feat: remove legacy Django unit editor by salman2013 · Pull Request #38985 · openedx/openedx-platform

salman2013 · 2026-08-13T12:57:58Z

Summary

Removes the LEGACY_STUDIO_UNIT_EDITOR waffle flag and all code paths behind it — the MFE-based unit editor (frontend-app-authoring) is now always active
Removes use_new_unit_page() from toggles.py — it had no remaining callers after container_handler was simplified
Simplifies container_handler to always redirect to the MFE unit editor
Simplifies get_unit_url() in utils.py — removed the use_new_unit_page() conditional, always builds the MFE URL
Hardcodes use_new_unit_page: true in the waffle flags serializer — the legacy toggle is gone but the API key is kept for now (see Future cleanup below)
Deletes container.html — the legacy full-page Django-template unit editor
Cleans up related legacy tests and JS specs

Future cleanup

Remove get_use_new_unit_page and the use_new_unit_page field from the waffle flags serializer along with the other hard-coded fields, tracked in Remove API Endpoints related to switching experiences #37497

References:

#35261 (DEPR)

Test plan

Visit a unit page in Studio — confirm redirect to MFE unit editor
Confirm xblock components load correctly inside the MFE unit page (via container_embed_handler iframes)
Confirm editing an xblock component opens the edit modal correctly (via xblock_edit_view)
Confirm adding/removing components on the unit page works

Testing Results

Browser Testing Verification Results

Method: Playwright (Chromium) against a running Tutor devstack, logged in as edx / Studio course course-v1:courseorg+cs104+2025_T7.

Passed

Login — authenticated successfully via LMS login form (shared SSO session also works when hitting Studio's /login directly, which redirects through /oauth2/authorize → LMS login → back to the MFE).
Unit page redirects to MFE unit editor — visiting /container/ in Studio correctly redirects to apps.local.openedx.io/.../authoring/course/.../container/..., confirming the simplified container_handler.
XBlock components load inside the MFE unit page — verified via the kept container_embed_handler iframe; Word Cloud and Survey/Poll blocks rendered correctly inside it.
Editing an XBlock opens the edit modal — clicking Edit loads /xblock/<usage_key>/action/edit in a new iframe and the modal renders, confirming xblock_edit_view works as intended.
Removing a component works end-to-end — full round trip verified: iframe → postMessage('deleteXBlock') → MFE confirmation dialog ("Delete this component?") → MFE calls the delete API → postMessage('completeXBlockDeleting') back to the iframe → component removed from the DOM (verified wrapper count dropped from 2 → 1).

Failed / Pre-existing (not caused by this PR)

"Add a new component" buttons unresponsive (Text, Library Content, Open Response, Advanced) — confirmed pre-existing via git diff master...HEAD showing zero changes to the relevant MFE-side code; already tracked separately.
xblockElement is empty or not defined console warning in edit_xblock.js — confirmed pre-existing (no diff from master in that file); belongs to an unrelated upstream-link feature.
Django Debug Toolbar overlay intercepting clicks — local devstack DEBUG artifact, not application code; required removing the #djDebug element in test scripts to interact with the page.

Local setup testing

Right now, the sandbox is not working, so these are the local machine testing results. I made sure the MFE unit page is working as expected in all scenarios after removing legacy code.

openedx-webhooks · 2026-08-13T12:58:05Z

Thanks for the pull request, @salman2013!

This repository is currently maintained by @openedx/wg-maintenance-openedx-platform-oncall.

Once you've gone through the following steps feel free to tag them in a comment and let them know that your changes are ready for engineering review.

🔘 Get product approval

If you haven't already, check this list to see if your contribution needs to go through the product review process.

If it does, you'll need to submit a product proposal for your contribution, and have it reviewed by the Product Working Group.
- This process (including the steps you'll need to take) is documented here.
If it doesn't, simply proceed with the next step.

🔘 Provide context

To help your reviewers and other members of the community understand the purpose and larger context of your changes, feel free to add as much of the following information to the PR description as you can:

Dependencies

This PR must be merged before / after / at the same time as ...
Blockers

This PR is waiting for OEP-1234 to be accepted.
Timeline information

This PR must be merged by XX date because ...
Partner information

This is for a course on edx.org.
Supporting documentation
Relevant Open edX discussion forum threads

🔘 Get a green build

If one or more checks are failing, continue working on your changes until this is no longer the case and your build turns green.

Details

Where can I find more information?

If you'd like to get more details on all aspects of the review process for open source pull requests (OSPRs), check out the following resources:

When can I expect my changes to be merged?

