You can’t be a master just from the theory. What does content modeling look like in Kontent.ai? Let’s model a 5-minute modeling example together, followed by a video walkthrough through the modeling parts of Kontent.ai. Get the image of how content modeling works in Kontent.ai.
Jumping back to the coffee example, every barista goes through some training. They learn how to set up and use the espresso machine, how to froth milk, or how to dose coffee. Later they can apply that knowledge and modify steps to prepare different beverages.They do it because knowing your tools and how to use them is essential to get the best possible results. With content modeling, the same rule applies. Imagine owning a coffee shop selling two different flat white coffees. The goal is to model this in Kontent.ai for your website. To get the most out of the exercise,create a testing project, and try to model it yourself along with the article.First, you’ll need a Flat white content type to represent all flat whites. Content types are basically templates or forms. When it comes to content, every coffee has the same structure, so one content type is enough.Then, you need the coffee to have a name, a description, and ingredients. Add three content type
This could be enough for a basic coffee model, but wouldn’t it be superb to have a photo gallery for each coffee on the menu? Pictures are usually reused and contain special information like a title or a description. So that you can do all of that, create another content type, named Coffee picture. Add these two elements:
It’s suitable to tag what’s in the picture so that you can filter pictures better later on. Such information is called metadata. For example, to filter the pictures based on the used mug type:
The main part of content modeling is now done. However, flat whites can be a regular flat white or a soy flat white. The regular flat white is an instance of flat white. In content modeling, that’s called a content item. Content items are the actual representations of the content type (the template) you created before.
If you decide to serve breakfasts later, you might realize that you miss nutritional info and allergens on the website. These are also common for coffee, so you want to add them to the existing Flat white content type, too.
As you’ll use the same set of two elements in both content types, you can make your work easier by using content type snippets. That way, you can reuse or extend them in one place.
The great thing about Kontent.ai is its content reuse. Once you create a content type, it can be seamlessly reused and embedded as linked items or directly within rich text areas as components. Every content item can also have variants that are usually used for translation. You never know if you don’t go international one day.
Jake Kula, our Presales Engineer, will demonstrate how to create a basic content type, relate content types via linked items, and reuse data structure with content type snippets.
named
Description
A rich text element named Ingredients
with some terms.
To the Coffee picture content type, add a taxonomy element called Mug type.
Set the Mug types taxonomy to be available in the Mug type element.
Content types and taxonomies with visible relationships
Content types and taxonomies with visible relationships
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Reusing vs. copyingIn some cases, copying can still make more sense. For example, when a content item or type serves just as a template for another item or type. When this happens, you can clone both content items and content types.
Tomas Nosek, Boris Pocatko, Jake Kula
20 minutes
Content model / Snippets / Content types
