Gentics CMS Documentation

Chapters

1. Basic concept

   • Handling references

2. Packages

3. Sub Packages

4. Directory layout

   • README.md

   • gentics_package.json

   • Sub packages

   • Datasources

   • Tagtypes (aka constructs)

   • Object properties

   • Templates

   • ContentRepository Fragments

   • ContentRepositories

   • Static files

   • Internal static files

   • Handlebars Helpers

   • Handlebars Partials

   • Restrictions

5. Multichannelling

6. Page Live Preview

7. Further topics

1 Basic concept

The Devtools allow changing the objects that make up an implementation in the filesystem, instead of the CMS UI. This allows developers and implementors to use their favourite editor.

Devtools will handle the following object types:

• Datasources
• Tagtypes
• Tagtype Categories
• Object properties
• Templates
• CR Fragments
• ContentRepositories
• Static files (like JavaScript, CSS, images, …)
• Internal static files (used only be the CMS, but not in the frontend)
• Handlebars helpers (as JavaScript files)
• Handlebars partials

The datasources, tagtypes, object properties and templates are still managed by the CMS and can be created, updated, deleted and used as always. Additionally, with the Devtools it is possible to synchronize selected objects into the filesystem of the CMS, where the objects can be edited and the changes then be synchronized back into the CMS.

The use of static files in the implementation is a new concept. Those files are not managed by the CMS anymore, they are completely separated from pages, images and files in the CMS (which make up the content). The static files are also not handled by the publish process.

1.1 Handling references

References to objects for example in tagtype defaut values are synchronized via the objects global ID. If the target object is not available on the system where the devtools package is synchronized into, the reference will be corrected as soon as the target object is created (e.g. when doing a content package synchronization after synchronizing the devtools packages).

2 Packages

Objects and static files are organized in packages. Objects are only written to the filesystem if they are part of a package. Every package is a directory in the filesystem that contains the file representations of all objects in that package.

Packages can be created by creating the package root directory in the filesystem, or using the CMS UI or using the REST API.

Deleting the package root directory in the filesystem removes the package. When the package is deleted using the CMS UI or REST API, the package root directory (and everything within) will be deleted. Deleting a package does not affect the contained objects in the CMS.

3 Sub Packages

Packages may contain sub packages. Sub packages have basically the same structure as packages, but have some restrictions:

• It is not possible to add/remove sub packages to/from a package via the CMS UI or REST API.
• It is not possible to add/remove objects to/from sub packages via the CMS UI or REST API.
• CMS objects in sub packages will be merged to the objects of the package when reading the list of objects from the package. Sub packages cannot be accessed individually using the CMS UI or the REST API.
• The CMS treats sub packages as readonly. That means files in sub packages will never be modified from the CMS. The only exception is that when a package is deleted via the CMS UI or REST API, also the sub packages will be deleted in the filesystem.
• Static files in sub packages cannot be accessed directly. If sub packages contain static files (JavaScript, CSS, …) some kind of build mechanism must be used to transfer the files into the main package, so that they become available in the CMS and later in the frontend.
• Sub packages may not contain sub packages themselves.

The basic idea of sub packages is to add common functionality to a project by adding sub packages as dependencies with the help of a package manager, like npm.

4 Directory layout

The root directory of the packages is /cms/packages/ in the server’s filesystem. The root directory will contain a directory for every package:

/cms/packages/[package]/

All objects of a specific type will be synchronized into a common subdirectory of the package root, each in its own directory. For every object, there will always be the file gentics_structure.json containing meta information. Some types will have additional files and directories.

4.1 README.md

In the package root directory, there may be a file README.md containing a package description in Markdown Syntax.

4.2 gentics_package.json

In the package root directory, there may be a file gentics_package.json containing package configuration as JSON.

Example gentics_package.json:

{
  "subpackages": "node_modules"
}

4.3 Sub packages

If the attribute subpackages is set in the file gentics_package.json, the sub packages are located in a sub directory of the package’s directory.

/cms/packages/[package]/gentics_package.json
/cms/packages/[package]/[subpackages]/[subpackage]/

4.4 Datasources

Example gentics_structure.json:

{
  "globalId" : "3D6C.d7ad6e65-e795-11e6-97da-0242ac120002",
  "type" : "statical",
  "name" : "Sample Images",
  "values" : [ {
    "globalId" : "3D6C.d7adb177-e795-11e6-97da-0242ac120002",
    "key" : "Chrysanthemum",
    "value" : "Chrysanthemum.jpg"
  }, ... ]
}

4.5 Tagtypes (aka constructs)

The additional files for the part will have names like part.[partkeyword].[extension] where the extension depends on the part type:

Text based parts will either have .html (e.g. for HTML, HTML (long), …) or .txt (e.g. for Text, Text (short), …). All other parts (e.g. URL (page), Overview, …) will have .json.

