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Exponential Layouts Content Browser

General description

Exponential Layouts Content Browser (explayouts_content_browser) is the content browser backend for Exponential Layouts on Exponential Legacy / Exponential 6. It provides a simple tree browser over the content node tree and a normalized item value object, and it is the foundation the rest of the content browser and collection query stack is built on.

It is used by the Exponential Layouts admin UI, the sibling content browser extensions (explayouts_content_browser_core, explayouts_content_browser_ui) and the collection query extensions (explayouts_relation_list_query, explayouts_tags_query, explayouts_site_api) to let editors pick content items for collections and blocks.

This extension is an Exponential Legacy port inspired by netgen/content-browser and provides the following capabilities:

• Content tree browsing - Use this feature to list, page and count the items of any content subtree from PHP, module views or CLI scripts.
• Item normalization - Use this feature to turn any eZContentObjectTreeNode into a predictable, template- and JSON-friendly value object.
• Named provider tabs - Use this feature to offer editors predefined, class-filtered starting points (content, images, files, media, users).
• Search filtering - Use this feature to narrow listings with a case-insensitive substring match against node names.

Features

The following features are provided by the Exponential Layouts Content Browser extension:

• A stateless browser service, expLayoutsContentBrowser, that lists subtree items under any parent node, sorted by name, with offset/limit pagination:
  • listItems( $parentNodeId, $search = '', $offset = 0, $limit = 25 ) — returns expLayoutsContentBrowserItem[], optionally filtered by a case-insensitive substring match against the node name.
  • countItems( $parentNodeId, $search = '' ) — exact counts via eZContentObjectTreeNode::subTreeCountByNodeID() when no search string is given; filtered counting (capped at the first 1000 fetched items) when one is.
  • loadItem( $nodeId ) — returns a single normalized item or false.
  • listItemsAsArray( ... ) — the same listing as ready-to-use toArray() hashes for templates or JSON output.
• A normalized item value object, expLayoutsContentBrowserItem, built from an eZContentObjectTreeNode, exposing public properties (id, nodeId, objectId, name, classIdentifier, className, isContainer, isMainNode, published, modified, ownerId, ownerName, sectionId, path, urlAlias) plus a toArray() method that returns the same data with snake_case keys (node_id, object_id, class_identifier, is_container, is_main_node, owner_id, owner_name, section_id, url_alias, ...) for templates and JSON output.
• Pre-formatted published / modified date strings (Y-m-d H:i, or an empty string when the timestamp is missing) so templates never have to format timestamps themselves.
• A provider service, expLayoutsContentBrowserProvider, with named provider tabs and predefined class filters:
  • content — no class filter.
  • images — image.
  • files — file.
  • media — image, file, video.
  • users — user, with a default parent node of 5 (the Users tree root).
• A forgiving provider API: unknown provider identifiers return an empty result (array( 'items' => array(), 'count' => 0 )), never an error.
• Deliberate PHP extension points: protected hook methods (formatDate(), resolveOwnerName()) so subclasses can adjust date formatting, owner resolution, permission checks and more.
• No hard dependencies — the extension is fully self-contained and works in module views, block handlers, JSON endpoints and CLI scripts alike.

Version

• The current version of Exponential Layouts Content Browser is 1.0.0
• Last Major update: July 30, 2026

Copyright

• Exponential Layouts Content Browser is copyright 1998 - 2026 7x
• See: LICENSE.md for more information on the terms of the copyright and license

License

Exponential Layouts Content Browser is licensed under the GNU General Public License.

The complete license agreement is included in the LICENSE.md file.

Exponential Layouts Content Browser is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License or at your option a later version.

Exponential Layouts Content Browser is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

The GNU GPL gives you the right to use, modify and redistribute Exponential Layouts Content Browser under certain conditions. The GNU GPL license is distributed with the software, see the file LICENSE.md.

It is also available at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with Exponential Layouts Content Browser in LICENSE.md. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

Using Exponential Layouts Content Browser under the terms of the GNU GPL is free (as in freedom).

For more information or questions please contact [email protected]

Requirements

The following requirements exist for using the Exponential Layouts Content Browser extension:

Exponential version

• Make sure you use Exponential 6 / Exponential Legacy.

PHP version

• Make sure you have PHP 8.1, 8.2, 8.3 or 8.4.

Extension dependencies

• None. This extension is self-contained; it is itself a dependency of explayouts_content_browser_core, explayouts_content_browser_ui, explayouts_relation_list_query, explayouts_tags_query and explayouts_site_api, so activate it before any of those.

Installation

Installation is the standard extension procedure: place the extension in extension/explayouts_content_browser, activate it via ActiveExtensions[] (or ActiveAccessExtensions[] for a single siteaccess), regenerate autoloads with php bin/php/ezpgenerateautoloads.php -e and clear caches with php bin/php/ezcache.php --clear-all --purge --allow-root-user.

See INSTALL.md for the complete step-by-step installation instructions.

Usage

The extension ships three classes which together form the browsing backend:

A quick example:

Every returned expLayoutsContentBrowserItem exposes public properties (id, nodeId, objectId, name, classIdentifier, className, isContainer, isMainNode, published, modified, ownerId, ownerName, sectionId, path, urlAlias) and a toArray() method with snake_case keys for templates and JSON output.

Provider tabs give editors predefined, class-filtered starting points:

Note that only the users provider has a default parent node (5); pass an explicit parent node for the other providers.

The full usage guide in doc/USAGE.md covers the complete API, usage scenarios (module view templates, JSON listing endpoints, CLI scripts, provider-tab pickers) and the three customization layers of this stack: the settings layer (the INI configuration cascade), the template layer (design overrides) and the PHP layer (which classes and protected methods are safe to subclass and override).

Documentation

Troubleshooting

Read the FAQ

• Some problems are more common than others. The most common ones are listed in doc/FAQ.md.

Use our support systems

• If you find a bug or defect, please report it to the Exponential Layouts Content Browser: Issue Tracker
• For commercial support and custom development please visit se7enx.com