My first content app
This tutorial guides you through the process of creating a content app in Magnolia. The app you create is called the Bookshelf app and you create it as a Magnolia light module from a custom content type definition.
Tutorial overview
The tutorial consists of three parts:
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Part I - My first content app – This page, which describes the Bookshelf app.
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Part II - Creating a basic content app – Shows how to create the basic Bookshelf app from a content type definition.
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Part III - Fine-tuning a basic content app – Provides instructions to turn the basic app into the final and ready-to-use Bookshelf app.
Going through the tutorial you learn:
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How to define content types and use them to quickly create a Content app.
A Content app is a specialized app type for managing structured content. The content app user interface consists of a browser subapp and one or more detail subapps. Content apps make it easy to enter items such as products or events. Many native Magnolia apps such as Tours and Contacts are content apps. Because this app style is used often, the framework provides convenience classes to make building a content app faster.
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The basics of configuring fields and setting field validators.
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How to override configuration properties.
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How to make the elements of the app’s UI ready for internationalization.
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If you want to skip the tutorial and install the final app immediately, clone the repository containing the ready-made Bookshelf app as a light module directly into your Magnolia light module folder with the command: |
Bookshelf app use case
The Bookshelf app you create in this tutorial is an example of a content app. It is a simple book catalog allowing the user to store basic bibliographic data about each book such as its title, the names of the author(s), the publisher’s name, or the ISBN-13 number. The app also allows you to group selected book items into folders called shelves in the app.
The subapps in the Bookshelf app
The Bookshelf app contains subapps:
Book properties
For each book item, the Bookshelf app can store and retrieve the following content properties:
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Short cataloging name (a required content property).
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Full book title.
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Author(s)' name(s).
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Whether the author(s) role is editorial or not.
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Book description.
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Publisher’s name.
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Book publication date.
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ISBN-13 number.
Bookshelf app and Magnolia content types
The Bookshelf app is based on Magnolia content types.
The books workspace
Magnolia stores content in the magnolia repository, a JCR repository that is divided into workspaces.
The Bookshelf app stores all books in a new workspace called books.
Custom lib:book node type
In the books workspace, each book is a custom lib:book node type defined specifically for this tutorial.
Continue with My first content app Part II