

A sample plugin which implements custom user interface functionality is provided in the InvenTree source code:

::: plugin.samples.integration.user_interface_sample.SampleUserInterfacePlugin
options:
show_bases: False
show_root_heading: False
show_root_toc_entry: False
show_source: True
members: []