The part types Select (single), Select (multiple), Datasource, HTML (custom form) and Text (custom form) will have a second file part.[partkeyword].template.html containing the part template.

The part type Overview will have a second file part.[partkeyword].ds.json containing the overview settings.

Example part.[partkeyword].ds.json:

{
  "restrictedObjectTypes" : [ "page", "file", "folder", "image" ],
  "restrictedSelectionTypes" : [ "folder", "single", "parent" ],
  "hideSortOption" : true,
  "stickyChannel" : true
}

Example directory structure:

/cms/packages/[package]/constructs/sampleimage/gentics_structure.json
/cms/packages/[package]/constructs/sampleimage/part.template.html
...

4.5.1 Tagtype Categories

Tagtype categories are represented within the contstructs.

If a construct is assigned to a category, the gentics_structure.json of this construct will contain the definiton of the category. When syncing a devtool package from the filesystem into the CMS the sum of all categories found in all constructs will be available in the CMS.

Example gentics_structure.json:

{
  "globalId" : "3D6C.7f81d6e9-e796-11e6-97da-0242ac120002",
  "keyword" : "sampleimage",
  "icon" : "bild.gif",
  "name" : {
    "de" : "Beispiel Bild",
    "en" : "Sample Image"
  },
  "description" : {
    "de" : "",
    "en" : ""
  },
  "mayBeSubtag" : true,
  "mayContainsSubtags" : false,
  "autoEnable" : true,
  "parts" : [ {
    "globalId" : "3D6C.8cdbeacc-e796-11e6-97da-0242ac120002",
    "name" : {
      "de" : "Template",
      "en" : "Template"
    },
    "keyword" : "template",
    "editable" : false,
    "typeId" : 21,
    "order" : 1,
    "mlId" : 0,
    "visible" : false,
    "required" : false,
    "inlineEditable" : false
  }, ... ],
  "category" : {
    "globalId" : "3D6C.8cdac3be-e796-11e6-97da-0242ac120002",
    "name" : {
      "de" : "Beispiel Kategorie",
      "en" : "Sample Category"
    },
    "sortOrder" : 0
  }
}

4.6 Object properties

Example gentics_structure.json:

{
  "globalId" : "A547.70067",
  "type" : "folder",
  "keyword" : "object.name_de",
  "name" : {
    "de" : "Name Deutsch",
    "en" : "German name"
  },
  "description" : {
    "de" : "Deutscher Name des Ordners in der Navigation",
    "en" : "German name of navigation entry"
  },
  "constructId" : "A547.69478",
  "required" : false,
  "inheritable" : false,
  "nodeIds" : [ "3fc1.5cfe8f3e-669b-11ee-b345-0242ac190002" ]
}

4.7 Templates

The extension of the file source.[extension] depends on the type of the template. E.g. .html for HTML templates, .css for CSS, etc.

The subdirectories templatetags and objecttags will contain a directory for each tag (named like the keyword), which will contain files for every part that can be filled (named analogously like the part files in constructs).

Example directory structure:

/cms/packages/[package]/templates/Sample Template/gentics_structure.json
/cms/packages/[package]/templates/Sample Template/source.html
/cms/packages/[package]/templates/Sample Template/templatetags/content/part.text.html
/cms/packages/[package]/templates/Sample Template/objecttags/object.blog/part.flag.json

Example gentics_structure.json:

{
  "globalId" : "3D6C.dca59922-e796-11e6-97da-0242ac120002",
  "name" : "Sample Template",
  "type" : "HTML",
  "templateTags" : [ {
    "globalId" : "3D6C.07727566-e797-11e6-97da-0242ac120002",
    "name" : "content",
    "active" : true,
    "constructId" : "A547.75403",
    "editableInPage" : true,
    "mandatory" : false
  } ],
  "objectTags" : [ {
    "globalId" : "3D6C.a2ba43c0-d80d-11e6-8b5d-ea5d8efab9e8",
    "name" : "object.blog",
    "active" : false,
    "constructId" : "A547.58458"
  } ]
}

4.8 ContentRepository Fragments

Example gentics_structure.json:

