NodeType Definition Reference

THe manual to understand NodeType definitions can be found in the Neos Docs (https://docs.neos.io/cms/manual/content-repository/nodetype-definition).

The following options are allowed for defining a NodeType:

abstract

A boolean flag, marking a node type as abstract. Abstract node types can never be used standalone, they will never be offered for insertion to the user in the UI, for example.

Abstract node types are useful when using inheritance and composition, so mark base node types and mixins as abstract.

aggregate

A boolean flag, marking a node type as aggregate. If a node type is marked as aggregate, it means that:

  • the node type can “live on its own”, i.e. can be part of an external URL

  • when moving this node, all node variants are also moved (across all dimensions)

  • Recursive copying only happens inside this aggregate, and stops at nested aggregates.

The most prominent aggregate is Neos.Neos:Document and everything which inherits from it, like Neos.NodeTypes:Page.

superTypes

An array of parent node types as keys with a boolean value:

'Neos.Neos:Document':
  superTypes:
    'Acme.Demo.ExtraMixin': true

'Neos.Neos:Shortcut':
  superTypes:
    'Acme.Demo.ExtraMixin': false
constraints

Constraint definitions stating which nested child node types are allowed. Also see the dedicated chapter NodeType Constraints for detailed explanation:

constraints:
  nodeTypes:
    # ALLOW text, DISALLOW Image
    'Neos.NodeTypes:Text': true
    'Neos.NodeTypes:Image': false
    # DISALLOW as Fallback (for not-explicitly-listed node types)
    '*': false
childNodes

A list of child nodes that are automatically created if a node of this type is created. For each child the type has to be given. Additionally, for each of these child nodes, the constraints can be specified to override the “global” constraints per type. Here is an example:

childNodes:
  someChild:
    type: 'Neos.Neos:ContentCollection'
    constraints:
      nodeTypes:
        # only allow images in this ContentCollection
        'Neos.NodeTypes:Image': true
        '*': false

By using position, it is possible to define the order in which child nodes appear in the structure tree. An example may look like:

'Neos.NodeTypes:Page':
  childNodes:
    'someChild':
      type: 'Neos.Neos:ContentCollection'
      position: 'before main'

This adds a new ContentCollection called someChild to the default page. It will be positioned before the main ContentCollection that the default page has. The position setting follows the same sorting logic used in Fusion (see the Fusion Reference).

label

When displaying a node inside the Neos UI (e.g. tree view, link editor, workspace module) the label option will be used to generate a human readable text for a specific node instance (in contrast to the ui.label which is used for all nodes of that type).

The label option accepts an Eel expression that has access to the current node using the node context variable. It is recommended to customize the label option for node types that do not yield a sufficient description using the default configuration.

Example:

'Neos.Demo:Flickr':
  label: ${'Flickr plugin (' + q(node).property('tags') + ')'}
generatorClass

Alternatively the class of a node label generator implementing Neos\ContentRepository\Domain\Model\NodeLabelGeneratorInterface can be specified as a nested option.

options

Options for third party-code, the Content-Repository ignores those options but Neos or Packages may use this to adjust their behavior.

fusion

Options to control the behavior of fusion-for a specific nodeType.

prototypeGenerator

The class that is used to generate the default fusion-prototype for this nodeType.

If this option is set to a className the class has to implement the interface \Neos\Neos\Domain\Service\DefaultPrototypeGeneratorInterface and is used to generate the prototype-code for this node.

If options.fusion.prototypeGenerator is set to null no prototype is created for this type.

By default Neos has generators for all nodes of type Neos.Neos:Node and creates protoypes based on Neos.Fusion:Template. A template path is assumed based on the package-prefix and the nodetype-name. All properties of the node are passed to the template. For the nodeTypes of type Neos.Neos:Document, Neos.Neos:Content and Neos.Neos:Plugin the corresponding prototype is used as base-prototype.

Example:

prototype(Vendor.Site:Content.SpecialNodeType) < prototype(Neos.Fusion:Content) {
  templatePath = 'resource://Vendor.Site/Private/Templates/NodeTypes/Content.SpecialNodeType.html'
  # all properties of the nodeType are passed to the template
  date = ${q(node).property('date')}
  # inline-editable strings additionally get the convertUris processor
  title = ${q(node).property('title')}
  title.@process.convertUris = Neos.Neos:ConvertUris
}
ui

Configuration options related to the user interface representation of the node type

label

The human-readable label of the node type

group

Name of the group this content element is grouped into for the ‘New Content Element’ dialog. It can only be created through the user interface if group is defined and it is valid.