Our goal is to get community contributions seen and reviewed as efficiently as possible.

However, the amount of time that it takes to review and merge a PR can vary significantly based on factors such as:

The size and impact of the changes that it introduces
The need for product review
Maintenance status of the parent repository

💡 As a result it may take up to several weeks or months to complete a review and merge your PR.

The legacy unit editor (controlled by LEGACY_STUDIO_UNIT_EDITOR waffle flag) has been fully removed. The MFE-based unit editor (frontend-app- authoring) is now the only editor and is always active. Removed: - LEGACY_STUDIO_UNIT_EDITOR CourseWaffleFlag - container_handler legacy Django-rendered path (now always redirects to MFE) - xblock_edit_view and xblock_edit_handler URL (/xblock/<key>/action/edit) - container.html and container_editor.html templates - unit_outline_spec.js and related legacy tests Kept (still used by MFE): - container_embed_handler and /container_embed/<key> URL - container_chromeless.html template (rendered for MFE iframes) - use_new_unit_page serializer field (hardcoded True; MFE still reads it) Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

- Remove unused imports in block.py (xframe_options_exempt, render_to_response, _get_item_in_course) - Remove unused libraries_v1_enabled import in component.py - Remove unused ADVANCED_COMPONENT_TYPES import in test_contentstore.py - Remove unused BeautifulSoup import in test_block.py - Fix trailing newlines in test_block.py and test_container_page.py - Remove deleted unit_outline_spec.js from Karma spec list in main.js Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

The test_container_html was testing legacy Django-rendered HTML content (breadcrumbs, section tags from the deleted container.html template). Removed it since the legacy editor is gone and the split_test container URL (/container/<key>) was legacy-only — the MFE does not use it. Also reverts the get_parent_xblock fallback added to container_handler as it was adding new functionality rather than just removing legacy code. Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

…y-unit-editor

salman2013 · 2026-08-21T14:13:51Z

@@ -158,10 +158,14 @@ def get_use_new_course_outline_page(self, obj):

    def get_use_new_unit_page(self, obj):


use_new_unit_page is kept in the serializer response for now as a field returning True. Once the MFE confirms it no longer reads this key from the waffle flags API, the field and its method can be removed in a follow-up PR.

…toggles - Restore xblock_edit_view, container_editor.html, and the xblock_edit_handler URL — the Authoring MFE still calls /xblock/<id>/action/edit to load the xblock edit modal in an iframe (getLegacyEditModalUrl in xblock-container-iframe) - Remove use_new_unit_page() from toggles.py — it had no remaining callers after container_handler was simplified to always redirect to the MFE Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

irfanuddinahmad · 2026-09-17T03:58:15Z

-        self.assertIn(expected_section_tag, html)  # noqa: PT009
-        self.assertRegex(html, re.compile(expected_breadcrumbs, re.DOTALL))  # noqa: PT009
-
    def test_public_container_preview_html(self):


Question: container_handler used to fall through to rendering container.html for xblocks-with-children that aren't unit/library-content/split-test-child (what test_container_on_container_html, deleted). Now it raises Http404 unconditionally for that case.

xblock_studio_url() still generates /container/<key> links for such xblocks and surfaces them as studio_url via the REST API, so this path looks reachable in principle (e.g. a nested container xblock other than a unit/library_content/split_test child).

Is this confirmed dead in the current MFE flow? If so, a small test asserting the 404 (replacing the deleted one) would guard against an accidental regression later.

irfanuddinahmad · 2026-09-17T04:06:55Z

-            ADVANCED_COMPONENT_TYPES,
-            ['Word cloud', 'Annotation', 'split_test'],
-        )



Nit: two consecutive blank lines left here after the deleted methods above — worth squashing to one.

irfanuddinahmad · 2026-09-17T04:06:57Z

-    def test_edit_unit(self):
-        """Verifies rendering the editor in all the verticals in the given test course"""
-        self._check_verticals([self.vert_loc])



Nit: same as above — two consecutive blank lines left after the deleted methods here too.

kdmccormick · 2026-10-15T13:18:52Z

Hey @salman2013 and @irfanuddinahmad , are you still working on this?

feanil

@kdmccormick I think the are ready for it to be more thoroughly reviewed. I looked through some of it and llm review found the follow reasonable issues but I still want to go through it from an approach perspective to make sure it makes sense.

feanil · 2026-10-08T13:07:00Z

-    """
-    return not LEGACY_STUDIO_UNIT_EDITOR.is_enabled(course_key)
-



Suggested change

feanil · 2026-10-08T13:30:17Z

+
+    raise Http404


On master a /container/<key> request for a block with children that isn't a unit, library content or a split test child renders the legacy container page. Now it is a 404, but Studio still hands out those URLs: the "Used in" links on the group configurations page point at /container/<split_test> (course_group_config.py), and the clipboard source_edit_url and the library component usage links point at /container/<parent> when the parent is a nested container. The MFE renders a container page for any block with children since openedx/frontend-app-authoring#3058, so redirect those blocks there too.

