Collection items overview

Collection items are individual data records or pieces of content in each Collection — for example, a single blog post, an author, a recipe, etc. Each Collection item can contain values for all or some of the Collection fields that make up the structure of its Collection, and these values can be connected to design elements and settings to populate their content dynamically. Collection pages are automatically generated for each Collection item, and Collection items can also be featured in Collection lists on any site page.

How to create Collection items

Once you’ve created a Collection, you can:

• add sample content
• create items in the CMS panel
• create items from the canvas

Pro tip: You can also bulk-import Collection items using a CSV file or the CMS API.

Add sample content

When a Collection is empty, you can create sample items to populate the Collection and start designing quickly. You can choose to create 5, 10, or 20 sample items.

Create items in the CMS panel

To create Collection items in the CMS panel:

1. Open the CMS panel
2. Click the Collection to which you’d like to add Collection items
3. Click New item

Then, you can fill out the values for some or all Collection fields. Once you’ve finished adding content to your Collection item, you can choose from the following save and publish options:

• Create — stages the item to go live the next time you publish your site
• Publish — publishes the item right away (without waiting for the next full-site publish)
• Save as draft — saves the item as a draft that you can continue editing until it’s ready for publish
• Schedule — schedules the item to be published at a future time
• Cancel — discards the item or changes to the item

Note: Publishing and updating individual Collection items also publishes and updates any items referenced in reference and multi-reference fields.

Create items from the canvas

You can also create Collection items from the Designer canvas:

1. Open the Collection page for the Collection to which you’d like to add an item
2. Click the Collection items dropdown
3. Click Add new [Collection item] (e.g., Add new Blog Post)

Then, you can fill out the values for some or all Collection fields. Once you’ve finished adding content to your Collection item, you can choose from the following save and publish options:

• Create — stages the item to go live the next time you publish your site
• Publish — publishes the item right away (without waiting for the next full-site publish)
• Save as draft — saves the item as a draft that you can continue editing until it’s ready for publish
• Schedule — schedules the item to be published at a future time
• Cancel — discards the item or changes to the item

Note: Publishing and updating individual Collection items also publishes and updates any items referenced in reference and multi-reference fields.

How to update Collection items

You can update Collection items at any time:

• in the CMS panel
• on the canvas

Update items in the CMS panel

To update a Collection item in the CMS panel, open the CMS panel and go to the Collection that contains the item you want to update. Once you’ve updated the item, you can publish it right away, save it as a draft, or schedule publishing. Learn more about publishing and unpublishing Collection items.

Note: When you save a previously published item as a draft, the item’s status changes to draft but the item remains on the live site until the next full-site publish.

Update items on the canvas

Note: When you edit static content on a Collection page (i.e., content that repeats across all Collection item pages in the Collection without changing), the changes you make are reflected across all Collection item pages in the Collection. If you want to update a single Collection item’s content on the canvas, make sure to only edit the dynamic content (indicated with a purple outline) on the page. If you want to show or hide static content on different Collection item pages, you can do so using conditional visibility.

You can update Collection items on the canvas from their Collection item page. Go to the associated Collection page and use the Collection items dropdown to choose the item you want to update.

To edit text-based fields (e.g., plain text fields, rich text fields, etc.), double-click the element on the canvas or click the “go to CMS” icon in the top bar of the Designer, which opens your Collection item and all its Collection fields in an on-canvas modal menu. You can make changes by typing or copying and pasting into text-based fields.

Once you click away from an element you’ve edited directly on the canvas, your changes are automatically saved to go live on the next full-site publish. You can view a list of Collection items with changes staged for the next full-site publish in the Collection items dropdown > Staged changes. You can also click the “CMS edit” icon to open the Collection item in an on-canvas modal menu and access all save and publish options.

To edit non-text-based fields (e.g., image fields, link fields, number fields, etc.), select the element on the canvas, go to Element settings, and click the “go to CMS” icon. You can replace or update values for any of your Collection fields in the modal that appears and either save your changes to go live on the next full-site publish or as a draft, publish the item right away, or schedule publishing. Learn more about publishing and unpublishing Collection items.

How to manage Collection items

Managing Collection items can be tricky with a large database of content. When you open a Collection in the CMS panel, your first 100 Collection items are preloaded and visible. If your Collection contains more than 100 items, you can page through the items by clicking the “next” and “previous” pagination buttons. You can also search for any item in the open Collection using the search bar.

