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Named link field for Silverstripe

One field for a link and its text. Editors give the link a title and pick what it points to: a page (optionally an anchor on that page), a file, a URL, an e-mail address or a shortcode. It is stored in a single composite database field on your page or record, and a template needs nothing more than $Link.URL and $Link.Title.

Maintained by Restruct. If this module saves you time, you can support ongoing maintenance.

A button is more than a URL

A call to action, a "read more" link or a download button needs two things: the text the visitor sees, and where it goes. In plain Silverstripe that is several fields: a has_one to a page for an internal link, a text field for an external URL, another for the link text, and template logic that works out which one the editor filled in. Add a link to a file, an e-mail address or a specific section of a page, and every such link costs a handful of fields and some <% if %> blocks.

This module puts all of that in one field type, NamedLinkField, with one CMS field that shows only the inputs for the link type the editor picked.

Title, link type and target in one field

The CMS field has a Title and a Type, and below them the input for that type:

Switching the type swaps the inputs in place. The page and the file are chosen from the CMS's own tree pickers:

The Text-anchor dropdown lists the anchors in the chosen page's Content: every id="..." and name="..." attribute. Picking another page reloads the list straight away, without saving first.

The field works wherever a CMS form does: on pages, and on records edited in a ModelAdmin or a GridField.

Using it

Add a link to a page or record

Declare it as a db field:

Build the database. Scaffolding then adds the CMS field by itself, labelled from field_labels or else from the field name (here "Primary button"). On Silverstripe 6 that includes pages, where it lands after Content.

To place or label it yourself, add your own. It replaces the scaffolded field of the same name, wherever that is in the form:

Before 3.0.5 (2.1.6 on the v2 line) the scaffolded field stayed, and the form threw "a field called 'PrimaryButtonTitle' appears twice" (#53). On those versions, call $fields->removeByName('PrimaryButton') before adding your own.

Output it in a template

<% if $PrimaryButton %> is true once a page, a file, a URL/e-mail address or a shortcode and title are set. More is available on the field:

$Link.URL is escaped once by the template, so it is safe in an attribute as shown above; $Link.URL.RAW gives the URL as stored. In PHP, getURL() returns the raw URL (for a redirect or an API payload): escape it yourself before echoing it into HTML.

Technical

Version compatibility

Silverstripe 6 required breaking changes here (typed method signatures and ModelData), so the lines are split rather than shared. v2 receives security and bug fixes until Silverstripe 5 reaches end of life in April 2027; new work goes on main.

composer.json is the source of truth for exact constraints; this table is a quick reference.

Requirements and installation

• Silverstripe 6 (silverstripe/framework ^6) with the CMS, PHP 8.3+
• sheadawson/silverstripe-dependentdropdownfield ^4 for the anchor dropdown, installed with the module

Then flush and build the database (sake db:build --flush).

How it is stored

A field named PrimaryButton adds these columns to the record's table: PrimaryButtonTitle, PrimaryButtonLinkmode, PrimaryButtonPageID, PrimaryButtonPageAnchor, PrimaryButtonFileID, PrimaryButtonCustomURL (the URL or the e-mail address) and PrimaryButtonShortcode. Values older versions stored as link type internal or external are read as Page and URL.

The page and file are stored by ID, not by URL, so a link follows its page when the page moves or is renamed.

The module adds its JavaScript and CSS to every CMS screen (LeftAndMain.extra_requirements_*) and one route, admin/namedlinkpageanchors?pid=<page ID>, which returns a page's anchors as JSON to users with access to the Pages section (CMS_ACCESS_CMSMain).

Upgrading from SilverStripe 3

The classes were namespaced in the SilverStripe 4 version. .upgrade.yml maps the old names for the upgrader tool: NamedLinkField is now Restruct\SilverStripe\ORM\FieldType\NamedLinkField, NamedLinkFormField is now Restruct\SilverStripe\Forms\NamedLinkFormField.

Not (yet) supported

• The labels in the field are English only; it is not translatable yet.
• The File type picks an existing file; uploading a new file from within the field is not possible.

Running the tests

The module needs a host Silverstripe project. Require it there through a Composer path repository with symlink: true - /tests is export-ignore, so a dist or mirrored install has no tests - add its test namespace to the host's autoload-dev, then:

CI runs the same suite on every push; see .github/workflows/ci.yml.

Browser tests (Playwright, against a real CMS) live in tests/browser/ and run in .github/workflows/browser-tests.yml. The screenshots in this README are generated from the same fixtures; see tests/browser/screenshots/README.md to regenerate them.

Credits and license

Started from the LinkField module by Simon Elvery and Left, Right Centre.

Release history: LICENSE.