As an experienced security CMS website operator, I know that flexible content management is crucial for dealing with changing business needs.AnQiCMS as an efficient and customizable Go language content management system, one of its core advantages is that it provides highly flexible content model customization capabilities.This not only allows us to build content structure accurately, but also serves as a foundation to support various personalized content displays and business logic.

Flexible content model: the cornerstone of business needs

In today's digital marketing era, whether it is a corporate website, product showcase site, self-media blog, or a professional platform in a vertical industry, the forms of content are becoming increasingly diverse.Standardized "article" or "product" models often find it difficult to fully match specific business scenarios.For example, a real estate website may need specific fields such as 'house type', 'area', and 'orientation', while an e-commerce platform may require more detailed attributes such as 'brand', 'color', and 'size'.The flexible content model design of AnQiCMS is precisely to endow us with such abilities, to exceed general frameworks, and to tailor data structures for each content type.

By customizing content model fields, we can expand the website content from simple text and images to entities rich in structured data.This means we can add detailed technical parameters for products, configure registration deadlines and locations for events, and record implementation cycles and customer feedback for case studies.This fine-grained content management is the key to improving user experience, optimizing search engine performance, and ultimately achieving business goals.

Custom content model field practice path

In AnQiCMS backend, custom content model fields are an intuitive and powerful process. The following are the core steps to achieve this goal:

First, we need to navigate to the 'Content Management' module of the AnQiCMS backend and then select the 'Content Model' menu.This lists all the content models created in the system, including the built-in "article model" and "product model", as well as any custom models we may have created.Click on the 'Edit' button of any model, or select 'Add' to create a new content model, and you can enter its configuration page.

On the model editing interface, besides being able to modify the model name, table name, URL alias, and other basic information, the most critical part is the "Custom field of content model" area.Here we can define a series of exclusive data fields for the model.

Every time you add a custom field, you need to carefully configure the following core properties:

  • Parameter name:This is the Chinese name of the field displayed to the user on the back-end management interface and front-end template, such as 'article author', 'product brand', or 'house type'.A clear and descriptive parameter name, which helps in managing and understanding the content.
  • Call field:This is the actual field name stored in the database, as well as the unique identifier used in the front-end template for programmatic data retrieval. It must use letters, and it is recommended to use camel case naming (such asproductBrand/houseType），to ensure the standardization and readability of the code. This field is the core of data operations.
  • Field type:AnQiCMS provides various field types to meet the needs of different data formats:
    • Single-line text:Suitable for short text input, such as titles, names, URLs, etc., the word limit is usually within 250 words.
    • Number:Accepts numeric input, suitable for prices, inventory, quantities, and other numeric data.
    • Multi-line text:Suitable for longer text descriptions, such as product introductions, abstracts, etc., supports multi-line input.
    • Single choice:Allow the user to select one from predefined options, such as "Color" (red, green, blue). The options are entered one per line through the "default value" field.
    • Multiple selection:Allow users to select multiple preset options, such as 'Product Features' (waterproof, dustproof, shockproof). The options are also entered one per line through the 'Default Value' field.
    • Dropdown selection:Similar to single choice, provide a dropdown menu for users to select an option, suitable for situations with many options. Options are entered one per line through the 'default value' field.
  • Mandatory?:Used to set whether the field is required to be filled in when the content is published. If set to required, the system will perform a check when saving the content to ensure the integrity of the data.
  • Default:Set a default value for the field. For selection type fields (radio, checkbox, dropdown), this will be used to define all options, one per line.

For example, if we are running a real estate website and need to add custom fields for the "property" content model, we can configure it like this:

  • Layout:Parameter name "House Type", field callhouseType, field type "Dropdown selection", default value "One bedroom, one living room\nTwo bedrooms, one living room\nThree bedrooms, one living room".
  • Area:Parameter name "Area (square meters)", field callarea, field type "numeric", required "yes".
  • Orientation:Parameter name "Orientation", field callorientation, field type "Single choice", default value "South\nNorth\nEast\nWest".
  • Feature:Parameter name "Feature tag", calling fieldfeaturesField type "Multiple selection", default value "School district house \nSubway station \nHigh-quality decoration."

