Expose studytext (full sermon body) in the Layout Editor

[bcordis]

Background

Currently the Study Intro (studyintro) is available as a Layout Editor element for both the Messages list and Detail views. However, the full sermon body text (studytext) is only rendered via a hardcoded block in site/tmpl/cwmsermon/default_main.php — it is not exposed as a configurable element in the Layout Editor.

This means template administrators have no control over:

• Whether the full body text appears on the detail page
• Where in the layout it is positioned (row/column)
• What CSS class or link type is applied to it
• Whether it appears at all (e.g. for audio-only sermon sites that have no written content)

What would change

Adding studytext to the Layout Editor would require:

1. New fields in template.xml — dstudytext prefixed fields (row, col, colspan, element, custom, linktype) in the details fieldset, following the same pattern as dstudyintro
2. Layout Editor JS — Register studytext as a draggable element in the details context in layout-editor.es6.js
3. Rendering in Cwmlisting.php — Add rendering logic for the studytext element alongside the existing studyintro rendering
4. Remove hardcoded output — The current echo $this->item->studytext in default_main.php would need to be replaced with the Layout Editor-driven rendering

Concerns

• Breaking change: Existing templates that rely on the hardcoded studytext output would need migration. After this change, studytext would only appear if explicitly added to the detail layout.
• Content length: studytext can be very long (full sermon transcripts). Unlike other Layout Editor elements that are short labels/links, this is potentially pages of HTML content. The Layout Editor UI may need special handling.
• Performance: Rendering large HTML blocks through the element pipeline vs. direct output could have performance implications.
• Migration path: Existing templates would need a migration script to auto-add dstudytext to row 6 (or similar) so that upgrading doesn’t silently remove sermon body text from detail pages.

Questions for discussion

1. Should studytext be a Layout Editor element, or should it remain a fixed block that always renders below the layout elements?
2. If added to the Layout Editor, should it be detail view only, or also available in the messages list view (truncated)?
3. Is there a preferred migration strategy — auto-add to existing templates, or require manual configuration?
4. Are there other content fields that should also be exposed (e.g. secondary references, topics list)?

Feedback welcome before we commit to an implementation approach.