CMS: About the Structure of Your Collection

3 min read
In the CMS, the content structure (also known as "schema") defines which fields are in each of your collections and their type. When you add a dataset to your page, it only contains the fields that are in your collection structure. In some cases, your collections can contain fields that are not part of the structure.

When you create a new field in a collection, the field is added to the structure, and reflected in your live collections.

If you have the optional Sandbox collection enabled, syncing a collection is only necessary to sync the collection's content. The structure is the same for both the Sandbox and Live collections.

Learn more about the Sandbox.
Important:
The structure isn't something you can view. It's something that the system uses to help the different features know what kind of content is in your collections and what options to make available to you.

Structure usage

Structure is used when you connect your collections to page elements and when creating URLs for your dynamic pages. Because the dataset only contains fields that are part of the structure, you can only connect page elements to fields that are part of the structure. Also, you can only use fields from the structure when constructing a URL for your dynamic page.
The structure is not used to confirm that the content added to the collection is of the right type. It also does not confirm if the content belongs to an existing field. You can add content of any type to any field.

Non-structure fields

Non-structure fields are fields that are displayed in your your collection but are not actually part of your collection.

This can happen if you roll back to a previous version of your site. When restoring a previous version of a site, the previous structure is restored, but content remains the same. So you could have content in your collection without the structure for that content.
In collections, these fields appear with a warning icon, indicating that the field isn't defined yet.

To add non-structure fields to the structure:

  1. Go to CMS in your site's dashboard.
  2. Click the relevant collection.
  3. Click the name of the field.
  4. Select a Field Type for your field and click Save.
Notes:
The Field ID is defined automatically when you create a non-structure field, and it can't be modified. 

Structure versions

When restoring an older version of your site, your structure is restored to its state from the older version. However, your content is not restored to your collection. This is also true if you have the optional Sandbox collection enabled.

Error 404 code and collections

A 404 error occurs when a visitor navigates to a page that cannot be found. This could be because the Sandbox collection has not been synced with the live content. 

As a result, the item(s) that should be displayed in the dynamic page do not exist in the live collection. To resolve this issue, sync your Sandbox content with your live content.
Note:
Learn more about using the Sandbox.

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