Content Types

Pages reference

Overview

A content-type is a template for generating new content. The content-type configuration file provides a system for generating content files with the necessary template data properties for a given layout.

Introduction

Websites are collections of web pages. Most websites have many different types of pages. Different types of pages will generally also have different layouts and URL paths (e.g. /posts/:slug vs /features/:slug). And not every page needs a title, description, or attachments (images, videos, audio, or files). Keeping track of these differences is where content types really shine.

Example

In the HyperTexting CMS, content types are like templates for generating specific types of pages. For example, if someone wanted to build a personal website using HyperTemplates, they could use content types to replicate the various types of pages they might otherwise use social media for:

• A video post needs a video attachment (e.g. @youtube.com or @tiktok.com videos)
• A photo/gallery post needs photo attachments (e.g. @instagram.com posts)
• A long-form blog post needs a title and description (e.g. @medium.com posts)
• An untitled post only needs content (e.g. tweets @bsky.app, @threads.com, or @x.com posts)

Here's an example content type for publishing blog posts:

 1---
 2metadata:
 3    name: Blog Post
 4    description: Long-form editorial content.
 5    icon: append.page
 6    action: Publish Blog Post
 7spec:
 8    layout: post.html
 9    format: markdown
10    path: /blog/
11    auto_slug: title-kabob
12    requires:
13        title: true
14        content: true
15    template:
16        content-type: page
17        foo: bar
18prompts:
19  - name: page
20    required: true
21    inputs:
22        title: {}
23        description: {}
24patches: [] # coming soon

This content type requires a title and some content. A new page created with this content type and the title "Hello World" would result in a new page data file created at content/blog/hello-world/index.md.

Properties

Content types are configured using four top-level properties:

• metadata
• spec
• prompts
• patches

Metadata

metadata.name

The content type name (required).

The value presented to users when selecting a content type in HyperTexting CMS applications.

Example

1metadata:
2    title: Quick Post

metadata.description

The content type description (required).

A short summary of the content type's intended purpose or characteristics.

Example

1metadata:
2    description: Like a tweet, but without the arbitrary character limit.

metadata.icon

The content type icon (optional).

Supported values are any SF Symbols icon name (string), or a single emoji character.

Default

1metadata:
2    icon: 👻

The 👻 emoji is highly recommended for content types that generate disappearing pages. 🤌🏽

Spec

spec.layout

The layout for pages generated using this content type (optional).

If contenttype.spec.layout is provided, it will be used to set the page.layout property of pages created using this content type.

Example

1spec:
2    layout: post.html

spec.format

The file format that should be used to create page index files.

The supported formats are:

• markdown: create index.md files (default)
• yaml or yml: create index.yaml files
• json: create index.json files

spec.path

The path prefix for pages created using this content type.

Example

1spec:
2    path: /blog/

spec.auto_slug

The path slug format for pages created using this content type.

Example

1spec:
2    auto_slug: title-kabob

The supported slug spec.auto_slug formats are:

• timestamp: the current time in milliseconds since epoch (see Date.now())
• title-kabob: the page.title in Kabob case
• title_camel: the page.title in Snake case
• manual: a slug should be provided by the user
• uuid: a UUIDv4 (e.g. 2ad660a0-1df1-42c3-bf56-bf97539837d8)
• none: no slug (uses spec.path as the page path)

In all cases except auto_slug: none, the computed slug is appended to the path.

What is a slug? 🐌

In the HyperTexting CMS, a page "slug" is the last path component of a page URL. To illustrate, consider the following example URL:

1https://apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash # the url
2                 /hotnews/thoughts-on-flash # the path
3                          thoughts-on-flash # the slug

In this example we're dissecting a URL. Line 1 shows the complete URL. Line 2 shows the URL path. Line 3 shows the URL slug – the portion of the URL after the last / slash.

spec.requires

Required page elements.

Example

1spec:
2    title: true
3    content: true
4    attachment: link
5    redirect: false

There are four configurable requirements available at this time:

• spec.requires.title (boolean): page.title must be provided
• spec.requires.content (boolean): page.content must be provided
• spec.requires.attachment (string): an attachment of this kind is required
• spec.requires.redirect (bool): page.redirect must be provided

spec.template

Default template data for new pages created with this content type.

Example

1spec:
2    template:
3        tags: [blog]
4        foo: bar

Use the spec.template property to provide default template data properties for pages created from this content type.

Prompts

🚧 Coming soon... 🚧

Patches

🚧 Coming soon... 🚧