Field Types

Your schema is built up of GraphQL types. If you’re familiar working with GraphQL, you should feel right at home. GraphCMS supports all of the common GraphQL types you are used to, as well as some of its own.

You may also be interested in how input types work for filtering, ordering, paginating, and mutating data.

Here you will discover the core field types available when building your GraphCMS schema. Since your schema is automatically generated, it is recommended you browse the API Playground to get inspect all available field type definitions.

StringAnchor

GraphCMS supports a few variations of the String field type. Strings are just strings, but depending on the variation you add to your model, it will reflect how it appears to content editors.

Variant Description
Single line text Most used with headings, page titles, email, etc.
Multi line text Most used with strings that require no formatting, raw text like HTML, and XML where you control the parsing.
Markdown Markdown is most used as an alternative to Rich Text. Enables advanced techniques such as MDX.
Slug Slug template with automatic initial value generation based off existing fields.

All 3 variations of the String type are queried in the same way, and return the strings of the field they represent:

Rich TextAnchor

The RichText field type is an advanced String field that returns your content in 4 different formats; raw, html, markdown, and text.

The Rich Text field renders an advanced textarea with tools to add headings, links, tables, images, lists, etc.

When a Rich Text field is added to your model, it will automatically generate the following types:

type RichText {
raw: RichTextAST!
html: String!
markdown String!
text: String!
}

If Rich Text Embeds are enabled, RichText will include the field json instead of raw.

For example, we can query all of those on our RichText field type content:

You can also embed Assets inside Rich Text.

Rich Text Asset Embeds UI
Rich Text Asset Embeds UI

You will need to enable Rich Text Embeds. You can do this from inside the Field Settings when adding a new, or editing a Rich Text field.

Rich Text Options
Rich Text Options

With Rich Text Embeds enabled, your API will have some new types added. The name of your field will be now a type appended by RichText, and RichTextEmbeddedTypes inside your schema.

For example, if you had the model Post and field content, the types generates would be PostContentRichText, and PostContentRichTextEmbeddedTypes respectively.

The PostContentRichText type will look like the following:

type RichText {
json: RichTextAST!
html: String!
markdown String!
text: String!
references: [PostContentRichTextEmbeddedTypes!]!
}

The references field will be a union relation to the types you embedded, for example Asset.

You should use the references field when querying json to get the url (with any transformations, handle, or any of the Asset fields.

The html response will return gcms-embed-type and gcms-embed-id data attributes for the embedded types.

<div
data-gcms-embed-type="Asset"
data-gcms-embed-id="cko2lq2u0031r0844xnvurz05"
></div>

GraphCMS uses Slate 0.5 for RichTextAST.

If you are programmatically creating content entries with Rich Text, you should use the @graphcms/html-to-slate-ast package.

IntegerAnchor

Integers are whole numbers, and are often used to reference price in cents, stock quantities etc..

For example, here we have products with a Int field for price:

FloatAnchor

Floats are floating point numbers, and often represent fractional values. They are often used to describe values with precision, such as distance, weight, volume, etc.

For example, here we have products with a Float field for rating:

BooleanAnchor

Booleans default to null in GraphCMS, and can be true or false. You may opt to use a Boolean for specifying if a product is on sale, is part of a bundle, or a post accepts comments.

For example, here we have posts with a Boolean field for acceptsComments:

DateAnchor

The Date field type adheres to ISO 8601 standard. This means, October 7, 1989 is represented as 1989-10-07.

For example, here we have events with a Date for start:

Date and TimeAnchor

Similar to the date field type, the DateTime field type adheres to ISO 8601 standard.

For example, here we have events with a DateTime for start:

JSONAnchor

GraphCMS has native field support for JSON (JavaScript Object Notation). This field is often used for storing large amounts of data from other systems.

For example, here we have products with a JSON field for metadata:

AssetAnchor

Assets are connected to models through a reference field. Assets can be any file type, not just images.

The Asset model comes its own default asset fields.

For example, here we have posts with a the Asset field for coverImage, querying those asset fields:

Learn more about Assets.

