How to Use Magento 2 UI Components In Modules And Solutions [Part 1]

Table of Content

Learn to use Magento 2 UI components with the Amasty expert.
Posted in: Magento 2 Guides

Hello to Amasty blog readers! Today we will focus on the latest Magento 2 functionality that opens numerous opportunities for creating user-friendly UI for Magento. That is UI components. This is a tutorial for Magento 2. Without further ado, let's start with the value of UI components for Magento 2 developers.

The basics of Magento 2 UI components

The UI component is a Magento 2 innovation designed for rendering UI elements on the screen. They enable a connection between the visual element of the UI and the processing of related data that users submitted. UI components, in essence, make it much easier for managers to use grids as well as bring a couple of other benefits, such as:

  • Simplified layout.xml for the backend part of Magento 2;
  • Ability to merge HTML and JavaScript items and use this compound element as a JavaScript code;
  • Ability to create sophisticated UI components using basic ones;
  • Ability to use a single entity for rendering a UI element and working with it.

Now, we’ll consider how UI components work in off-the-shelf Magento 2 and custom modules.

Default UI components in Magento 2 

To understand how UI components are defined in Magento 2 out-of-the-box, let’s take the <listing> UI component example.

The <listing> tag is a standard UI component in Magento 2. By default, you can find the definitions of all standard UI components in the file vendor/magento/module-ui/view/base/ui_component/etc/definition.xml

Let’s look at this definition in detail.

First, the <listing> tag per se contains two attributes, those are class and component. The class attribute defines the PHP class that is responsible for processing data on the server as well as preparing data for the UI component <listing>. The component attribute sets the js-module which is responsible for rendering the UI component in the browser.

To learn more about naming and defining js-modules in Magento 2, you can turn to the documentation on RequireJS module loader.

Second, the <argument> tag includes data that is used for initializing an object of the class Magento\Ui\Component\Listing or any other object of the class stated in the class attribute.

Mind that the PHP class stated in the class attribute should be inherited from the parent class Magento\Ui\Component\AbstractComponent. 

The <argument> tag in the PHP code transforms into the dataset that is used in the class constructor Magento\Ui\Component\AbstractComponent.

Third, the template item defines the template which is used for rendering a UI component. In our case, the template is defined as templates/listing/default. This means that the following template is used: vendor/magento/module-ui/view/base/ui_component/templates/listing/default.xhtml

By this template, Magento 2 override the info inside double braces with a PHP method of the UI component. In this case, the system will call the method getName() from the class Magento\Ui\Component\Listing.

Now, to better understand how UI components work for real parts of the UI, let’s look at a Magento 2 standard Catalog module (Magento_Catalog).

UI components in Magento 2 Catalog Grid

Let's consider creating a Magento 2 product grid in a custom module. First, to be on the same page, let’s view the grid itself. For this, go to the Admin panel and open Catalog -> Product.

Now, let’s look how to code it. UI components are added via layout.

If we open the vendor/magento/module-catalog/view/adminhtml/layout/catalog_product_index.xml file, we can activate the UI component with the following code:

The uiComponent tag is used to insert a UI component object (product_listing in our example) into the component tree. After we insert the UI component, we need to define it in the layout. For this, we go to the folder [path_to_module]/view/adminhtml/ui_component/ and create an .xml file named just like the UI component.

In the folder vendor/magento/module-catalog/view/adminhtml/ui_component/, you will find the product_listing.xml file, which contains the description of our UI component. This file has several sections, each of which describes particular aspects of the UI component. The description starts with the tag <argument>.

Here the <argument> tag is also used to create a dataset for the class constructor Magento\Ui\Component\Listing. The Magento 2 provider item, transferred in data, initiates dataSource. As you see, the provider value, product_listing.product_listing_data_source, comprises two parts. The former, product_listing, is the name of the UI component. The latter part, product_listing_data_source, is the name of the dataSource that is meant to process data on the server and make the UI component work with this data. dataSource is also defined in the file: vendor/magento/module-catalog/view/adminhtml/ui_component/product_listing.xml.

The <dataSource> tag defines the component responsible for initializing the localStorage in the browser using a js-module. In our example, this is Magento_Ui/js/grid/provider with the following full path to the file: vendor/magento/module-ui/view/base/web/js/grid/provider.js

For more information about localStorage, please check this tutorial.

