Content type Model definition

A model definition, a subitem of the Magnolia Content type definition, defines the model of a content type.

The model describes the properties of a content item such as name, description, asset, birthday, and so on. In the default JCR-based implementation, the type of the properties can be String, Boolean, Decimal, Double, Long, Date, asset, richText, another content type or a submodel. The model can define a list of submodel definitions.

Model definition properties

When designing a model don't think about it in terms of UI elements like fields. Think in terms of what type of data the field stores. For example, a link field stores a String type (i.e. property) to the JCR. The property in the model definition can be decorated in the app definition with whatever UI element stores that data type.

Example configuration:

datasource:
  workspace: tourguides
  namespaces:
    mt: https://www.magnolia-travel.com/jcr/1.0/mt
  autoCreate: true

model:
  nodeType: mt:tourGuide
  properties:
    - name: birthday
      type: Date
    - name: gender
    - name: shortBio
    - name: contact
      type: contactData
  subModels:
    - name: contactData
      properties:
        - name: email
        - name: phoneNumber
        - name: addresses
          type: address
          multiple: true
    - name: address
      properties:
        - name: street
        - name: city
        - name: postalCode
        - name: country

Property definition properties

This section describes the PropertyDefinition item. Property definition items can be defined in the properties property, which is a property of the model definition of a content type definition.

'fallback':
  'mappings':
    'extends': 'override'
  'domains':
    'extends': 'override'
  'i18n':
    'class': 'info.magnolia.cms.i18n.DefaultI18nContentSupport'
    'enabled': true
    'fallbackLocale': 'en'
    'locales':
      'en':
        'country': ''
        'enabled': true
        'language': 'en'
      'de':
        'country': ''
        'enabled': true
        'language': 'de'

model:
  nodeType: lib:book
  properties:
    - name: category
      options:
        fiction:
          value: catFiction
          label: Fiction
        poetry: 
          value: catPoetry
          label: Poetry

Submodels

Use submodels to define complex content types. Submodels are useful whenever you need a group of fields more than once. A content type model definition can contain a list of submodel definitions within the subModels property. Submodels can be used only within the content type where they have been defined.

Interfaces and classes

Model

The base interface is ModelDefinition.

Magnolia provides the JcrDataSourceDefinition interface and the ConfiguredJcrModelDefinition implementation class to specify the model to be mapped to a JCR node.

For ModelDefinition, the ConfiguredJcrModelDefinition is set as the default implementation class via type mapping on the XML-based module descriptor of the magnolia-content-types module. 

Submodel

The submodel item is defined by the SubModelDefinition interface, which extends ModelDefinition. The default implementation is ConfiguredJcrSubModelDefinition.

Migrating CT-based definitions

In Magnolia 6.2.x, the !content-type directive generates a Magnolia 6 UI app. This means that any overriding or decoration of a content-type based app needs to be updated to match the 6 UI. As an alternative, you can use the new !content-type-m5 directive, which generates a 5 UI app.

!content-type-m5:tourGuide
name: tourGuides-app

In this case, the app will be interpreted as a 5 UI app and you don't have to update its descriptor to conform to the 6 UI definition.

 As of Magnolia 6.2.3, a ‘reference’ property for a 6 UI app can reference either a 6 UI or 5 UI style content-type.