Type aliases

The $type property allows developers to use easy-to-remember shortcuts for definition classes in YAML definitions instead of fully classified Java class names.

See in which definitions you can use type aliases.
See a list of all aliases for DatasourceType.

Overriding a type or class

If you inherit or decorate a definition, you might need to override the original type or class. You do not need to worry when overriding a type with another type or a class with another class. However, be careful when overriding a type with a class because there is no type for the class you want to use and vice versa.

/moduleA/dialogs/myDialog.yaml

properties:
  myField:
    $type: textField
  anotherField:
    class: info.magnolia.ui.field.ComboBoxFieldDefinition

Overriding the whole field

/moduleB/decorations/moduleA/dialogs/myDialog.properties.yaml

myField: !override #everything from the original definition is removed
  $type: myTextField
  #class: my.text.field #this would work as well

Overriding a type with a class (class takes precedence)

/moduleB/decorations/moduleA/dialogs/myDialog.properties.myField.yaml

class: my.text.field

Overriding a class with a class

/moduleB/decorations/moduleA/dialogs/myDialog.properties.anotherField.yaml

#$type: myComboBoxField #this would not work (class has always precedence)
class: my.comboBox.field

Introducing a type to a class

@FieldType("myTextField")
MyTextFieldDefinition extends TextFieldDefinition {}

/moduleB/decorations/moduleA/dialogs/myDialog.yaml

$type: myTextField

Custom aliases

Introducing type annotation to a custom type

import info.magnolia.config.resolver.TypeAlias;
import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;

@Target(ElementType.TYPE)
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@TypeAlias(type = MyDefinitionInterface.class)
public @interface MyDefinitionType {
    String value();
}

Annotating definition implementations

@MyDefinitionType("myDefinitionImplementation")
public class MyDefinitionImplementation implements MyDefinition {}

SomeDefinition.yaml

$type: myDefinitionImplementation