The <dataSource> tag contains the <dataProvider> subtag that forms the PHP class responsible how UI component processes data on the Magento 2 server. In our case, this is Magento\Catalog\Ui\DataProvider\Product\ProductDataProvider.

The PHP class set in <dataProvider> is inherited from the superclass Magento\Ui\DataProvider\AbstractDataProvider.

The <dataProvider> tag contains such settings as requestFieldName and primaryFieldName.

The parameter primaryFieldName relates to the primary column of the database with which dataProvider works. The parameter requestFieldName enables the AJAX URL used by the grid.

As you can see, the <dataSource> tag is followed by the <listingToolbar> tag in the product_listing UI component.

The tag <listingToolbar> defines the element that contains Filters, Bookmarks, Column editor, Full-text search field, and Mass Actions. This is how these UI components look on the Magento 2 grid:

The <listingToolbar> tag contains sub-elements responsible for particular features of the grid. Let’s consider some examples:

  • The tag <sticky> locks the upper menu and makes it follow users’ scrolls (see below for an example);

  • The tag <columnsControls name=”columns_controls”> adds the Columns button;
  • The tag <filters name=”listing_filters”> adds the Filters button and extends column filtering settings (see below);

The <listingToolbar> is followed by a default Magento 2 tag <columns>.

The <columns> tag is responsible for rendering the grid itself so it contains a full list of columns to be rendered on the grid. Let’s examine some columns defined in this tag:

The <selectionsColumn> is the Magento 2 UI component that defines the select filter that allows users to “select all”, “select all on page”, “deselect all”, or “deselect all on page”. This is how it looks like in the module.

As usual, this column goes first. Mind that the name attribute should have the ids value, and the value of the indexField should match the primary column of the database that is used to create the collection for data transfer to the grid.

All the rest columns are added in a similar way, so let’s take the Thumbnail column as an example:

This is how Thumbnail is defined:

The <column> element defines the column itself. The class attribute defines the PHP class which processes the data and settings of this element. The second attribute, component, is responsible for rendering the <column> element via a js-module.

That’s it. Now let’s put theory aside and try creating our own UI component from scratch.

Custom Magento 2 UI components

To illustrate how to make a custom UI component, let’s create a simple module Amasty_UiTest. This module adds a new tab Ui Test to the System:

In this menu, a test UI component will add the text “This is a Test Ui Component”:

Just like in the Magento_Catalog module, the UI component is added via a layout: app/code/Amasty/UiTest/view/adminhtml/layout/amasty_uitest_index_index.xml

A full path to the UI component amasty_uitest is the following one:

app/code/Amasty/UiTest/view/adminhtml/layout/amasty_uitest_index_index.xml

Let’s create a new template for amasty_uitest:

app/code/Amasty/UiTest/view/adminhtml/ui_component/templates/test.xhtml

The template contains the code:

Now, let’s introduce the template to the UI component amasty_uitest:

app/code/Amasty/UiTest/view/adminhtml/ui_component/amasty_uitest.xml

Then we introduce dataSource to the UI component:

app/code/Amasty/UiTest/view/adminhtml/ui_component/amasty_uitest.xml

That’s it. Now a new UI component is up and running. UI components are widely used in modules, such as Special Promotions, Product Feed, Order Attributes, Customer Attributes by Amasty. Simply put, almost every module that works with the admin panel (Magento 2 backend) relies on UI components.

Bottom line

Today we explored UI components in Magento 2, reviewed how they work in a standard Catalog module, and learned to create components from scratch.

As you see, the UI component is a powerful means to create elements of the interface. The key benefit that Magento 2 UI components bring is the combination of HTML content and JavaScript, which allows creating new components with whatever possible appearance and functions. While designing your own Magento 2 modules, you can make use of Magento 2 standard UI components or develop your own extended for particular purposes.

Feel free to leave comments and questions in the feed below. And stay tuned, as our overview of Magento 2 Sections is coming up!