With this change on a scratch course, /container/ gives 302 for the unit, a split_test and a wrapper block and 404 for a problem. The current head gives 302/404/404/404 and master gives 302/200/200/200.

Suggested change

raise Http404

if xblock_has_own_studio_page(xblock):

return redirect(get_unit_url(course.id, xblock.location))

raise Http404

xblock_has_own_studio_page is in helpers.py next to the imports at the top of this file. Then add a test for the split test case here since test_container_on_container_html went away.

feanil · 2026-10-08T13:30:19Z

+        Always returns True. The legacy unit editor has been removed.
+        This method will be removed in a follow-up cleanup.
+
+        See https://github.com/openedx/edx-platform/issues/36275


frontend-app-authoring has never read this key (nothing in its history matches use_new_unit_page), so there is nothing to wait on from the MFE. Point this at the ticket that tracks dropping the hard-coded fields, like get_use_new_home_page above does.

Suggested change

Always returns True. The legacy unit editor has been removed.

This method will be removed in a follow-up cleanup.

See https://github.com/openedx/edx-platform/issues/36275

Always returns True. The legacy unit editor has been removed and the

Authoring MFE never read this key; it goes when the other hard-coded

fields in this serializer are dropped.

See https://github.com/openedx/openedx-platform/issues/37497

feanil · 2026-10-08T13:30:20Z

-    @override_waffle_flag(toggles.LEGACY_STUDIO_UNIT_EDITOR, True)
-    def test_edit_unit(self):
-        """Verifies rendering the editor in all the verticals in the given test course"""
-        self._check_verticals([self.vert_loc])


This was the only caller of _check_verticals (line 985 in this file), so delete that too. Its 200 assertion is wrong now that the handler redirects. Not a blocker but while you're here, check_verticals in tests/utils.py has no callers either.

feanil · 2026-10-08T13:30:22Z

        'js/spec/views/assets_spec',
        'js/spec/views/baseview_spec',
        'js/spec/views/paged_container_spec',
-        'js/spec/views/unit_outline_spec',


You removed the spec for js/views/unit_outline but the view is still shipped, along with unit_outline_child.js and unit-outline.underscore, and container.js still mounts it on .wrapper-unit-overview, an element only container.html had. Delete the view and its pieces here too, otherwise keep the spec so the view stays covered until they go.

feanil

Found a couple more issues while doing a more thorough review. The approach and level of cleanup looks good, looks like some more JS code was missed which can be cleaned up and we need to add some tests back but I think this is pretty close to landing after the comments are addressed.

feanil · 2026-10-16T13:32:19Z

        self.store.publish(self.released_public_vertical.location, self.user.id)
        self.store.publish(self.vertical.location, self.user.id)

-    def test_container_html(self):


These were the only tests rendering a full container page and container_embed_handler, which is what the MFE loads, has no test at all. Point get_page_html in tests/utils.py at container_embed_handler instead of deleting these, it has no other callers after this PR. Keep the section tag assertion for the unit, the split test and the nested wrapper and drop the breadcrumbs one since the chromeless page doesn't render them. I tried that on this branch and all three cases pass.

feanil · 2026-10-16T13:32:19Z

-            return render_to_response('container.html', container_handler_context)
-    else:
-        return HttpResponseBadRequest("Only supports HTML requests")
+            course, xblock, lms_link, preview_lms_link = _get_item_in_course(request, usage_key)


nit: the LMS links aren't used anymore.

Suggested change

course, xblock, lms_link, preview_lms_link = _get_item_in_course(request, usage_key)

course, xblock, _, _ = _get_item_in_course(request, usage_key)

feanil · 2026-10-16T13:32:19Z

-# .. toggle_target_removal_date: 2025-09-14
-# .. toggle_tickets: https://github.com/openedx/edx-platform/issues/36275
-# .. toggle_warning: In Ulmo, this toggle will be removed. Only the new (React-based) experience will be available.
-LEGACY_STUDIO_UNIT_EDITOR = CourseWaffleFlag('legacy_studio.unit_editor', __name__)


Link #35261 from the description and add a line to the operator notes for the release this lands in, since legacy_studio.unit_editor stops being read here.

