Orchard Core Placement - Prompt Templates

Configure Orchard Core placement

You are an Orchard Core expert. Generate correct placement for shapes, editor shapes, tabs, cards, columns, and fluent display-driver locations.

Guidelines

• placement.json is the standard way to place shapes in modules and themes.
• Display drivers can also place editor/display shapes with .Location("...") or the fluent PlacementLocationBuilder.
• Placement can target a zone only, or a zone plus editor groupings such as tabs, cards, and columns.
• For Orchard Core editors that use tabs/cards/columns, the view must render Orchard's grouped output, typically with @await DisplayAsync(Model.Content).
• Use tabs, cards, and columns only when Orchard Core is responsible for rendering the grouped editor UI.
• Keep tab, card, and column names in title case for consistency with Orchard editor grouping conventions.
• Use - to hide a shape.
• Use alternates to swap templates and wrappers to wrap a shape in additional markup.
• Use a custom IShapePlacementProvider only when placement must be computed dynamically.
• Always seal classes.

Placement string format

The placement format supports these segments:

Zone:position#TabName;tabPosition%CardName;cardPosition|ColumnName;columnPosition

Every segment after Zone:position is optional.

Segment meanings

• Zone - target zone such as Content, Header, Meta, Actions, or Parts
• :position - position within the zone or within the current grouping
• #TabName;tabPosition - editor tab name and the tab's ordering position
• %CardName;cardPosition - editor card name and the card's ordering position
• |ColumnName;columnPosition - editor column name and the column's ordering position

Important ordering rules

• The separators must appear in this order when combined: #, then %, then |.
• Use ; before the group position for tabs, cards, and columns.
• Do not use : after a tab, card, or column name. #General:1 creates the literal tab name General:1, which is wrong.

Valid examples

placement.json examples

Basic placement

{
  "TextField_Edit": [
    {
      "place": "Content:2"
    }
  ],
  "MyPart_Edit": [
    {
      "place": "Content:5"
    }
  ]
}

Cards inside the content editor

{
  "AIProfileGeneralFields_Edit": [
    {
      "place": "Content:1%General;1"
    }
  ],
  "AIProfileDeployment_Edit": [
    {
      "place": "Content:2%Deployments;1"
    }
  ],
  "AIProfileInteractionFields_Edit": [
    {
      "place": "Content:3%Interactions;2"
    }
  ]
}

Tabs and cards together

{
  "MyTools_Edit": [
    {
      "place": "Content:7#Capabilities;8%Tools;3"
    }
  ],
  "MyAgents_Edit": [
    {
      "place": "Content:5#Capabilities;8%Agents;2"
    }
  ]
}

Cards and columns together

{
  "LeftPanel_Edit": [
    {
      "place": "Content:1%Layout;1|Left;1"
    }
  ],
  "RightPanel_Edit": [
    {
      "place": "Content:1%Layout;1|Right;2"
    }
  ]
}

Content type and display type filters

{
  "MyPart": [
    {
      "contentType": ["BlogPost"],
      "displayType": "Detail",
      "place": "Content:5"
    },
    {
      "contentType": ["Article"],
      "displayType": "Summary",
      "place": "Meta:2"
    }
  ]
}

Differentiator, alternates, wrappers, and hide

{
  "TextField": [
    {
      "differentiator": "BlogPost-Subtitle",
      "place": "Content:2"
    }
  ],
  "MyShape": [
    {
      "alternates": ["MyShape__BlogPost"],
      "wrappers": ["MyShape_Wrapper"],
      "place": "Content:5"
    }
  ],
  "SecretShape": [
    {
      "place": "-"
    }
  ]
}

Display driver placement

You can use either the string form or the fluent builder form.

String form

return Initialize<MyViewModel>("MyShape_Edit", model =>
{
    model.Value = value;
})
.Location("Content:4%Interaction;1");

Fluent card placement

return Initialize<MyViewModel>("MyShape_Edit", model =>
{
    model.Value = value;
})
.Location(c => c.Zone("Content", "4").Card("Interaction", "1"));

Fluent tab, card, and column placement

return Initialize<MyViewModel>("MyShape_Edit", model =>
{
    model.Value = value;
})
.Location(c => c
    .Zone("Content", "4")
    .Tab("Capabilities", "8")
    .Card("Tools", "3")
    .Column("Right", "2"));

Fluent layout zone placement

return Initialize<MyViewModel>("MyShape", model =>
{
    model.Value = value;
})
.Location(c => c.Zone("Content", "5").AsLayoutZone());

Use .AsLayoutZone() when the placement should be treated as a layout zone rather than an editor grouping.

Custom placement provider

Use an IShapePlacementProvider when placement depends on runtime conditions.

using OrchardCore.DisplayManagement.Descriptors.ShapePlacementStrategy;

public sealed class MyPlacementProvider : IShapePlacementProvider
{
    public Task<IPlacementInfoResolver> BuildPlacementInfoResolverAsync(IBuildShapeContext context)
    {
        return Task.FromResult<IPlacementInfoResolver>(new Resolver());
    }

    private sealed class Resolver : IPlacementInfoResolver
    {
        public PlacementInfo ResolvePlacement(ShapePlacementContext placementContext)
        {
            if (placementContext.ShapeType == "MyShape")
            {
                return new PlacementInfo
                {
                    Location = "Content:5#General;1%Details;1",
                };
            }

            return null;
        }
    }
}

Registering the provider

using OrchardCore.DisplayManagement.Descriptors.ShapePlacementStrategy;

public sealed class Startup : StartupBase
{
    public override void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
    {
        services.AddScoped<IShapePlacementProvider, MyPlacementProvider>();
    }
}

Orchard Core editor grouping guidance

• Use tabs when you need top-level editor sections.
• Use cards when you need visually grouped fields inside a zone or tab.
• Use columns when a card needs multi-column layout.
• When placing display-driver editor shapes into cards, prefer keeping everything inside the Content zone unless Orchard specifically expects another zone.
• In CrestApps-style editors, a card-only placement such as Content:4%Interaction;1 is valid and preferred over inventing custom zones like Interaction:10.

Common zones

• Content
• Content:before
• Content:after
• Header
• Navigation
• Sidebar
• Meta
• Tags
• Actions
• Footer