My first content app Part III

Fine-tuning a basic content app

This is the third and final part of the My first content app tutorial.

As you have seen in the previous part, a content type allows you to define the actual content model. Even though Magnolia then creates an editing interface automatically, you can still customize every aspect of that interface even further to meet the requirements of the project. This third page describes exactly that.

Fine-tune the app descriptor

First, modify the app descriptor to:

  • Add an app icon.

  • Tailor the properties.

Open the app descriptor file, located in the bookshelf light module apps folder, edit it as follows and save it:

bookshelf-app.yaml (app descriptor)
!content-type:book
name: bookshelf-app
icon: icon-content-app (1)
subApps:
  detail:
    form:
      properties:
        ed: (2)
           $type: checkBoxField
        title: (3)
          rows: 2
        description: (4)
          rows: 5 (5)
          maxLength: 5000
        publish_date: (6)
           $type: dateField
        isbn13: (7)
          maxLength: 13
          validators:
            - name: isbn13
              $type: regexpValidator
              pattern: '97(8|9)[0-9]{9}(\d|X)'
1 You assign the Bookshelf app a new icon called icon-content-app, which symbolizes a bookshelf.
The icon-content-app is one of the icons we provide as part of the UI framework and you can see them all here: https://dev.magnolia-cms.com/svg-app-icons-gallery/.
2 Change the ed property.
You change the field type of this property from the default text to the checkbox field type.
3 Set the height of the field for the title property. You set the rows field property of the title content type property to 2.
Some book titles are longer and in most cases a two-row text field allows the user to read the whole title compared to just a one-row field.
4 Define the height and maximum length of the field for the description property.
5 Set the number of rows for the description property to 5.
6 Change the publish_date property. Set the field type to date to help the user find a book publication date with a pull-down calendar.
7 Length setting and a validator related to the isbn13 property.

You set the maxLength property to 13 characters to provide the user with a digit counter for entering the ISBN-13 number. You then add a regex-based field validator for the name: isbn13 field. This validation makes sure that the number entered complies with the basic syntax of ISBN-13 numbers.

Adding an i18n message bundle

Now add and polish the i18n labels and descriptions for the elements of the app’s UI.

Since you’ve assigned a new name (bookDetailsTab) to the default tab in the detail subapp, you have to create new labels even for the message keys that supply label values from the magnolia-ui-framework module.

In the i18n subfolder, open the bookshelf-messages_en.properties file and save it with the following content:

# App label
bookshelf-app=Bookshelf

# Book browser subapp labels.
bookshelf-app.browser.label=Book Browser
bookshelf-app.browser.actionbar.sections.root.label=Actions
bookshelf-app.browser.actionbar.sections.item.label=Actions
bookshelf-app.browser.actionbar.sections.folder.label=Actions
bookshelf-app.browser.actionbar.sections.deletedItem.label=Actions
bookshelf-app.browser.actionbar.sections.deletedFolder.label=Actions
bookshelf-app.browser.actions.addItem.label=Add book
bookshelf-app.browser.actions.confirmMarkDeletion.label=Delete book
bookshelf-app.browser.actions.editItem.label=Edit book data
bookshelf-app.browser.actions.rename.label=Rename book
bookshelf-app.browser.actions.addFolder.label=Add shelf
bookshelf-app.browser.actions.confirmDeleteFolder.label=Delete shelf
bookshelf-app.browser.actions.editFolder.label=Rename shelf
bookshelf-app.browser.actions.moveFolder=Move shelf
bookshelf-app.browser.actions.confirmDeleteFolder.confirmationHeader=Delete {0,choice,1#this shelf|1< these {1} shelves}?
bookshelf-app.browser.actions.confirmDeleteFolder.confirmationMessage={0,choice,1# This shelf|1< These {1} shelves} and all {1,choice,1#its|1< their} sub-items will be marked for deletion.
bookshelf-app.browser.views.treeview.name.label=Shelf name or book cataloging name
bookshelf-app.browser.views.listview.name.label=Cataloging name
bookshelf-app.browser.views.listview.path.label=Bookshelf location

# Book detail subapp labels and descriptions.
bookshelf-app.detail.label=Book Details
bookshelf-app.name.label=Cataloging name
bookshelf-app.name.description=This field is required. Its value is used to create a hyphenated book cataloging name which is visible in the BOOK BROWSER subapp and under which the book is stored in the <i>books</i> workspace.
bookshelf-app.authors.label=Author(s)
bookshelf-app.ed.label=Author(s) in editorial role
bookshelf-app.ed.buttonLabel=
bookshelf-app.ed.description=Check off the box if the primary role of the "Author(s)" is editorial.
bookshelf-app.title.label=Full title
bookshelf-app.description.label=Description
bookshelf-app.publisher.label=Publisher
bookshelf-app.publish_date.label=Publication date
bookshelf-app.publish_date.description=If you know just the year of publication, enter the date as YYYY-01-01.
bookshelf-app.isbn13.label=ISBN-13
bookshelf-app.isbn13.description=If an ISBN-13 is available for the book, enter it without hyphens or spaces.
bookshelf-app.isbn13.validation.errorMessage=The ISBN-13 number has 13 characters. The first 12 characters can only be numerals, the last character can be either a numeral or "X". The number has to begin with either 978 or 979.
bookshelf-app.detail.actions.cancel=Cancel
bookshelf-app.detail.actions.commit=Save Book Data

To apply the new labels and descriptions, reload the Bookshelf app.

Congratulations! The Bookshelf is now ready for use.

You can tweak the app’s configuration further to expand its capabilities.

If you would like to see some book data in the app, you may either add it yourself or download it as a sample file called books.My-Good-Reads.xml from the _sampleContent folder in the bookshelf repository. For downloading, open the sample data in the browser, then copy and paste it to a local file. Import the file to the Bookshelf app using the Import action in the Book browser subapp.
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