Content Types
Last Update: 28-Jun-2009
As you navigate through the web, you run across things such as press articles, books, cameras, events, job postings, products, services, patient records, and so on. These are all potential content types. A content type is a chunk of meaningful information with clear boundaries. Think of a content type as a cookie cutter that is used to create a family of content items (cookies) that share the same properties but differ in the value of those properties.
For example, the event content type may have the following properties:
- Name
- Venue
- Date
- Time
- Logo
- Organiser
- Contact Email
All events content items are created from the event content and hence share the same properties. However, each event content item is different. One event may be the Madonna Concert in London and another being a Content Conference over in the States. A content type enables you to define the essential characteristics for a chunk of information with clear boundaries.
Definitions
A content type is a collection of properties. Each property has a name and type. A type indicates that kind of values that a property may hold. For example, a property with the type Text stores text values, where a Image type holds images, and a Number only expects numbers. There a many different types that can be associated with properties.
A content item is created by supplying values to the properties defined within a content type.
Content types are used to create information. Content items are the information.