Integrate custom fields into the website front-end display

The value of the custom field ultimately manifests in the dynamic display on the front-end page.AnQiCMS provides a concise template tag syntax, making it easy to call these custom data.

In the document detail page or list loop, we can directly access the data through variable names and field calls. For example, for a name calledarchiveThe document object, if the model it belongs to contains a field calledhouseTypewe can use the custom field directly{{archive.houseType}}to display its value.

If you need to iterate over all custom fields in a document model or to display them in a more structured way,archiveParamsTags are a good choice. Through this tag, we can get the names and values of all custom fields and display them in a loop. For example:

{% archiveParams params %}
<div>
    {% for item in params %}
    <div>
        <span>{{item.Name}}：</span>
        <span>{{item.Value}}</span>
    </div>
    {% endfor %}
</div>
{% endarchiveParams %}

For advanced requirements, such as implementing a filtering function based on custom fields on the list page, AnQiCMS'sarchiveFiltersLabels allow us to build a dynamic filtering condition interface.You only need to configure the relevant fields in the content model to be filterable and combine them with URL query parameters to achieve powerful content filtering capabilities.

{# 示例：在一个房产列表页显示筛选条件 #}
<div>
    <div>房产筛选：</div>
    {% archiveFilters filters with moduleId="1" allText="不限" %}
        {% for item in filters %}
        <ul>
            <li>{{item.Name}}: </li>
            {% for val in item.Items %}
            <li class="{% if val.IsCurrent %}active{% endif %}"><a href="{{val.Link}}">{{val.Label}}</a></li>
            {% endfor %}
        </ul>
    {% endfor %}
    {% endarchiveFilters %}
</div>

Operation strategy and **practice

When customizing content model fields, as website operators, we should follow some**practices:

first, Plan firstBefore adding any fields, deeply analyze the business requirements, clarify the structure of the content, and future possible expansion directions. This helps in designing fields that are forward-thinking and maintainable.

secondly,Naming convention.调用字段The naming should be concise, intuitive, and follow consistent naming conventions, such as using camelCase or underscore naming.This not only facilitates team collaboration, but also reduces the complexity of post-maintenance.

Moreover,Select the appropriate field type.Avoid overusing the 'Single Line Text' type.If the data is numeric, date, or predefined options, it is advisable to choose a more precise field type to ensure data quality and facilitate subsequent queries, statistics, and display.

Finally,Template integration is crucial.Custom fields only show their maximum value when displayed correctly on the front end.Work closely with developers to ensure that all new fields can be seamlessly integrated into the website template and presented beautifully according to design requirements.For fields that require SEO optimization, such as product models, brands, etc., ensure they can be effectively crawled and understood by search engines.

By deeply customizing the AnQiCMS content model, we can not only meet the current content management needs but also lay a solid foundation for the future expansion and innovation of the website.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Can I change the type of a custom field after creating it?It is not recommended to change the field type of a custom field after it is created and put into use.If data has already been entered, changing the type may cause existing data to be lost, formatted incorrectly, or cause database structure conflicts, leading to website function anomalies.If you really need to change, it is recommended to back up the data first, then delete the old field, create a new field, and manually migrate or adjust the data.

2. How does a custom content model field affect a website's SEO?Custom content model field has a positive impact on SEO.By defining more detailed and structured data for content, you can provide richer information to search engines, which helps search engines better understand your content.For example, adding fields such as "brand", "model", and "price" to a product can make it easier for search engines to recognize it as rich text summary (Rich Snippets), thereby improving the display and click-through rate of search results.Reasonably utilize the data of these fields, which also helps in keyword layout and the uniqueness of page content.

3. How many custom fields can I add to a content model?AnQiCMS does not have a strict limit on the number of custom fields, but in practice, to maintain database performance and the responsiveness of the management interface, we recommend adding them moderately based on actual needs.Too many custom fields may increase the burden on the database, slowing down the loading speed of the content editing page.It is recommended to focus on core and necessary fields and regularly review and clean up fields that are no longer in use.