Symphony.

Overview

Field Types are definitions governing the structure and behavior of fields in Symphony. They determine how fields are rendered in the admin interface, what types of data a field can accept, how that data is captured and stored, and how it is formatted and output for use on the front end. Symphony has eight core field types; additional field types are available as extensions.

Usage

Field types determine the structure of a field’s settings pane when it is added to a section in the section editor.

Details

The are eight core field types in Symphony, and a ninth, Select Box Link, is provided by a default extension.

Author

The author field type is represented by a select input populated with system authors. Its settings pane provides the following options:

Setting	Description
Global settings	See breakdown.
Allow multiple	Checkbox specifying whether to allow the selection of multiple authors.
Select current	Checkbox specifying whether the author editing the entry should be selected by default.

Checkbox

The checkbox field type is represented by a basic checkbox input. Its settings pane provides the following options:

Setting	Description
Global settings	See breakdown.
Long Description	Text to be displayed alongside the checkbox in lieu of a label.
Checked by default	Checkbox specifying whether the field should default to checked.

Date

The date field type is represented by a basic text input. The format expected by the field is determined by the configuration settings created during installation and found in /manifest.config.php. Its settings pane provides the following options:

Setting	Description
Global settings	See breakdown.
Pre-populate	Checkbox specifying whether the current date should be auto-entered into the field upon entry creation.

File Upload

The file upload field type is represented by a file input. Its settings pane provides the following options:

Setting	Description
Global settings	See breakdown.
Destination Directory	Where files uploaded with this field will be stored. Select input populated by a list of all the directories under workspace/. Directory must be writeable.
Validation Rule	Regular expressions pattern used to validate the file name.

Select Box

The select box field type is represented by a select input that can be populated with static values, dynamic values, or both. Its settings pane provides the following options:

Setting	Description
Global settings	See breakdown.
Static Options	A comma-delimited list of values to include in the field’s options.
Dynamic Options	List of fields, organized by section, whose content can be used to populate this field’s options.
Allow multiple	Checkbox specifying whether or not to allow multiple items to be selected.

Select Box Link

The Select Box Link field type is represented by a select input that is populated by entries in a linked section and creates a persistent relationship with the linked entry(ies). Its settings pane provides the following options:

Setting	Description
Global settings	See breakdown.
Options	List of fields, organized by section, whose content can be used to populate this field’s options.
Limit	How many of the most recent entries to show as options.
Allow multiple	Checkbox specifying whether or not to allow multiple items to be selected.

Tag List

The tag list field type is represented by a text input that accepts a comma-delimited list of values. It is followed by a dynamically-populated suggestion list. Its settings pane provides the following options:

Setting	Description
Global settings	See breakdown.
Suggestion List	Source of suggested items. Can be content from another field in the system, or values from this field from other entries in the section.
Validation Rule	Regular expressions pattern used to validate the items.

Textarea

The textarea field type is represented by a textarea input that can apply text formatters to its content. Its settings pane provides the following options:

Setting	Description
Global settings	See breakdown.
Rows	Height of the textarea in rows.
Text Formatter	Text formatter to be applied to the field’s content.

Text Input

The text input field type is represented by a basic text input. Its settings pane provides the following options:

Setting	Description
Global settings	See breakdown.
Validation Rule	Regular expressions pattern used to validate the input.