You can manage Collection items more efficiently by:

• displaying Collection fields
• filtering Collection items
• sorting Collection items
• bulk-editing Collection items

Display Collection fields

If you’d like to view more Collection fields than are displayed by default, open your Collection and click the “pin” icon to show or hide Collection fields. All Collection fields are pinnable, with the exception of image, multi-image, video, and rich text fields.

Filter Collection items

You can filter your Collection using the following filter options:

• Status: All (Default), Published, Draft, Scheduled, Archived
• Published: All (Default), Last 24 hours, Last 7 days, Last 30 days
• Created: All (Default), Last 24 hours, Last 7 days, Last 30 days
• Modified: All (Default), Last 24 hours, Last 7 days, Last 30 days

To filter your Collection:

1. Open your Collection
2. Click Filter
3. Choose the combination of filter options you’d like to apply to your Collection item view
4. Click Apply filters to save your filter selections
5. Click anywhere outside of the filter options to close the filter options view

Pro tip: You can apply multiple filter options to view Collection items that meet all of the filter criteria.

When a filter is applied to your Collection, a small “checkmark” icon appears on the Filter button. You can reset the filter back to its default state and show all items in your Collection by clicking Filter > Reset.

Good to know: Filters don’t persist once you close the Collection. You’ll need to reapply any desired filters after closing a Collection.

Sort Collection items

You can sort Collection items depending on which fields are present in your Collection. Different fields support different types of sorting:

• Comparison-of-value sorting
• Presence-of-value sorting
• Not sortable

You can view the sort type for each sortable field by clicking the title of the field and hovering over the title.

Comparison-of-value sorting

Comparison-of-value sorting is based on the comparison of values for each individual Collection item. The fields that use this type of sorting are:

• Plain text (sorts alphabetically)
• Number (sorts by ascending/descending values)
• Date (sorts by earliest/latest values)
• Switch (sorts by true/false values)

Presence-of-value sorting

Presence-of-value sorting is based on whether the item’s field contains a value or is empty. After the field is sorted by the presence of value, the fields with a value (i.e., non-empty fields) are then sorted alphabetically. The fields that use this type of sorting are:

• Color
• Email
• File reference
• Reference
• Multi-reference
• Link
• Option
• Phone

Not sortable

Fields that aren’t sortable include:

• ID
• Status
• Commerce price
• Image
• Multi-image
• Video
• Rich text

Pro tip: Although ID, status, and Ecommerce price fields can’t be sorted, they can be pinned and displayed in your Collection item view. Learn more about displaying Collection fields.

Bulk-edit Collection items

You can bulk-edit or update Collection items by clicking Select in the top bar and checking the checkbox next to the Name field to select all items within the Collection item view. If your Collection contains more than 100 items shown in a paginated view, you can move through additional pages and continue to select any additional items you’d like to bulk-edit.

Once you’ve selected your items, you can perform a variety of bulk actions depending on your selection and the Collection items’ current status. You can export your items (i.e., export Collection items as a CSV file) or delete them. Note that bulk-deleting Collection items removes the items from the Designer, but leaves the items on the live site until the next full-site publish.

You can also choose to update Collection items’ publish status by clicking Update items. The dropdown menu provides the following saving and publishing options:

• Stage for publish — stages selected unpublished or draft items to go live the next time you publish your site
• Publish — publishes selected items right away (without waiting for the next full-site publish)
• Save as draft — saves selected items as drafts and unpublishes them from the live site at the next full-site publish
• Unpublish — immediately removes selected items from your live site, changes their status to Draft (or maintains draft status if the item was already set to draft and remained on the live site), and removes the original publish date from the item
• Archive — unpublishes Collection items from your live site at the next full-site publish, but keeps the items accessible in the CMS

Learn more about publishing and unpublishing Collection items.

Pro tip: You can press Shift + click to select a range of items. If your Collection contains more than 100 items and displays them in a paginated view, you can move through the additional pages and continue to press Shift + click to continually select any additional items you’d like to bulk-edit.

Note: Publishing and unpublishing is blocked when your site’s domains have different publish times or when your site is restored from backup. You can unblock publishing and unpublishing by performing a full-site publish, which syncs the publish dates across your connected domains. Learn more about publishing and unpublishing Collection items.