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Customization options

Change the app name

On the main navbar next to the logo, Avo generates a link to the homepage of your app. The label for the link is usually computed from your Rails app name. You can customize that however, you want using config.app_name = 'Avocadelicious'.

Since v2.32.6

Since Avo 2.32.6 the app_name option is callable using a block. This is useful if you want to reference a I18n.t method or something more dynamic.

ruby
Avo.configure do |config|
  config.app_name = -> { I18n.t "app_name" }
end

Timezone and Currency

Your data-rich app might have a few fields where you reference date, datetime, and currency fields. You may customize the global timezone and currency with config.timezone = 'UTC' and config.currency = 'USD' config options.

Resource Index view

There are a few customization options to change how resources are displayed in the Index view.

Resources per page

You may customize how many resources you can view per page with config.per_page = 24.

Per page config

Per page steps

Similarly customize the per-page steps in the per-page picker with config.per_page_steps = [12, 24, 48, 72].

Per page config

Resources via per page

For has_many associations you can control how many resources are visible in their Index view with config.via_per_page = 8.

Default view type

The ResourceIndex component supports two view types :table and :grid. You can change that by config.default_view_type = :table. Read more on the grid view configuration page.

Table viewTable view
Grid viewGrid view

On the Index view, each row has the controls component at the end, which allows the user to go to the Show and Edit views and delete that entry. If you have a long row and a not-so-wide display, it might not be easy to scroll to the right-most section to click the Show link.

You can enable the id_links_to_resource config option to make it easier.

ruby
Avo.configure do |config|
  config.root_path = '/avo'
  config.app_name = 'Avocadelicious'
  config.id_links_to_resource = true
end

That will render all id fields in the Index view as a link to that resource.

As link to resource

Resource controls on the left side

Watch the demo video

By default, the resource controls are located on the right side of the record rows, which might be hidden if there are a lot of columns. You might want to move the controls to the left side in that situation using the resource_controls_placement option.

ruby
Avo.configure do |config|
  config.resource_controls_placement = :left
end
Resource controls on the left side

Container width

ruby
Avo.configure do |config|
  config.full_width_index_view = false
  config.full_width_container = false
end

Avo's default main content is constrained to a regular Tailwind CSS container. If you have a lot of content or prefer to display it full-width, you have two options.

Display the Index view full-width

Using full_width_index_view: true tells Avo to display the Index view full-width.

Display all views full-width

Using full_width_container: true tells Avo to display all views full-width.

Cache resources on the Index view

Avo caches each resource row (or Grid item for Grid view) for performance reasons. You can disable that cache using the cache_resources_on_index_view configuration option. The cache key is using the record's id and created_at attributes and the resource file md5.

INFO

If you use the visibility option to show/hide fields based on the user's role, you should disable this setting.

ruby
Avo.configure do |config|
  config.cache_resources_on_index_view = false
end

Context

In the Resource and Action classes, you have a global context object to which you can attach a custom payload. For example, you may add the current_user, the current request params, or any other arbitrary data.

You can configure it using the set_context method in your initializer. The block you pass in will be instance evaluated in Avo::ApplicationController, so it will have access to the current_user method or Current object.

ruby
Avo.configure do |config|
  config.set_context do
    {
      foo: 'bar',
      params: request.params,
    }
  end
end

_current_user

It's recommended you don't store your current user here but using the current_user_method config.

You can access the context data with ::Avo::App.context object.

Eject views

If you want to change one of Avo's built-in views, you can eject it, update it and use it in your admin.

Prepared templates

We prepared a few templates to make it.

bin/rails generate avo:eject :logo will eject the _logo.html.erb partial.

