Custom Content Types

Pages, posts and archives cover a lot — but a portfolio, a job board or documentation deserve their own content type with its own fields, URLs and admin section. This article shows how to register one.

What a content type gives you#

Registering a type adds a navigation entry under Contents in the admin, a filtered list, the full editing form (fields, SEO, taxonomies, builder) and frontend rendering via your theme (themes.{theme}::{type}.show). The docs plugin's doc type — which renders this very page — is the reference implementation.

Registering a type#

In a service provider's register() method (your app's AppServiceProvider or a plugin provider):

use Laravix\Cms\Support\ContentTypeDefinition;
use Laravix\Cms\Support\ContentTypeRegistry;

ContentTypeRegistry::register(
    ContentTypeDefinition::make('project')
        ->label('Project')
        ->pluralLabel('Projects')
        ->linkableInNavigation()
        ->taxonomyTypes(['category']),
);

The definition methods:

Warning: A routePrefix comes with homework: the built-in catch-all only 301-redirects /{slug} to /projects/{slug} — serving the prefixed URL is up to routes you register through RouteRegistry (exactly what the docs plugin does for /docs/...). If you don't want to write controllers, leave the prefix off and the built-in rendering serves the type at /{slug}.

Adding fields to the type#

Register code-defined fields for the type — they appear in the content form automatically:

use Laravix\Cms\Enums\FieldType;
use Laravix\Cms\Support\FieldDefinition;
use Laravix\Cms\Support\FieldRegistry;

FieldRegistry::contentType('project', [
    FieldDefinition::make('client')->label('Client'),
    FieldDefinition::make('year')->type(FieldType::NUMBER)->label('Year'),
    FieldDefinition::make('cover')->type(FieldType::IMAGE)->label('Cover image'),
]);

Field values live in the content_fields table and are available in templates via $content->fields. Full field-type reference: Custom Fields.

Rendering the type#

Create themes/{yourtheme}/views/project/show.blade.php. It receives all the standard view data (see Templates and View Data); without it, the theme's default.blade.php renders the type generically.

Custom taxonomy types#

If the type deserves its own vocabulary — like the docs plugin's doc-category — register a taxonomy type and reference it:

use Laravix\Cms\Support\TaxonomyTypeRegistry;

TaxonomyTypeRegistry::register('project-category', 'Project category');

Editors can then create taxonomies of this type in the admin and assign them to projects.

A complete real-world example#

The docs plugin registers everything discussed here in ~30 lines — content type with routePrefix('docs') and taxonomyTypes(['doc-category']), a markdown body field, a taxonomy type and custom routes. Read packages/laravix/docs-plugin/src/DocsServiceProvider.php in the monorepo as a template.

Related articles#

• Custom Fields
• Plugin Development
• Templates and View Data