Description editor sidebar integration

[manuelaugustin]

When opening the Edit description modal, it's not currently possible to register a sidebar as far as we could see. In the block editor on posts/pages this is possible, and it would be a valuable integration for us as a plugin. Is it correct that it's not possible to integrate in this way at the moment? If so, could you make it possible to integrate here?

[mattsherman]

Hello @manuelaugustin!

This is currently not possible. We will be looking into enhancing the extensibility to make this possible.

Also, there will be UX guidelines published soon that will provide more details on best practices for extending the product editor.

[mattsherman]

@manuelaugustin We are currently looking into extensibility points for the modal description editor. What sort of things would you want put in a sidebar in the modal description editor vs in a sidebar for the product editor as a whole, if one existed?

Also, have you considered adding your items directly to the product editor form?

[manuelaugustin]

Thanks @mattsherman! Are there any updates from the meeting you've had?

[mattsherman]

@manuelaugustin The current plan is to work on this in an upcoming development cycle. The plan is to implement this extensibility in a manner such that extensions such as Yoast can adapt the extensibility they are using to hook into the post editor to do the same sort of thing for the sidebar in the description editor.

[manuelaugustin]

Hi @mattsherman, could you let me know if there are any news regarding this functionality?

[mattsherman]

Hi @manuelaugustin. I started work on implementing changes to support this last week. I do not yet have a fully functional solution, but the current plan is to use ComplementaryArea as is done in the post editor to allow for extensions to add their own sidebars.

There is no PR description/test instructions, and it isn't even fully functional yet, but you can subscribe to the following PR if you want to follow along. As I flesh things out more this week it will get to a point where you can begin to take it for a spin yourself and evaluate how it meets your needs. I'll be sure to let you know when I believe the PR is ready for you to try out.

#46597

[manuelaugustin]

Thanks, that's great! We'll keep an eye on your PR 🙂

[mattsherman]

@manuelaugustin I have a PR up for review that adds sidebar extensibility to the description modal editor.

• Product Editor API: Modal block editor sidebar extensibility (description field) #46597

Block selection and modification works, and you have access to the product being edited (the PR includes a link to a test plugin that demonstrates this).

Any feedback on description modal editor extensibility support/issues is appreciated... the PR has a list of some known issues that I will be following up on in the next week or so.