All valid groups are given in the Neos.Neos.nodeTypes.groups setting

position

Position inside the group this content element is grouped into for the ‘New Content Element’ dialog. Small numbers are sorted on top.

icon

This setting defines the icon that the Neos UI will use to display the node type. The icon can contain a custom SVG icon as a resource URI or a Fontawesome icon.

Resource icon: For custom SVG icons a resource URI to the file needs to be configured. e.g. ‘resource://Neos.Demo/Images/logo.svg’

Fontawesome icon: All free Fontawesome 5 icons can be used: https://fontawesome.com/icons?d=gallery&m=free

Those can be referenced via “icon-[name]”, as the UI includes a fallback to the “fas” prefix-classes. To be sure which icon will be used, they can also be referenced by their icon-classes, e.g. “fas fa-check”.

previewIcon This setting defines the icon that will be used in the tile view of the NodeType selection dialog. It is an additional icon that can be used to have more detailed icons for the node type. So that the users get a better idea of what the node type is for.

Preview icons are by default bit bigger. We scale them to the doubled size. It is also possible to adjust the scaling by the previewIconSize setting. It can be a Fontawesome icon name or an SVG Asset Resource URL like the icon.

previewIconSize The previewIconSize setting defines the size of the previewIcon. By default, the previewIcon has the size “2x”.

The following options are available: - ‘xs’ - ‘sm’ - ‘lg’ - ‘2x’ - ‘3x’

help

Configuration of contextual help. Displays a message that is rendered as popover when the user clicks the help icon in an insert node dialog.

message

Help text for the node type. It supports markdown to format the help text and can be translated (see NodeType Translations).

thumbnail

This is shown in the popover and can be supplied in two ways:

  • as an absolute URL to an image (http://static/acme.com/thumbnails/bar.png)

  • as a resource URI (resource://AcmeCom.Website/NodeTypes/Thumbnails/foo.png)

If the thumbnail setting is undefined but an image matching the nodetype name

is found, it will be used automatically. It will be looked for in <packageKey>/Resources/Public/NodeTypes/Thumbnails/<nodeTypeName>.png with packageKey and nodeTypeName being extracted from the full nodetype name like this:

AcmeCom.Website:FooWithBar -> AcmeCom.Website and FooWithBar

The image will be downscaled to a width of 342 pixels, so it should either be that size to be placed above any further help text (if supplied) or be half that size for the help text to flow around it.

inlineEditable

If true, it is possible to interact with this Node directly in the content view. If false, an overlay is shown preventing any interaction with the node. If not given, checks if any property is marked as ui.inlineEditable.

inspector

These settings configure the inspector in the Neos UI for the node type

tabs

Defines an inspector tab that can be used to group property groups of the node type

label

The human-readable label for this inspector tab

position

Position of the inspector tab, small numbers are sorted on top

icon

This setting define the icon to use in the Neos UI for the tab

Currently it’s only possible to use a predefined selection of icons, which are available in Font Awesome http://fortawesome.github.io/Font-Awesome/3.2.1/icons/.

groups

Defines an inspector group that can be used to group properties of the node type

label

The human-readable label for this inspector group

position

Position of the inspector group, small numbers are sorted on top

icon

This setting define the icon to use in the Neos UI for the group

tab

The tab the group belongs to. If left empty the group is added to the default tab.

collapsed

If the group should be collapsed by default (true or false). If left empty, the group will be expanded.

views

Defines views that can be used to display read-only data alongside property editors inside the inspector

label

The human-readable label for this view

group

Identifier of the inspector group this view is categorized into in the content editing user interface. If none is given, the view is not visibile in the property inspector of the user interface.

The value here must reference a group configured in the ui.inspector.groups element of the node type this view belongs to.

position

Position inside the inspector group, small numbers are sorted on top.

view

Name of the JavaScript View Class which is instantiated to edit this element in the inspector.

viewOptions

A set of options for the given view, see the Inspector Views Reference.

creationDialog

Creation dialog elements configuration. See Node Creation Dialog Configuration for more details.

properties

A list of named properties for this node type. For each property the following settings are available.

