Advanced Website: Dynamic content - collections

The first step in creating Dynamic Pages is to define a collection. Collections are similar to databases in that they contain lists of items that have the same type of information (name, location, image, and so on). Every site can have up to 100 collections.

For example, a collection might contain information about properties available to rent:

Collection types

You can create many types of collections:

• Internal collections
• Google Sheets
• Airtable
• External database

Create collections

For specific instructions on creating collections, see the article specific to the collection type: Internal collections, Google Sheets, Airtable, and External collections.

All collections should adhere to the following guidelines:

• The first row of the collection must contain the field names (for example, Number of Rooms).
• Data must be structured correctly based on the data type.
• For Airtable and Google Sheets, you must select a field from the Page item URL dropdown in the collection to define the URL of each page and what appears in the editor dropdown. If you already have a text field namedpage_item_urlin your collection, it will automatically be mapped to this dropdown. If this field is not defined, page URLs are assigned numbers (Google Sheets) or a random string (Airtable).
• To use Business hours you must use the following specific structure in a text field (field type: business hours):
  SAT, SUN: 08:00-20:00; MON, FRI: 08:00-12:00;
• To use Location you must use the following specific structure in a text field (field type: location):
  String - streetAddress, postalCode, region, city, country
  846 Kerry Way, 90017, CA, Los Angeles, US
  The geo location is calculated from this string, the postal code is not mandatory but if the address is not written correctly (typos for example) we might not find it.
• Collection URLs must be a valid field without special characters. If it contains special characters the browser will not properly convert it.
• Collection names and URLs cannot contain nested pages. For example, you cannot use a page item URL with the structure example/subpage.

To create a collection:

1. In the left panel, click Content, click Collections, and then click + New Collection.
2. Select the type of collection you want to create.
3. Connect to the collection.
4. Define the correct data type for each field.
5. Click Done.

The new collection displays in the collection panel. The next step is to create or convert a Dynamic Page so you can connect it to your newly created collection.

Lock collection for client editing

You can lock a collection to prevent clients from editing it. This can be done in the editor or by using our collections API.

To lock a collection in the editor, in the side panel, click Content and then click Collections. Click the settings  icon next to the collection you need to lock. Select Lock, Complete Lock, or Structure Lock depending on which type of collection you are locking.

The following are the lock options:

• Lock. Use to prevent the client from editing or deleting fields in external collections or changing content in image collections.

• Complete Lock. Use for internal collections to prevent the client from editing or deleting collection data in rows and fields.

• Structure Lock. Use for internal collections to prevent the client from renaming, deleting, or adding fields. Clients are still able to edit content and add rows. Using the structure lock is helpful when you do not want your client to accidentally modify the fields that power your dynamic pages.