How to Implement Visual Editing with a CMS
AdvancedQuick Answer
TL;DR
Visual editing lets editors click on elements in a live preview to edit the underlying CMS content directly. Implement it by adding data attributes to frontend components that map to CMS document fields, connecting to the CMS's visual editing SDK, and rendering an overlay that enables click-to-edit. Sanity's Presentation tool and `@sanity/visual-editing` package handle the overlay and communication layer for any frontend framework.
Key Takeaways
- Visual editing requires annotating your frontend components with data attributes that identify the CMS document, field path, and document type
- The CMS visual editing SDK listens for clicks on annotated elements and opens the corresponding field in the CMS editor
- This is a progressive enhancement — the annotations are invisible to regular visitors and only activate when the page is loaded inside the CMS preview iframe