eZ publish 3 definitions

You should understand the following concepts before starting to develop with eZ publish. Visit the SDK documentation for more info on the definitions.

Content class

In eZ publish you can define your own content classes. This is an object definition if you like. Some examples of content classes are article, forum, product and user account.

The concept of classes makes adding new content to the site very easy. Users can start making new content objects immediately by entering data into templates that is auto-generated by eZ publish. Adding new attributes to content classes can be done at any time with no change in code or database required. Using the content structure, users can easily add new categories and sub-categories for the site.

Content class attribute

Each class consists of several attributes. The attributes or elements define the name and behaviour of the class. For example an article content class may consist of the attributes: title, intro and body. The title could be a string data type; the intro and body could be XML formatted text.

Content object

A content object is an instance of a defined content class. The content class defines the structure of content objects. The content object is the actual documents/articles etc. that are stored in eZ publish. For instance, a Music category is an instance of the Category class. An article about U2 would be an instance of the Article class. The user Peter is an instance of the User class.

Content object version

Each content object can exist in several versions. This is to keep track of changes and to be able to revert changes in an object.

Content object attribute

Each content object consists of several attributes. These attributes are defined by a content class attribute. The content object attribute contains the actual data.

Content object tree

The content object tree is the tree structure representation of all the content on your site. Any node in the tree is a content class instance - a content object. A content object always has a primary parent node, but may also be attached to several other nodes. There is no limit on number of levels in the object structure tree.

How to make an object

Making or editing objects in eZ publish 3 is designed to be simple and fast. It is all done in the admin interface. In the content view you will find a button called New. Next to this button you will find a drop down menu consisting of the available classes, folder, article, picture etc. When you highlight one of these and click New, you will be redirected to the Edit window, which contains a form. When you have entered your data and saved it, you have made an object.

You will find more information about this in the User Manual.