@feanil Could you please elaborate on this comment a bit more? I’m not sure I fully understand what you mean.

Sure. #35261 is the DEPR ticket for the legacy unit editor, add it to the References list in the description so the ticket and the PR that closes it point at each other. Then add a line to the Willow operator notes page, https://openedx.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/COMM/pages/6476169217/Willow+-+Operator+Dev+Notes, saying the legacy_studio.unit_editor waffle flag is removed and can be deleted from any site that still has it set.

While you're in the description, the "until the MFE confirms it no longer reads this key" lines are out of date, the MFE never read it.

I could not edit the release wiki
https://openedx.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/COMM/pages/6476169217/Willow+-+Operator+Dev+Notes

i requested the rights with my email "salman.nawaz@arbisoft.com"

@salman2013 For next time, the wiki isn't restricted, any logged-in confluence account can edit that page, so there's nothing for me to grant. I've added the Willow note for this one myself so it doesn't hold the PR up.

- container_handler: redirect any xblock with its own Studio page (via xblock_has_own_studio_page) instead of only units/library-content/ split-test-children, fixing a 404 for nested containers (e.g. split_test) that Studio still links to directly - drop unused lms_link/preview_lms_link locals in container_handler - repoint get_page_html at container_embed_handler (what the MFE actually loads) instead of container_handler, which now only redirects - restore container page test coverage for a unit, a split_test, and a nested wrapper container via container_embed_handler - add a split_test redirect test case to container_handler's redirect test - remove dead test helpers _check_verticals/check_verticals (their only caller was already removed) - remove a stray blank line left in toggles.py - update get_use_new_unit_page docstring to reflect that the Authoring MFE never read this waffle flag key - delete the dead unit_outline JS view, its child view, and template: their only mount point (.wrapper-unit-overview) existed solely in the already- removed legacy container.html Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

salman2013 · 2026-10-21T07:09:27Z

@feanil I’ve addressed the review comments. I also added some testing verification results in the description under "Browser Testing Verification Results"

CONTAINER_TEMPLATES is rendered into every container_embed_handler, xblock_edit_view, and library page via get_container_handler_context. It still listed "unit-outline" after the underlying unit-outline.underscore template file was deleted, breaking those pages with TemplateDoesNotExist: js/unit-outline.underscore. Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

feanil · 2026-10-23T16:24:53Z


-from cms.djangoapps.contentstore.helpers import get_parent_if_split_test, is_library_content, is_unit
-from cms.djangoapps.contentstore.toggles import libraries_v2_enabled, use_new_unit_page
+from cms.djangoapps.contentstore.helpers import xblock_has_own_studio_page


Suggested change

from cms.djangoapps.contentstore.helpers import xblock_has_own_studio_page

from cms.djangoapps.contentstore.helpers import get_parent_if_split_test, xblock_has_own_studio_page

feanil · 2026-10-23T16:24:59Z

-# .. toggle_target_removal_date: 2025-09-14
-# .. toggle_tickets: https://github.com/openedx/edx-platform/issues/36275
-# .. toggle_warning: In Ulmo, this toggle will be removed. Only the new (React-based) experience will be available.
-LEGACY_STUDIO_UNIT_EDITOR = CourseWaffleFlag('legacy_studio.unit_editor', __name__)


Sure. #35261 is the DEPR ticket for the legacy unit editor, add it to the References list in the description so the ticket and the PR that closes it point at each other. Then add a line to the Willow operator notes page, https://openedx.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/COMM/pages/6476169217/Willow+-+Operator+Dev+Notes, saying the legacy_studio.unit_editor waffle flag is removed and can be deleted from any site that still has it set.

While you're in the description, the "until the MFE confirms it no longer reads this key" lines are out of date, the MFE never read it.