▶ bin/rails generate avo:eject :logo
Running via Spring preloader in process 20947
      create  app/views/avo/logo/_logo.html.erb

A list of prepared templates:

  • :logo ➡️   app/views/avo/partials/_logo.html.erb
  • :head ➡️   app/views/avo/partials/_head.html.erb
  • :header ➡️   app/views/avo/partials/_header.html.erb
  • :footer ➡️   app/views/avo/partials/_footer.html.erb
  • :scripts ➡️   app/views/avo/partials/_scripts.html.erb
  • :sidebar_extra ➡️   app/views/avo/partials/_sidebar_extra.html.erb

In the app/views/avo/partials directory, you will find the _logo.html.erb partial, which you may customize however you want. It will be displayed in place of Avo's logo.

Avo logo customization

The _header.html.erb partial enables you to customize the name and link of your app.

Avo header customization

The _footer.html.erb partial enables you to customize the footer of your admin.

Avo footer customization

Scripts

The _scripts.html.erb partial enables you to insert scripts in the footer of your admin.

Eject any template

You can eject any partial from Avo using the partial path.

▶ bin/rails generate avo:eject app/views/layouts/avo/application.html.erb
      create  app/views/layouts/avo/application.html.erb

WARNING

Once ejected, the views will not receive updates on new Avo releases. You must maintain them yourself.

By default, Avo ships with breadcrumbs enabled.

Avo breadcrumbs

You may disable them using the display_breadcrumbs configuration option.

ruby
Avo.configure do |config|
  config.display_breadcrumbs = false
end

The first item on the breadcrumb is Home with the root_path URL. You can customize that using the set_initial_breadcrumbs block.

ruby
Avo.configure do |config|
  config.set_initial_breadcrumbs do
    add_breadcrumb "Casa", root_path
    add_breadcrumb "Something else", something_other_path
  end
end

Avo uses the breadcrumbs_on_rails gem under the hood.

You can add breadcrumbs to custom pages in the controller action.

ruby
class Avo::ToolsController < Avo::ApplicationController
  def custom_tool
    add_breadcrumb "Custom tool"
  end
end

Page titles

When you want to update the page title for a custom tool or page, you only need to assign a value to the @page_title instance variable in the controller method.

ruby
class Avo::ToolsController < Avo::ApplicationController
  def custom_tool
    @page_title = "Custom tool page title"
  end
end

Avo uses the meta-tags gem to compile and render the page title.

Home path

When a user clicks your logo inside Avo or goes to the /avo URL, they will be redirected to one of your resources. You might want to change that path to something else, like a custom page. You can do that with the home_path configuration.

ruby
Avo.configure do |config|
  config.home_path = "/avo/dashboard"
end

Use a lambda function for the home_path

Since v2.8.0

You can also use a lambda function to define that path.

ruby
Avo.configure do |config|
  config.home_path = -> { avo.dashboard_path(:dashy) }
end

When you configure the home_path option, the Get started sidebar item will be hidden in the development environment.

Now, users will be redirected to /avo/dashboard whenever they click the logo. You can use this configuration option alongside the set_initial_breadcrumbs option to create a more cohesive experience.

ruby
Avo.configure do |config|
  config.home_path = "/avo/dashboard"
  config.set_initial_breadcrumbs do
    add_breadcrumb "Dashboard", "/avo/dashboard"
  end
end

Mount Avo under a nested path

You may need to mount Avo under a nested path, something like /uk/admin. In order to do that, you need to consider a few things.

  1. Move the engine mount point below any route for custom tools.
ruby
Rails.application.routes.draw do
  # other routes

  authenticate :user, ->(user) { user.is_admin? } do
    scope :uk do
      scope :admin do
        get "dashboard", to: "avo/tools#dashboard" # custom tool added before engine
      end

      mount Avo::Engine, at: Avo.configuration.root_path # engine mounted last
    end
  end
end
  1. The root_path configuration should only be the last path segment.
ruby
# 🚫 Don't add the scope to the root_path
Avo.configure do |config|
  config.root_path = "/uk/admin"
end

# ✅ Do this instead
Avo.configure do |config|
  config.root_path = "/admin"
end
  1. Use full paths for other configurations.
ruby
Avo.configure do |config|
  config.home_path = "/uk/admin/dashboard"

  config.set_initial_breadcrumbs do
    add_breadcrumb "Dashboard", "/uk/admin/dashboard"
  end
end

Custom view_component path

You may not keep your view components under app/components and want the generated field view_components to be generated in your custom directory. You can change that using the view_component_path configuration key.

ruby
Avo.configure do |config|
  config.view_component_path = "app/frontend/components"
end

Custom query scopes

You may want to change Avo's queries to add sorting or use gems like friendly. You can do that using resolve_query_scope for multiple records and resolve_find_scope when fetching one record.

