In Admin if category = x then don't show content tab

Question

I want to check the admin edit article for the category of the article. Much in the same way fields does.

And if the category is a certain one then don't show the content tab (as I will be using fields instead).

Then I can create custom templates, but it is less confusing for the user.

It needs to change if the category changes so it can't be on initial page load.

Answer 1

Override the administrator/components/com_content/views/article/edit.php in your admin template, and then, in the overridden file, create a condition to hide the following code if $this->item->catid = '8' (where 8 is the category ID that you want to hide the content table for):

<?php if ($this->item->catid != '8') {
<?php echo JHtml::_('bootstrap.startTabSet', 'myTab', array('active' => 'general')); ?>
echo JHtml::_('bootstrap.addTab', 'myTab', 'general', JText::_('COM_CONTENT_ARTICLE_CONTENT')); ?>
<div class="row-fluid">
    <div class="span9">
        <fieldset class="adminform">
            <?php echo $this->form->getInput('articletext'); ?>
        </fieldset>
    </div>
    <div class="span3">
        <?php echo JLayoutHelper::render('joomla.edit.global', $this); ?>
    </div>
</div>
<?php echo JHtml::_('bootstrap.endTab');
} else{
    <?php echo JHtml::_('bootstrap.startTabSet', 'myTab', array('active' => 'images')); ?>
}?>

If you only want to hide the editor (and the whole content tab), then just create the condition around the following code:

<fieldset class="adminform">
    <?php echo $this->form->getInput('articletext'); ?>
</fieldset>

Answer 2

You might be able to do this with a editor-xtd plugin. Instead of having it create/inject a button it'll inject the javascript that does what you're wanting.

Question: the category select field is part of the content tab so if you have the content tab be hidden (for certain categories) then the user will never be able to change that category from inside the article edit page after changing to one of those categories (or the Publish Status, Access level, etc for that matter). So are you wanting to hide the content tab, or just the editor?

update

Here is a proof of concept of a plugin-xtd that I believe does what you're wanting. You'd need to change the category IDs in in the $cats variable.

cm_hidecontent.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<extension version="3.6" type="plugin" group="editors-xtd" method="upgrade">
    <name>plg_editor-xtd_cm_hidecontent</name>
    <author>Drew G</author>
    <creationDate>Oct 2017</creationDate>
    <copyright>-</copyright>
    <authorEmail>-</authorEmail>
    <authorUrl>-</authorUrl>
    <version>3.6.0</version>
    <description>Proof of concept for hiding the content editor when certain categories are selected.</description>
    <files>
        <filename plugin="cm_hidecontent">cm_hidecontent.php</filename>
    </files>
</extension>

cm_hidecontent.php

<?php
defined('_JEXEC') or die;

/**
 * 
 */
class plgButtonCm_hidecontent extends JPlugin
{

    /**
     * Load the language file on instantiation.
     *
     * @var    boolean
     * @since  3.1
     */
    protected $autoloadLanguage = true;


    /**
     * Inject the needed javascript
     */
    function onDisplay($name, $asset, $author)
    {

        // List which category IDs you want the editor to hide from.
        // You can pull this data from a plugin parameter or leave it hardcoded
        $cats = json_encode(array(1536, 419));

        $js =
<<<EOF

jQuery(function($){

    jQuery('#jform_catid').change(function()
    {
        checkStatus();
    });

    var checkStatus = function()
    {
        // Need to cast the value to a number else Array.includes() will fail
        var val = Number(jQuery('#jform_catid').val());

        // You could hard code this array.
        var cats = {$cats};

        if(cats.includes(val))
        {
            jQuery('#myTabContent .adminform').css('visibility','hidden');
        }
        else
        {
            jQuery('#myTabContent .adminform').css('visibility','visible');
        }
    }

    // Initial pageload check
    checkStatus();

});

EOF;
        $doc = JFactory::getDocument();
        $doc->addScriptDeclaration($js);

    }
}