June 25, 2018
June 26, 2018
June 22, 2018
Comments
Rafael Correa Gomes
June 25, 2018
Thanks for sharing Artem!
Reply
Alina Bragina
June 26, 2018
Hi Rafael, thanks for your feedback! We are glad to share our experience and be helpful. Stay tuned and check our next post on the topic. Cheers!
Fudu
July 28, 2018
Well, You didn't talk about what actually inside the "listingToolbar" tag, I mean it have "filters" tag and "massaction" tag, inside those 2 tags, it have alot of thing that we need to know. That's what i'm looking for when searching the ui-component. I mean "how the filter and the search work, where does it go, which controller i need to looking for .."
Reply
Alina Bragina
August 30, 2018
Hi Fudu, thanks for your interest and useful addition! We'll try to see if we can cover this question in the future articles. Cheers!
Rajat
September 1, 2018
hi thanks for your article.i want to know how can i add additional text field in massAction please suggest .
Reply
Alex Morco
September 11, 2018
Thanks for sharing this awesome article, I was trying to edit product page on Magento store and your post helped me a lot, Here’s another guide that helped me to update Meta tags through Magento layout xml file (cloudways.com/blog/customize-magento-modules-through-layout-xml-files/), hope it will help your readers to find the use of this file with different functions.
Reply
Indian Programmer
March 13, 2019
And what about your Amasty\UiTest\Model\DataProvider file?
Reply
Alina Bragina
March 25, 2019
Hi there, thanks for reading us! You see it'll be pretty difficult to answer your question from here, as we lack some important details. We have at least two ways out. You can either detail your question so that I can refer the matter to our technical specialists, or you can leave the question in a ticket on our <a href="https://amasty.com/contacts/" rel="nofollow">Support page</a>.
M. Rizzo
August 27, 2019
Hello, Artem. What if I need to insert Checkbox column at the right side of the table? Should I paste this code in the end?
Reply
Polina Litreyeva
August 27, 2019
Hello there. Yes, you are right, just insert this part of code into the needed place.
Amir
September 3, 2019
Why you didn’t write about how to initialize sections?
Reply
Polina Litreyeva
September 3, 2019
Hello, Amir! We have the answer to this question in our second part of the article. Please, read there about <a href="https://amasty.com/blog/how-to-use-sections-in-magento-2/">using sections in Magento 2</a>.
Moisés
November 6, 2019
Thank you for this post. I have been one week looking for a post like this. I have created the files of the custom UI component but I am not able to see it in the admin panel. I have ran the commands: "php bin/magento cache:flush" "php bin/magento setup:upgrade" and "php bin/magento setup:di:compile" to try to solve it.
Reply
Polina Litreyeva
November 11, 2019
Hello! Thanks for your comment. You can try to clean folders with the command: rm -rf ./pub/static/* && ./var/view_preprocessed/* && php bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy If you still have problems, please, feel free to send a word to our support team at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" rel="nofollow">[email protected]</a>, they will be happy to see how they can help you with that.
Moisés
November 13, 2019
Hi Polina, thank you for your response. It didn't work, besides "rm -rf ./pub/static/" removed a .htaccess file which made the page to not to load JavaScript files, font files, etc.. After adding that file again, the page loads well except the storefront, which doesn't load the CSS. That is not a problem, as I have a backup, but in the end, I don't understand where are you adding the "UI Test" tab. I don't find that string in any of the files. I would expect a menu.xml using the schema xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:module:Magento_Backend:etc/menu.xsd" or something similar. Kind regards.
Polina Litreyeva
December 2, 2019
Hi. You see it’s difficult to answer from here. But you can <a href="https://amasty.com/contacts/">contact our support team</a> to view the problem in details. We’ll see what we can do with it. Thanks in advance!
vikram
January 22, 2021
Hello Amasty, Your artical is awesome it really help me, Thanks.
Reply
Polina Kratovich
January 22, 2021
Hi, Vikram! Thanks for your feedback! We're glad to know the article was helpful for our readers.
Alex
November 27, 2021
Thank you for Information
Reply
Alina
August 25, 2022
Thanks for reading, Alex!
Alina
August 25, 2022
Thanks for reading, Alex!
Mooner
March 20, 2023
I appreciate how this article takes a practical approach to using Magento 2 UI components. The author doesn't just explain the theory behind UI components, but also provides concrete examples of how to implement them in real-world scenarios.
Reply
Hank_Whitey
March 20, 2023
!great introduction to UI components!
Reply
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