Custom scope for Index page

Using resolve_query_scope you tell Avo how to fetch the records for the Index view.

ruby
class UserResource < Avo::BaseResource
  self.resolve_query_scope = ->(model_class:) do
    model_class.order(last_name: :asc)
  end
end

Custom scope for Show and Edit pages

WARNING

The resolve_find_scope method is deprecated in favor of find_record_method (below).

If you're following the friendly_id example, you must also add the friendly_id configuration to the model definition.
ruby
class User < ApplicationRecord
  extend FriendlyId
  friendly_id :name, use: :slugged
end

Custom find method for Show and Edit pages

Using find_record_method you tell Avo how to fetch one record for Show and Edit views and other contexts where a record needs to be fetched from the database.

This is very useful when you use something like friendly gem, custom to_param methods on your model, and even the wonderful prefix_id gem.

Custom to_param method

The following example shows how you can update the to_param (to use the post name) method on the User model to use a custom attribute and then update the UserResource so it knows how to search for that model.

ruby
class PostResource < Avo::BaseResource
  self.find_record_method = ->(model_class:, id:, params:) do
    # If the id is an integer use the classic `find` method.
    # But if it's not an integer, search for that post by the slug.
    id.to_i == 0 ? model_class.find_by_slug(id) : model_class.find(id)
  end
end
ruby
class Post < ApplicationRecord
  before_save :update_slug

  def to_param
    slug || id
  end

  def update_slug
    self.slug = name.parameterize
  end
end

Using the friendly gem

ruby
class UserResource < Avo::BaseResource
  self.find_record_method = ->(model_class:, id:, params:) do
    # We have to add .friendly to the query
    model_class.friendly.find! id
  end
end
ruby
class User < ApplicationRecord
  extend FriendlyId

  friendly_id :name, use: :slugged
end

Using prefixed_ids gem

You really don't have to do anything on Avo's side for this to work. You only need to add the has_prefix_id the model as per the documentation. Avo will know how to search for the record.

ruby
class Course < ApplicationRecord
  has_prefix_id :course
end

Disable features

You might want to disable some Avo features. You can do that using the disabled_features option.

ruby
# config/initializers/avo.rb
Avo.configure do |config|
  config.disabled_features = [:global_search]
end

After this setting, the global search will be hidden for users.

Supported options:

  • global_search

Customize profile name, photo, and title

You might see on the sidebar footer a small profile widget. The widget displays three types of information about the user; name, photo, and title.

Customize the name of the user

Avo checks to see if the object returned by your current_user_method responds to a name method. If not, it will try the email method and then fall back to Avo user.

Customize the profile photo

Similarly, it will check if that current user responds to avatar and use that as the src of the photo.

Customize the title of the user

Lastly, it will check if it responds to the avo_title method and uses that to display it under the name.

Please follow this guide in authentication.

Skip show view

In the CRUD interface Avo adds the Show view by default. This means that when your users will see the view icon to go to that detail page and they will be redirected to the Show page when doing certain tasks (update a record, run an action, etc.).

You might not want that behavior and you might not use the Show view at all and prefer to skip that and just use the Edit view. Adding config.resource_default_view = :edit to your avo.rb configuration file will tell Avo to skip it and use the Edit view as the default resource view.

ruby
# config/initializers/avo.rb
Avo.configure do |config|
  config.resource_default_view = :edit
end