decluttering UI, order Extension gets applied - silverstripe

Question

A few years ago I made a SilverStripe website and added too many fields to Page.php. I'm reworking some of this at the moment but cannot afford do reinvent the Project - now on SilverStripe 3.1.10.
I thought to declutter the UI for Page Sub-Classes, that do not need all the inherited fields, with a few Extensions.
An example how this extension could look
class NoClutter extends Extension {
public function updateCMSFields(FieldList $fields) {
$fields->removeFieldFromTab("Root.Main", "MenuTitle");
$fields->removeFieldFromTab("Root.Main", "Workflow");
}
}
config.yml
RedirectorPage:
extensions:
- NoClutter
This works on all classes for fields added in SiteTree (such as the MenuTitle field), but not for fields added in Page (such as the Workflow field). If the Extension is on UserDefinedForm, Workflow is also removed. But it does not work if the extension is on RedirectorPage. MenuTitle on the other hand is removed in both classes. My guess it's about order. My project is After: 'framework/','cms/' and hope I can make an extension like NoClutter work within the project.
How can I achieve this or how else could I work around the problem?

Answer 1

You need to add $this->extend('updateCMSFields', $fields) at the end of your Page getCMSFields() function.
class Page extends SiteTree {
// ...
public function getCMSFields() {
// call updateCMSFields after adding your fields
SiteTree::disableCMSFieldsExtensions();
$fields = parent::getCMSFields();
SiteTree::enableCMSFieldsExtensions();
// ...
$this->extend('updateCMSFields', $fields);
return $fields;
}
}
$this->extend('updateCMSFields', $fields) declares where your code updateCMSFields() function will get called.
The problem you are having is updateCMSFields() is getting called before you add your custom fields in the Page getCMSFields() function. So you are trying to remove the Workflow field before it is added. This is because the updateCMSFields extension hook is declared in the parent SiteTree getCMSFields() function.
UserDefinedForm solves this by calling $this->extend('updateCMSFields', $fields) at the bottom of its getCMSFields(). SiteTree::disableCMSFieldsExtensions() is required before parent::getCMSFields() is called for the extension hook to work.