Annotations UI

Submodule of Annotations. Provides the annotation editing UI for writing and managing annotation content entities across all opted-in annotation_target targets.

Requirements

annotations (core Annotations module)

Installation

ddev drush en annotations_ui
ddev drush cr

This module is optional. Sites where annotation content ships via default_content in a recipe can leave annotations_ui disabled, or enable it only when editing is needed.

What it does

Landing page — `/admin/content/annotations`

Lists all opted-in annotation_target entities grouped by entity type. Each target row has a dropbutton with three operations:

Add new annotations — shows missing annotation slots
Edit existing annotations — embeds the annotations_target view for that target
Delete annotations — bulk-delete all annotations for the target

Per-target collection page — `/admin/content/annotations/{target}`

Embeds the annotations_target view, listing all existing annotation entities for the target with Edit and Delete operation links per row.

Add-new page — `/admin/content/annotations/{target}/add`

Shows a table of annotation slots that are not yet filled. Each row is a field (or the target overview) with Add buttons for each missing annotation type. The first row is always Overview — the bundle-level slot covering the target as a whole. When all slots are filled, a link to the edit view is shown instead.

For fieldable targets, an optional collapsible "Target details" panel lists all annotatable fields with their scope status.

Annotation edit form — `/admin/content/annotations/value/{annotation}/edit`

Full entity form for a single annotation. When annotations_workflows is installed, the moderation control widget is injected automatically. Language tabs appear when content translation is enabled for annotations.

Fieldable annotation entities

annotation is a fully fieldable Drupal content entity. The standard annotation fields (target_id, field_name, type_id, value, uid, changed) are base fields, but site-builders can attach arbitrary field config to any annotation type bundle.

Revision history

Full revision history is available at /admin/content/annotations/value/{annotation}/revisions. Stock Drupal controllers handle revision view, revert, and delete.

When the diff module is present, a "Compare with previous" operation link is added to each row in the revision history table.

Multilingual / translation

annotation is always multilingual-ready — the four-table schema is created on install regardless of whether content_translation is installed.

To enable annotation translation on a multilingual site, go to /admin/config/regional/content-language and enable translations for Annotation. No extra module is required beyond content_translation.

Permissions

Permission	Notes
`edit any annotation`	Supersedes all per-type edit permissions.
`delete any annotation`	Supersedes all per-type delete permissions. Gates bulk-delete routes.
`access annotation collection`	Read access to `/admin/content/annotations`, the annotations list view, and the add-type picker. Grant to any role that can edit annotations.
`edit {type} annotations`	Per annotation type (e.g. `edit editorial annotations`). Covers write and create. Generated dynamically.
`delete {type} annotations`	Per annotation type (e.g. `delete editorial annotations`). Generated dynamically.
`consume {type} annotations`	Controls which annotation types appear in context output. Used by `ContextAssembler` in `annotations_context`.
`view annotation revisions`	View the revision history and individual revision pages. Does not grant revert or delete.

Dynamic permissions require a cache rebuild after new annotation types are created.

An annotation type can also be marked readonly — reserved for content a module ships and keeps in sync itself. On a readonly type, only administer annotations can create, edit, or delete; everyone else's edit/delete {type} annotations grant is overridden for that type specifically. Set only via shipped config, never from this UI.

Typical role setup

Role	Permissions
Drupal admin	`administer annotations` covers everything
Content editor	`access annotation collection` + `edit editorial annotations`
Developer	`access annotation collection` + `edit technical annotations`
Project manager	`access annotation collection` only (read-only listing)

See DEVELOPING.md for the overview slot storage sentinel, translation internals, revision route generation, and the content_moderation state cleanup workaround.