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ContentSelector form item

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Creates references to other content. Enables filtering on what content types and paths can be selected.

Appearance

ContentSelector is a specialized version of the combobx, but the dropdown list is populated with content items instead of static options. Here are some examples of what it looks like in Content Studio:

An input box with a dropdown listing content items below it
Figure 1. Standard list mode with content items listed in a dropdown below the input field.
Drill in tree structure
Figure 2. Tree mode with content items in a tree structure.
Two items selected
Figure 3. Two items have been selected.

Usage

- type: "ContentSelector"
  name: "my_content_selector"
  label: "My ContentSelector"
  occurrences:
    min: 0
    max: 0
  allowContentType:  (1)
    - "citation"
    - "my.other.app:quote"
  allowPath:  (2)
    - "${site}/people/"
    - "./*"
    - "/quotes*"
  treeMode: true  (3)
  hideToggleIcon: true  (4)
1 allowContentType is used to limit the content types that may be selected using the Allow content type pattern
2 allowPath is used to limit the path of the content that may be selected using the allowPath Samples. By default, Content Selector only displays content from the same site.
3 treeMode toggles between tree and flat modes. Default value is false (flat mode).
Input box with a dropdown with a tree structure
4 hideToggleIcon hides the toggle icon when set to false.
Input box without an icon

Allow content type pattern

XP uses one of two modes when matching content type patterns:

LEGACY

simulates the pattern-matching behaviour that was the default before XP 7.7.0.

MATCH

the current default mode, with notable changes from LEGACY.

The mode is configured on the XP server — see the Enonic XP docs for details. Both modes are explained below.

Legacy

If the pattern value can be found in any part of the content type name, then it is considered a match. The pattern will be prefixed by the current application name unless:

  • the pattern uses the <application-name:content-name> format

  • the pattern includes one of : or *

  • the pattern starts with ${app}.

Match

The pattern will be treated as a Regular Expression (with a few notable exceptions) and the whole content type name must match it to be accepted. The pattern will be prefixed by the current application name if it does not contain any of the following characters: \^$.|?*+()[{:.

XP patterns: special cases

XP’s patterns have a few cases where they differ from normal Regular Expression syntax:

${app} template expression

Most content type names start with the name of the application where they are stored. It may be quite messy and hard to maintain the whole application name in every pattern, so the ${app} template expression can be used to replace it.

The '*' character

In most regex engines, the * character means "0 or more of the preceding token". However, XP treats it differently and interprets it as "0 or more of any character(s) except for line breaks". In that way, it’s similar to glob patterns.

To further clarify, in XP:

  • *day would match "monday", "day", and "mayday". This pattern would be invalid in most regex engines.

  • p*age would match "page" and "package", but not "age".

  • monk* would match "monkey" and "monk", but not "mon".

Example 1. Samples

Content type "citation" within your current application 

allowContentType:
  - "citation"

Content type "quote" from the application "my.other.app" 

allowContentType:
  - "my.other.app:quote"

Content types "quote" from any application 

allowContentType:
  - "*:quote"

Any content types from current application 

allowContentType:
  - "${app}:*"

All content types starting with banana (using regular expressions) 

allowContentType:
  - "*:banana*"

All content types except 'base:folder' 

allowContentType:
  - "^(?!base:folder$)*"

allowPath Samples

Allow all content starting from the root 

allowPath:
  - "*"

Only content from the current site (but from any location), e.g
* /mySite/fish.jpg
* /mySite/articles/new-blog-post
* /mySite/someFolder/anotherFolder/rubarb/lettuce 

allowPath:
  - "${site}/*"

All children of <site>/people, e.g
* /mySite/people/myContent
* /mySite/people/myGroup/anotherContent 

allowPath:
  - "${site}/people/*"

All content in mySite starting with people, including children, e.g
* /mySite/peoples
* /mySite/people/myContent
* /mySite/peoples/myContent
* /mySite/people/myGroup/anotherContent 

allowPath:
  - "/mySite/people*"

All children of the current content 

allowPath:
  - "./*"

All children of the current content’s parent 

allowPath:
  - "../*"

Output

Value type: Reference — not included in _alltext

The stored value is the content ID of the referenced item. When multiple selections are allowed, the value is an array.

Single reference
{
  "my_content_selector": "f3076b5c-ea45-4c8b-8c06-1f87b8d8cdd9"
}
Multiple references
{
  "my_content_selector": [
    "f3076b5c-ea45-4c8b-8c06-1f87b8d8cdd9",
    "a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890"
  ]
}

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