ContentBox Content Types & Custom Fields (BoxLang)

Extend ContentBox content types and add custom fields using BoxLang. ContentBox supports entries, pages, and ContentStore items with extensible custom field capabilities.

Content Types

ContentBox has three primary content types:

Type	Entity	Service	Description
Entries	Entry	entryService@contentbox	Blog posts with dates, categories, comments
Pages	Page	pageService@contentbox	Static pages with hierarchical structure
ContentStore	ContentStore	contentStoreService@contentbox	Key-value content blocks

Entry Entity

property name="entryService" inject="entryService@contentbox"

// Entry properties
entry.getEntryID()
entry.getTitle()
entry.getSlug()
entry.getHTMLContent()
entry.getPlainTextContent()
entry.getPublishedDate()
entry.getCreatedDate()
entry.getModifiedDate()
entry.getIsActive()
entry.getIsPublished()
entry.getHits()
entry.getNumberOfComments()

// Relationships
entry.getAuthor()              // Author entity
entry.getCategories()          // Query of categories
entry.getComments()            // Query of comments
entry.getSite()                // Site entity
entry.getFeaturedImage()       // Media entity

// Status
entry.getStatus()              // "published", "draft", "pending"
entry.isPublished()
entry.isDraft()

Page Entity

property name="pageService" inject="pageService@contentbox"

// Page properties
page.getPageID()
page.getTitle()
page.getSlug()
page.getHTMLContent()
page.getPlainTextContent()
page.getCreatedDate()
page.getModifiedDate()
page.getIsActive()
page.getIsPublished()
page.getMenuOrder()            // For ordering in menus
page.getParent()               // Parent page (hierarchical)
page.getChildren()             // Child pages

// Relationships
page.getAuthor()
page.getSite()
page.getFeaturedImage()

ContentStore Entity

property name="contentStoreService" inject="contentStoreService@contentbox"

// ContentStore is a key-value store
contentStoreService.getValue( "key" )
contentStoreService.setValue( "key", "value" )
contentStoreService.deleteValue( "key" )
contentStoreService.getAll()

// ContentStore entity
item.getContentStoreID()
item.getSlug()                 // The key
item.getContent()              // The value
item.getCreatedDate()
item.getModifiedDate()

Custom Fields

ContentBox supports custom fields through the cbCustomField entity and service:

property name="customFieldService" inject="customFieldService@contentbox"

// Create custom field
field = customFieldService.new( {
	name        : "subtitle",
	label       : "Subtitle",
	type        : "text",         // text, textarea, boolean, select, date, number
	required    : false,
	defaultValue: "",
	contentType : "entry",        // "entry", "page", or "all"
	order       : 1
} )
customFieldService.save( field )

// Get custom fields for content type
fields = customFieldService.findByContentType( "entry" )

Custom Field Types

Type	Description
text	Single-line text input
textarea	Multi-line text area
boolean	Checkbox toggle
select	Dropdown select
date	Date picker
number	Numeric input
media	Media picker
html	HTML editor

Accessing Custom Field Values

// Get custom field value from entry
subtitle = entry.getCustomFieldValue( "subtitle" )

// Get all custom field values
fields = entry.getCustomFields()

Content Helpers (Mixins)

Inject mixins into all content objects via settings:

// In ModuleConfig.bx configure()
settings.contentHelpers = [
	"mymodule.models.mixins.MyContentMixin"
]

Creating a Content Mixin

// models/mixins/MyContentMixin.bx
component {

	function getExcerpt( numeric maxLength = 200 ){
		return left( this.getPlainTextContent(), arguments.maxLength ) & "..."
	}

	function getReadingTime(){
		wordCount = arrayLen( listToArray( this.getPlainTextContent(), " " ) )
		return ceiling( wordCount / 200 )
	}

}

Using Content Mixins

// After injecting, methods are available on all content objects
excerpt  = entry.getExcerpt( 150 )
readTime = entry.getReadingTime()

Content Rendering

Content Renderers

ContentBox uses interceptors to process content before rendering:

Renderer	Class	Purpose
Link Renderer	LinkRenderer@contentbox	Process internal links
Widget Renderer	WidgetRenderer@contentbox	Process {widget:...} shortcodes
Setting Renderer	SettingRenderer@contentbox	Process {setting:...} shortcodes
Markdown Renderer	MarkdownRenderer@contentbox	Process Markdown content

Widget Shortcode

{widget:WidgetName arg1="value" arg2="value"}

Setting Shortcode

{setting:cb_site_title}

Content Lifecycle

Entry Lifecycle

// Interception points
cbadmin_preEntrySave      // Before entry saved
cbadmin_postEntrySave     // After entry saved
cbadmin_preEntryRemove    // Before entry deleted
cbadmin_postEntryRemove   // After entry deleted
cbadmin_onEntryStatusUpdate  // When status changes
cb_onContentRendering     // Before content rendered

Page Lifecycle

// Interception points
cbadmin_prePageSave
cbadmin_postPageSave
cbadmin_prePageRemove
cbadmin_postPageRemove
cbadmin_onPageStatusUpdate
cb_onContentRendering

Content Queries

EntryService Queries

property name="entryService" inject="entryService@contentbox"

// Find published entries
entries = entryService.findPublishedContent(
	max       : 10,
	category  : "news",
	searchTerm: "search term",
	sortOrder : "publishedDate DESC",
	siteID    : siteId
)

// Find by slug
entry = entryService.findBySlug( "my-entry-slug" )

// Find by category
entries = entryService.findByCategory( "news" )

// Find by author
entries = entryService.findByAuthor( authorId )

// Count entries
count = entryService.countPublishedContent( siteID : siteId )

PageService Queries

property name="pageService" inject="pageService@contentbox"

// Find all pages
pages = pageService.findAllWhere( { siteID : siteId, isPublished : true } )

// Find by slug
page = pageService.findBySlug( "about" )

// Find children
children = pageService.findChildren( parentId )

// Find hierarchical
tree = pageService.getHierarchicalPages( siteId )

Best Practices

1. Use services — entryService, pageService, contentStoreService
2. Use findBySlug() — for human-readable URL lookups
3. Always filter by siteID — in multi-site installations
4. Use content helpers — for reusable content methods
5. Use interception points — for content lifecycle hooks
6. Validate custom fields — ensure data integrity
7. Use getPlainTextContent() — for excerpts and search
8. Use getHTMLContent() — for rendering
9. Handle soft deletes — check isDeleted flag
10. Cache expensive queries — use CacheBox for performance

Engine Compatibility

This skill targets BoxLang engine. For CFML-specific syntax (Lucee 5+, Adobe ColdFusion 2018+), see the CFML variant of this skill.

Key BoxLang advantages:

• Cleaner script syntax without <cfcomponent> / <cffunction> tags
• No parentheses needed for zero-argument function calls
• #{...}# for inline expression output in .bx templates
• Modern syntax: ?: null coalescing, ?. safe navigation
• Native support for modern data structures