Creating and editing objects #

Creating an object #

Objects are created in Content structure (and Media). Browse the tree to the place where the new object should live, choose the class in Create here (the list holds only the classes your role may create there), and press the button. The edit screen opens with the class's attributes, the required ones marked. From this moment there is a draft with an object ID and a node ID; nothing is public until you Publish.

The step-by-step version for editors is in Editing content and Publishing and versions. The reference is The content model and editing content.

Locations #

The edit screen shows where the object is placed:

• The main location is the placement whose position gives the object its address and its default section. One location is always main.
• Move changes the main location: browse the tree and choose the new parent.
• The remove icon deletes one or more of the extra locations of this object.
• Add locations opens a browse view where you choose more places for the same object.

The main use of an extra location is an extra link to the object: an article lives in the archive tree and also appears on the front page branch. When the full view of an object is asked for at that place, the object is shown, with its own full view.

Two things from the book to remember:

• Children are not inherited. If an object with children gets another location, the children do not appear there. A template that must show them looks up the main node and fetches its children (see fetch for builders).
• The section of a new location is the one of its parent; the object keeps the section of its main location.

Information collectors #

Some attributes can be marked as information collectors in the class. An object of such a class is then shown as a form: the data a visitor sends is stored (or mailed to a set address) instead of changing the object. Use it for small surveys, contact forms and polls. For anything the visitor should publish, create a normal object in a place the role allows instead. The collected data is in the administration, see Collected information and Seeing form submissions.

Next: versions, translations and related content.

Source and license #

Adapted from chapter 2, "Content Management with eZ publish", of Learning eZ publish: Building Content Management Solutions by Paul Borgermans, Tony Wood, Paul Forsyth, Martin Bauer, Björn Dieding and Ben Pirt (additional material by Bruce Morrison), second edition, 2024, Book-Learning-eZPublish. Copyright (c) 2004-2024 7x and Graham Brookins. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License, version 1.3 or any later version, with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts and no Back-Cover Texts (the license). Changes: rearranged and shortened; settings, labels, datatypes, tags and URLs checked against Exponential 6 and corrected; links to the current guides added.