Restore the get_parent_if_split_test fallback in container_handler so /container/<group vertical> redirects to the parent split test's MFE page instead of returning a 404. Studio still links to these URLs from the deprecated-blocks list and the import error page. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

feanil · 2026-11-12T20:20:49Z

-# .. toggle_target_removal_date: 2025-09-14
-# .. toggle_tickets: https://github.com/openedx/edx-platform/issues/36275
-# .. toggle_warning: In Ulmo, this toggle will be removed. Only the new (React-based) experience will be available.
-LEGACY_STUDIO_UNIT_EDITOR = CourseWaffleFlag('legacy_studio.unit_editor', __name__)


@salman2013 For next time, the wiki isn't restricted, any logged-in confluence account can edit that page, so there's nothing for me to grant. I've added the Willow note for this one myself so it doesn't hold the PR up.

openedx-webhooks added open-source-contribution PR author is not from Axim or 2U core contributor PR author is a Core Contributor (who may or may not have write access to this repo). labels Aug 13, 2026

openedx-webhooks added this to Contributions Aug 13, 2026

github-project-automation Bot moved this to Needs Triage in Contributions Aug 13, 2026

salman2013 force-pushed the salman/remove-legacy-unit-editor branch from 717835e to 2d87434 Compare August 13, 2026 13:00

salman2013 added the create-sandbox open-craft-grove should create a sandbox environment from this PR label Aug 13, 2026

salman2013 and others added 2 commits August 17, 2026 15:50

salman2013 closed this Aug 18, 2026

salman2013 reopened this Aug 18, 2026

github-project-automation Bot moved this from Needs Triage to Done in Contributions Aug 18, 2026

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/master' into salman/remove-legac…

966629f

…y-unit-editor

Agrendalath added create-sandbox open-craft-grove should create a sandbox environment from this PR and removed create-sandbox open-craft-grove should create a sandbox environment from this PR labels Aug 19, 2026

irfanuddinahmad mentioned this pull request Aug 20, 2026

tutor-contrib-s3 pins tutor<22, breaks mfe/forum/drydock plugin enable open-craft/pr-sandbox-automation#26

Closed

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/master' into salman/remove-legac…

d354714

…y-unit-editor

salman2013 commented Aug 21, 2026

View reviewed changes

salman2013 marked this pull request as ready for review August 24, 2026 10:41

salman2013 requested a review from kdmccormick August 25, 2026 10:07

irfanuddinahmad reviewed Sep 17, 2026

View reviewed changes

salman2013 requested a review from feanil October 8, 2026 12:49

feanil reviewed Oct 15, 2026

View reviewed changes

feanil reviewed Oct 16, 2026

View reviewed changes

salman2013 requested a review from feanil October 21, 2026 07:09

feanil reviewed Oct 23, 2026

View reviewed changes

salman2013 requested a review from feanil October 28, 2026 11:08

kdmccormick and others added 2 commits November 12, 2026 11:29

Merge branch 'master' into salman/remove-legacy-unit-editor

2f56e78

fixup! feat: remove legacy Django unit editor

e15fe95

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

feanil approved these changes Nov 12, 2026

View reviewed changes

feanil enabled auto-merge (squash) November 12, 2026 20:25

feanil merged commit 32e2f7d into master Nov 12, 2026
46 of 47 checks passed

feanil deleted the salman/remove-legacy-unit-editor branch November 12, 2026 21:20

		@@ -158,10 +158,14 @@ def get_use_new_course_outline_page(self, obj):

		def get_use_new_unit_page(self, obj):

		"""
		return not LEGACY_STUDIO_UNIT_EDITOR.is_enabled(course_key)

-        Always returns True. The legacy unit editor has been removed.
-        This method will be removed in a follow-up cleanup.
-        See https://github.com/openedx/edx-platform/issues/36275
+        Always returns True.  The legacy unit editor has been removed and the
+        Authoring MFE never read this key; it goes when the other hard-coded
+        fields in this serializer are dropped.
+        See https://github.com/openedx/openedx-platform/issues/37497

	course, xblock, lms_link, preview_lms_link = _get_item_in_course(request, usage_key)
	course, xblock, _, _ = _get_item_in_course(request, usage_key)

	from cms.djangoapps.contentstore.helpers import xblock_has_own_studio_page
	from cms.djangoapps.contentstore.helpers import get_parent_if_split_test, xblock_has_own_studio_page

Conversation

salman2013 commented Aug 13, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Summary

Future cleanup

References:

Test plan

Testing Results

Browser Testing Verification Results

Local setup testing

Uh oh!

openedx-webhooks commented Aug 13, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

irfanuddinahmad Sep 17, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

kdmccormick commented Oct 15, 2026

Uh oh!

feanil left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

feanil left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

salman2013 commented Oct 21, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

salman2013 commented Aug 13, 2026 •

edited

Loading

openedx-webhooks commented Aug 13, 2026 •

edited

Loading

irfanuddinahmad Sep 17, 2026 •

edited

Loading

salman2013 commented Oct 21, 2026 •

edited

Loading