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Best Practices for Creating a Schema When Using Freestyle

Creating an effective schema in Zesty.io when using Freestyle is crucial for ensuring that your content is well-organized, easy to manage, and scalable. This guide will walk you through the best practices for setting up your schema.

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Introduction to Schema in Zesty.io

Before diving into the best practices, it's important to understand what a schema is in the context of Zesty.io. A schema in Zesty.io is essentially the structure or blueprint of your content. It defines how your content is organized and how different types of content relate to each other.

Selecting a Model and Field Type

1. Choose the Appropriate Model

  • Why It's Important: The model determines how your content is stored and accessed in Zesty.io. Choosing the appropriate model for each section determines how it can be utilized in Freestyle.
  • How to Do It:
    • Use a Single Page model for pages like (e.g., homepage, about page, contact page).
    • Use a Multi Page model for collection of pages like (e.g., blog posts, product pages, testimonials).
    • Use a Dataset model for collection of entries like (e.g., categories, logos, FAQs).

Note: Only Single Page and Multi Page models will appear and can be edited in Freestyle.

2. Choose the Appropriate Field Type

  • Why It's Important: The field type determines how your content is validated, formatted, and displayed in Zesty.io.
  • How to Do It:
    • Text Field Type: Use for fields displaying plain text, such as titles, authors, or dates.
    • Media Field Type: Ideal for fields displaying images, PDFs, or videos (e.g., main image, logo, thumbnail).
    • Relationship Field Type: Suitable for fields referencing other content items (e.g., related posts, product variants, author profiles).
    • Numeric Field Type: Use for fields requiring numeric values (e.g., price, rating, quantity).
    • Date & Time Field Type: Perfect for fields displaying dates or times (e.g., publish date, event date, expiration date).
    • Options Field Type: Appropriate for fields presenting a selection from predefined options or boolean inputs (e.g., category, status, color, featured, active, in stock).

Note: All the fields that you created in all model types are available in the content section in Freestyle regardless of the model you are editing.

Creating a Schema

1. Split Contents into Sections

  • Why It's Important: Breaking down your content into logical sections makes it easier to manage and update. It also helps in maintaining a consistent structure across your website or application.
  • How to Do It:
    • Identify the main types of content on your site (e.g., blog posts, product pages, testimonials).
    • Break each content type into smaller sections based on their nature (e.g., for a product page, sections might include product description, specifications, reviews).

2. Identify Key Sections and Split Them into Fields

  • Why It's Important: This step ensures that each piece of information has its own place. It makes your content more flexible and easier to display across different platforms.
  • How to Do It:
    • Within each section, identify key elements that require separate fields (e.g., for a blog post, fields might include title, author, date, body, images).
    • Consider the data type for each field (text, date, image, etc.) to ensure data consistency.

3. Give Verbose Naming to Fields

  • Why It's Important: Clear and descriptive field names make your schema easier to understand and work with, especially for teams.
  • How to Do It:
    • Use names that clearly describe the content or purpose of the field (e.g., instead of 'img1', use 'mainProductImage').
    • Avoid technical jargon unless it is commonly understood by your team.

Additional Considerations

- Scalability

Plan your schema with future growth in mind. Ensure that it can accommodate new content types or changes in content structure.

- Consistency

Maintain consistency in naming conventions and field types across different sections.

- Documentation

Keep a record of your schema structure and any updates. This documentation is invaluable for new team members and for troubleshooting.

- Testing

Test your schema with sample content to ensure that all fields work as expected and that the content displays correctly on your site.

- Feedback Loop

Regularly review your schema with content creators and developers to identify areas for improvement.

Conclusion

A well-thought-out schema is the foundation of effective content management in Zesty.io. By following these best practices, you can create a schema that is logical, easy to manage, and scalable when using Freestyle. Remember, the goal is to make the content management process as efficient and error-free as possible for everyone involved.

Updated 9 months ago