ColorAnchor

The Color field is made up of HEX, RGBA and css color values.

type Color {
hex: Hex!
rgba: RGBA!
css: String!
}
Field Type Description
hex Hex! Returns a String in the format of #ffffff
rgba RGBA! r, g, b, values as RGBAHue!, and a as RGBATransparency!
css String! Returns in the format of rgb(255, 255, 255)

For example, here is posts with a Color field for backgroundColor, in all formats:

LocationAnchor

The Location field type returns latitude, longitude, and distance Float values.

type Location {
latitude: Float!
longitude: Float!
distance(from: LocationInput!): Float!
}
Field Type Description
latitude Float! Geographic coordinate (north-south position on Earth)
longitude Float! Geographic coordinate (east-west position on Earth)
distance LocationInput! Distance in meters from the given latitude/longitude

To query the distance field, you must provide latitude and longitude values for the from argument.

For example, here we have all shop locations, with distance from the provided latitude/longitude:

EnumerationsAnchor

Enumerations, or enum for short, are predefined list of values. They are defined inside your GraphQL schema, and can be referenced by any of your content models.

For example, here is are products with its commodity type:

ReferenceAnchor

References, often referred as relations, are a powerful field type that allows you to connect one or more models together, and even reference multiple models as a single field type with GraphQL Union Types.

For example, here we have an example of querying all products, with categories they belong to.

One-way referencesAnchor

One-way references - also called unidirectional relations - only exist in one direction. This type of reference is most useful when there is no need to know where a model is being referenced from, such as a model that is used many times. One-way references only show up on the model for which the reference is configured, and can only be queried from that side as well. This also means that for one-way references, no reverse field is configured on the referenced model. With one-way references, the content editor UI is kept clean by not showing irrelevant relations where they are not needed.

One-way references come in two forms:

To OneAnchor

For example, a category that can have only one product.

To manyAnchor

For example, a category that can have multiple products.

Two-way referencesAnchor

Two-way references - alternatively known as bidirectional relations - exist in two directions. This type of reference is useful for use cases where both sides of the reference are relevant, and need to be edited or queryable. Two-way references are configured and show up on both the referencing and referenced models, and can be queried from either side.

Two-way references come in four forms:

One to oneAnchor

For example, a category can only have one product, and one product can only have one category.

One to manyAnchor

For example, a category can have multiple products, but a product cannot belong to multiple categories.

Many to oneAnchor

For example, a category has one product, but a product can belong to multiple categories.

Many to manyAnchor

For example, a category can have many products, and products can belong to many categories.

UnionAnchor

GraphQL Union Types are great for referencing different models as a single field.

For example, here we have a typical GraphQL query for fetching blocks on a page.

This field is configured to be either of type Hero, Grid, and/or Gallery:

{
pages {
blocks {
__typename
... on Hero {
title
ctaLink
}
... on Grid {
title
subtitle {
markdown
}
}
... on Gallery {
photos {
url
handle
}
}
}
}
}

Please note that unions are always two-way references.

RemoteAnchor

Remote fields allow you to define an external resolver through the management SDK. Remote fields consist of two parts, defining any custom type that will represent the returning shape from the external resolver, defining the resolver itself.

Remote fields are available to Enterprise plans. Upgrade your plan.

Remote Fields cannot currently be queried as part of a Union Type relation.

Return TypesAnchor

Return types can be any valid GraphQL Scalar (ID, String, Boolean, Int, Float), any GraphCMS Custom Scalar (Long, JSON, DateTime, Date), any GraphCMS Type (Color, Location, RichText) or any custom type as defined by the user.

Learn about creating custom types.

Resolver configurationAnchor

Resolvers are functions that accept standard HTTP requests (GET, PUT, POST) and can have custom headers and payloads. Resolvers make use of a replacer pattern and can support string interpolation in either the header or the url. Data can be sent either using the string interpolation method, as automatically appended query parameters, or as a JSON payload.

Using our product example from above, let's add a remote field that fetches real-time inventory numbers from our warehouse.

Field VisibilityAnchor

GraphCMS field types allow for different visibility options via the Advanced tab during field creation. Below is a reference for the different options and how they are different.

Option Description
Read / Write Default option, the field will be accessible for read/write purposes.
Read Only Field is shown but cannot be edited in the UI, updates can only be done via API.
Hidden The field is not shown in the UI, but can be referenced by other fields such as Slugs or from a UI Extension.
API Only Field is not shown in the UI, can be read and updated exclusively from the API.

Note that these options are available for all field types except for References.

Field visibility has no relation with permissions or security and should not be used for those purposes.

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