Create Flexible Layouts with Nested Blocks in Payload CMS

Learn to build full-stack apps with Payload — https://nlvcodes.com/courses/payload-essentials Resources and links – Repo: https://nlvcodes.com/tutorials/create-flexible-layouts-with-nested-blocks-in-payload-cms Find me on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/nlv_codes Want to stay up to date with recent web dev news? Subscribe to my newsletter: https://news.nlvcodes.com/subscribe Support the channel: https://patreon.com/NLVCodes In this video, I build a nested block system in Payload CMS that empowers developers and content editors to create flexible, reusable, and responsive layouts, all without bloating the codebase with single-use components. This approach is similar to WordPress' Gutenberg editor (not in appearance), allowing for sections, rows, and columns containing different types of nested content blocks like text, images, and videos. Topics covered: - Custom Fields (useField, useAllFormFields, getSiblingData) - Field Validation - Tailwind Variants to use CMS-generated classes What you’ll learn: - Block Architecture - Building layout blocks: Section, Row, and Column - Creating reusable content blocks: Text, Image, and Video - How to structure blocks within blocks using Payload’s blocks field - Validation & Custom Fields - Implementing a custom column width validation field that ensures columns always add up to 100% - Showing real-time feedback and errors in the admin panel with custom components - Frontend Rendering with TailwindCSS - Responsive column widths using Tailwind - Options for background colors on sections - Giving editors intuitive control over layout while preventing broken pages - Restricting design choices to maintain branding Creating dynamic page layouts often requires tradeoffs between flexibility and maintainability. This approach gives content editors the freedom to structure pages visually and ensures design integrity through constraints like opinionated width validation and defined color options. Chapters: 00:00 - Introducing Nested Blocks in Payload CMS 00:59 - Potential Downsides of Using Nested Blocks 01:15 - What I’m Building 01:58 - Creating the needed folders and files 02:57 - Setting up the block configs 10:35 - Thank you for your support 10:55 - Creating up a custom field 20:26 - Wrapping up block configs 24:45 - Creating the front end 34:17 - Clearing errors 35:07 - Testing everything out 37:45 - Closing thoughts and next steps #payloadcms #webdevelopment #nextjs #coding