{
  "globalId" : "3D6C.0271345a-4a1d-11e8-bc76-00155df038a5",
  "name" : "Sample CR Fragment",
  "entries" : [ {
    "globalId" : "3D6C.12477304-4ecc-11e8-bc76-00155df038a5",
    "tagname" : "page.tags.teaser",
    "mapname" : "teaser",
    "objType" : 10007,
    "attributeType" : 1,
    "multivalue" : false,
    "optimized" : false,
    "filesystem" : false,
    "targetType" : 0,
    "displayfield" : false,
    "segmentfield" : false,
    "urlfield" : false,
    "noindex" : false,
    "elasticsearch" : {
      "basicsearch" : {
        "type" : "text",
        "analyzer" : "basicsearch",
        "search_analyzer" : "basicsearch_search"
      },
      "suggest" : {
        "type" : "text",
        "analyzer" : "suggest"
      },
      "suggestreverse" : {
        "type" : "text",
        "analyzer" : "suggestreverse"
      },
      "auto" : {
        "type" : "text",
        "analyzer" : "autocomplete"
      }
    }
  } ]
}

4.9 ContentRepositories

Example gentics_structure.json:

{
  "globalId" : "3D6C.ac8163a4-4fba-11e9-a103-00155df0382b",
  "name" : "Mesh CR",
  "crType" : "mesh",
  "instantPublishing" : true,
  "permissionProperty" : "object.roles",
  "elasticsearch" : {
    "page" : null,
    "folder" : null,
    "file" : null
  },
  "projectPerNode" : true,
  "version" : "2.0",
  "entries" : [ {
    "globalId" : "3D6C.ac845f3f-4fba-11e9-a103-00155df0382b",
    "tagname" : "folder.id",
    "mapname" : "cms_id",
    "object" : 10002,
    "attributeType" : 3,
    "targetType" : 0,
    "multivalue" : false,
    "optimized" : false,
    "reserved" : true,
    "filesystem" : false,
    "segmentfield" : false,
    "displayfield" : false,
    "urlfield" : false,
    "noindex" : false
  }
}

Note: Some attributes are excepted from synchronization. See Exceptions from synchronization for details.

4.10 Static files

Every file located in the directory /cms/packages/[package]/files/ can be adressed as static file in the implementation. The URL must be constructed like /static/[package]/files/....

Example: the image

/cms/packages/[package]/files/images/desert.jpg

can be used in the source of a template like

<html>
<body>
<img src="/static/[package]/files/images/desert.jpg"/>
</body>
</html>

The CMS will automatically serve the static files from the packages under those URLs. The static files must be made available to the frontend also (this is not done by the CMS).

4.11 Internal static files

Every file located in the directory /cms/packages/[package]/files-internal/ can be adressed as internal static file in the CMS. The URL must be constructed like /internal/[package]/files/....

The CMS will automatically serve the internal static files from the packages under those URLs.

4.12 Handlebars Helpers

Every .js file located in the directory /cms/packages/[package]/handlebars/helpers/ is interpreted as a handlebars helper. See Handlebars Custom Helpers for details.

4.13 Handlebars Partials

Every .hbs file located in the directory /cms/packages/[package]/handlebars/helpers/ is interpreted as a handlebars partial. See Handlebars Partials for details.

4.14 Restrictions

• Depending on the underlying filesystem, some characters are restricted from being used in directory or file names. Therefore, the names and keywords of objects must not contain /, \, ;, ,, :. Otherwise adding objects to packages might fail.
• Template names are not unique, but directory names in the filesystem are. Therefore it is not possible to add multiple Templates with the same name to the same package.
• Keywords of tagparts need not be unique by themselves but since they define the filename of a synchronized part, all tagpart keywords in a tagtype must be unique or the synchronization into the filesystem will fail.

5 Multichannelling

Regarding multichannelling, there are some restrictions:

• It is not possible to add localized copies of templates to packages (without adding their master template).
• When a template is added to a package, all its localized copies will also be written to the filesystem.
• When a template is synchronized from a package back into the CMS, its localized copies will also be synchronized, if the CMS contains the channels, the localized copies are bound to. Identification of the channels is based on their global IDs.

The localized copies of templates will be synchronized into subdirectories of the template’s directory:

/cms/packages/[package]/templates/Sample Template/channels/[Channel Name]/gentics_structure.json
...

6 Page Live Preview

The Live Preview of a page will now reload itself automatically, when a dependency of the page is modified.

7 Further topics

• Configuration
• Synchronization details
• Devtools REST API
• Devtools UI