Note

Your own property names should never start with an underscore _ as that is used for internal properties or as an internal prefix.

type

Data type of this property. This may be a simple type (like in PHP), a fully qualified PHP class name, or one of these three special types: DateTime, references, or reference. Use DateTime to store dates / time as a DateTime object. Use reference and references to store references that point to other nodes. reference only accepts a single node or node identifier, while references accepts an array of nodes or node identifiers.

defaultValue

Default value of this property. Used at node creation time. Type must match specified ‘type’.

ui

Configuration options related to the user interface representation of the property

label

The human-readable label of the property

help

Configuration of contextual help. Displays a message that is rendered as popover when the user clicks the help icon in the inspector.

message

Help text for this property. It supports markdown to format the help text and can be translated (see NodeType Translations).

reloadIfChanged

If true, the whole content element needs to be re-rendered on the server side if the value changes. This only works for properties which are displayed inside the property inspector, i.e. for properties which have a group set.

reloadPageIfChanged

If true, the whole page needs to be re-rendered on the server side if the value changes. This only works for properties which are displayed inside the property inspector, i.e. for properties which have a group set.

inlineEditable

If true, this property is inline editable, i.e. edited directly on the page.

inline

editor

The default inline editor is the CKEditor5.

editorOptions

This section controls the text formatting options the user has available for this property.

placeholder

A text that is shown when the field is empty. Supports i18n.

autoparagraph

When configured to false, automatic creation of paragraphs is disabled for this property and <enter> key would create soft line breaks instead (equivalent to configuring an editable on a span tag).

linking

A way to configure additional options available for a link, e.g. target or rel attributes.

formatting

Various formatting options (see example below for all available options).

Example:

inline:
  editorOptions:
    placeholder: i18n
    autoparagraph: true
    linking:
      anchor: true
      title: true
      relNofollow: true
      targetBlank: true
    formatting:
      strong: true
      em: true
      sub: true
      sup: true
      p: true
      h1: true
      h2: true
      h3: true
      h4: true
      h5: true
      h6: true
      pre: true
      underline: true
      strikethrough: true
      removeFormat: true
      left: true
      right: true
      center: true
      justify: true
      table: true
      ol: true
      ul: true
      a: true
inspector

These settings configure the inspector in the Neos UI for the property.

group

Identifier of the inspector group this property is categorized into in the content editing user interface. If none is given, the property is not editable through the property inspector of the user interface.

The value here must reference a groups configured in the ui.inspector.groups element of the node type this property belongs to.

position

Position inside the inspector group, small numbers are sorted on top.

editor

Name of the JavaScript Editor Class which is instantiated to edit this element in the inspector.

editorOptions

A set of options for the given editor, see the Property Editor Reference.

editorListeners (removed since Neos 3.3)

This feature has been removed in favor of Depending Properties with Neos 3.3

showInCreationDialog (since Neos 5.1)

If true the corresponding property will appear in the Node Creation Dialog. Editor configuration will be copied from the respective ui.inspector settings in that case and can be overridden with the creationDialog.elements.<propertyName>, see Node Creation Dialog Configuration

validation

A list of validators to use on the property. Below each validator type any options for the validator can be given. See below for more information.

Tip

Unset a property by setting the property configuration to null (~).

Here is one of the standard Neos node types (slightly shortened):

'Neos.NodeTypes:Image':
  superTypes:
    'Neos.Neos:Content': true
  ui:
    label: 'Image'
    icon: 'icon-picture'
    inspector:
      groups:
        image:
          label: 'Image'
          icon: 'icon-image'
          position: 5
  properties:
    image:
      type: Neos\Media\Domain\Model\ImageInterface
      ui:
        label: 'Image'
        reloadIfChanged: true
        inspector:
          group: 'image'
    alignment:
      type: string
      defaultValue: ''
      ui:
        label: 'Alignment'
        reloadIfChanged: true
        inspector:
          group: 'image'
          editor: 'Neos.Neos/Inspector/Editors/SelectBoxEditor'
          editorOptions:
            placeholder: 'Default'
            values:
              '':
                label: ''
              center:
                label: 'Center'
              left:
                label: 'Left'
              right:
                label: 'Right'
    alternativeText:
      type: string
      ui:
        label: 'Alternative text'
        reloadIfChanged: true
        inspector:
          group: 'image'
      validation:
        'Neos.Neos/Validation/StringLengthValidator':
          minimum: 1
          maximum: 255
    hasCaption:
      type: boolean
      ui:
        label: 'Enable caption'
        reloadIfChanged: true
        inspector:
          group: 'image'
    caption:
      type: string
      defaultValue: '<p>Enter caption here</p>'
      ui:
        inlineEditable: true