[Craft 5] Option to stack element cards

[thupsi]

The card view for elements is a great addition and I look forward to using it a lot in my projects. A thing that bugs me is that in many cases I would prefer to view the cards in a single column, not in a grid. This is especially true in the case of a classic Matrix "content builder", but also in the Entry Index view (depending on the type of section)

Reasons the grid style view can become problematic:

1. The order of blocks/entries becomes fuzzy/harder to parse. Should I read that as rows? Or maybe as columns? See example below:

The order in a single column layout is much clearer:

2. A grid could be mistaken by the author to imply a specific layout on the front-end: Cards that happen to appear side-by-side in the CP could be read as a "row", whereas a single column just shows elements one after the other.

There are of course cases where the grid style is preferable, so I would propose to have an option for the display of cards (grid or stacked ) in the context of a matrix field, and also in the context of an element index.

Thanks for considering this!

[wmdhosting]

I tought that too.. :)

Perhaps just add setting when choosing that option. similar to field.. width

[alexanderloewe]

+1

[brandonkelly]

We discussed this internally and the consensus was that we should just always show cards in full-width regardless of context or screen size. It’s clearly easier to reorder them when in single-column, and even in places where they aren’t sortable, it’s good to be consistent.

Craft 5.0.0-alpha.9 was just tagged with that change.

[mmikkel]

That’s a good point. Maybe it does just come down to the use case, and thus makes sense to be a field setting.

Exactly. I don't actually think the AX w/ sortable, multi-column element cards is fundamentally different from, say, "Large thumbnail" asset fields in Craft 4, and nobody has ever had a problem with those. I.e. for simple "related elements" type fields, the multi-column grid view is easily the most compact and effective.

For page builder-like content, however – where each element typically represents a full-width component on the front end – multiple columns will likely provide a much more confusing AX, for the reasons outlined by @thupsi.

A field setting is the perfect solve IMO. In general I don't think authors are necessarily thrown off by inconsistency across similar types of input; some UI variation is completely OK if it makes a thing more intuitive in the context of the specific content being edited.

[brandonkelly]

Alright, I brought back multi-column card grids, and added a new “Show cards in a grid” setting to Matrix fields (disabled by default), for the next release.

[thupsi]

Wow, this conversation exploded and I missed it! Pretty happy with the result though 🙂

[brandonkelly]

5.0.0-alpha.10 is out with those changes. Thanks for all the feedback, everyone ❤️

[brandonkelly]

Just released Craft 5.0.0-alpha.12 with a “Show cards in a grid” setting added to relational fields, too.