The Editors' Side

Atlas Training's staff are not developers. A course manager adds next season's dates, a writer posts news, and the owner checks it all. This chapter shapes the admin around those jobs, and makes sure each person can only change what is theirs.

Editor layouts that match the work

By default the page editor lists a template's fields in order. Arrange them so the form reads like the job: the course's facts in a sidebar, its teaching on a tab of its own, notes that say what a field is for:

lynx()->templates->update('course', [
    'tabs' => [['key' => 'teaching', 'label' => ['en' => 'Teaching', 'pt' => 'Ensino']]],
    'fields' => [
        ['name' => 'title', 'required' => true],
        ['name' => 'summary', 'required' => true, 'notes' => ['en' => 'One or two sentences. Shown on course cards and in search results.', 'pt' => 'Uma ou duas frases. Aparece nos cartões e nos resultados de pesquisa.']],
        'body',
        ['section' => 'facts', 'label' => ['en' => 'Facts', 'pt' => 'Dados'], 'column' => 'sidebar', 'fields' => [
            ['name' => 'level', 'required' => true], ['name' => 'hours', 'width' => 50], ['name' => 'price', 'width' => 50],
        ]],
        ['section' => 'media', 'label' => ['en' => 'Photos', 'pt' => 'Fotografias'], 'collapsed' => true, 'fields' => ['photos']],
        ['name' => 'curriculum', 'tab' => 'teaching'],
        ['name' => 'instructors', 'tab' => 'teaching'],
    ],
]);

lynx()->templates->update('session', ['fields' => [
    ['name' => 'title', 'required' => true, 'notes' => ['en' => 'The course and the date, such as "Yoga teacher training, 2 November 2026". Search engines show it as the event\'s name.', 'pt' => 'O curso e a data, por exemplo "Formação de professores de yoga, 2 de novembro de 2026". Os motores de pesquisa mostram-no como nome do evento.']],
    ['name' => 'starts', 'required' => true, 'icon' => 'calendar', 'width' => 50],
    ['name' => 'location', 'required' => true, 'icon' => 'map-pin', 'width' => 50],
    ['name' => 'seats', 'required' => true, 'column' => 'sidebar'],
    ['name' => 'price', 'column' => 'sidebar', 'notes' => ['en' => 'Leave empty to use the course price.', 'pt' => 'Deixe vazio para usar o preço do curso.']],
    ['name' => 'availability', 'column' => 'sidebar'],
]]);

The layout only changes the editor. Values, selectors and schema files stay the same, and staff can rearrange it later under Settings › Templates by dragging fields between tabs and columns. See Arranging the page editor.

Roles for the staff

lynx:install made a superuser role for the owner and an editor role that can work on every page. Atlas wants narrower ones: a course manager who runs the catalogue and nothing else, and a news writer:

$grant = fn (string $permission, string $branch, array $templates = []): array => array_filter([
    'permission' => $permission,
    'branches' => [lynx()->pages->get($branch)?->id],
    'templates' => $templates,
]);

// Runs the catalogue: courses and their sessions, nothing else
lynx()->run(SaveRole::class, ['name' => 'course-manager', 'label' => 'Course manager', 'grants' => [
    ['permission' => 'admin.access'],
    $grant('pages.view', '/courses/'),
    $grant('pages.edit', '/courses/'),
    $grant('pages.create', '/courses/', ['course', 'session']),
    $grant('pages.publish', '/courses/'),
    $grant('pages.status', '/courses/'),
]]);

// Writes the news, and may publish it
lynx()->run(SaveRole::class, ['name' => 'news-writer', 'label' => 'News writer', 'grants' => [
    ['permission' => 'admin.access'],
    $grant('pages.view', '/posts/'),
    $grant('pages.edit', '/posts/'),
    $grant('pages.create', '/posts/', ['post']),
    $grant('pages.publish', '/posts/'),
]]);

A grant can be limited to branches of the tree (a page and everything under it) and to templates. The course manager may create pages under /courses/, but only courses and sessions; editing the About page or writing news is refused, in the admin, through the API and for an AI agent acting for them alike. The admin's page tree shows each person only the pages they may work on.

Give staff their roles under Access › Users, where superusers also invite new staff by email. Roles are schema: lynx:schema:export writes them with the branches as paths, so they move between environments.

Drafts and previews

A news writer can prepare an update without changing the live page. In the editor that is Save as draft, in the menu beside Save; in code:

lynx()->pages->saveDraft('/posts/new-porto-studio/', ['summary' => ['en' => 'Classes start on Monday.']]);
lynx()->pages->publishDraft('/posts/new-porto-studio/');

Visitors keep seeing the published page. Signed-in staff open the draft at the page's own URL with ?preview=draft, in the real design, so they review what visitors will see. Your templates need nothing for it.

Publishing on a schedule

A post about the summer intensive can go live at nine on Monday while everyone is busy:

lynx()->pages->schedule('/posts/summer-intensive/', '*', publishAt: now()->next('Monday')->setTime(9, 0));

In the editor, the page's Settings tab has the same dates, per language. Laravel's scheduler runs lynx:schedule:run every minute, so the server needs the scheduler's cron entry.

Translation

Every text field has a tab per language. Pages fall back to English for anything not translated yet, and @field marks those values with lang="en", so a Portuguese page with an English paragraph is still correct HTML.

With lynxcms/ai installed, pages.translate fills a page's missing Portuguese values by machine and marks them for review; it never overwrites a human translation. See MCP Server and Agent.

What you get

• The client: an admin shaped like their work, staff who can't break what isn't theirs, drafts to review, and posts that publish themselves.
• You: permissions checked by Lynx's action runner for every way in (the admin, your code, MCP, the agent), written once as roles, and kept in Git with the schema.