Collections

In their most basic form, collections may have only their data structure defined. Since MongoDB is a schemaless database, data will be verified on the application level before being inserted. A collection that stores people may be defined as following:

collection Person {
  properties {
    name str
    age int
  }
}

We can tell which properties are to be required using the required attribute:

collection Person {
  required { 
    name 
  } 
  properties {
    name str
    age int
  }
}

Collections can have attributes other than their own data structure. You can define an icon from the Phosphor Icon library to represent your collection on the frontend using the icon attribute. You can also define which properties are to be displayed in frontend tables using the table attribute.

collection Person {
  icon "person"
  table { 
    name 
  } 
  required {
    name
  }
  properties {
    name str
    age int
  }
}

Finally, you can have CRUD-related functions directly bound to your collection by using the functions attribute. Each function will be accessible through it's respective REST endpoint.

collection Person {
  icon "person"
  table {
    name
  }
  required {
    name
  }
  properties {
    name str
    age int
  }
  functions { 
    get
    getAll
    insert
    remove
  } 
}

Attributes

required

collection Example {
  required {
    name
    document
    legal_responsible @cond(age < 18)
  }
}

This property is used to verify document wholeness upon creation and update. Case set to an array of strings, will consider only specified properties to validate document wholeness, otherwise will check if all properties are not null or undefined.

properties

The properties contained in the collection. Properties are described in a separate section.

actions

Actions that aren't associated with a single database entry.

collection Person {
  actions {
    add {
      label "Add new entry"
    }
  }
}

filters

This property is used to control a filter widget rendered inside the aeria-crud component. If set, a filter button will appear, otherwise no filter functionallity will be made available.

The array passed to this property can contain two types of elements, either a string representing a property name, or an object containing both the property name and a default filter.

collection Person {
  filters {
    name
  }
}

filtersPresets

collection Person {
  filtersPresets {
    active {
      label "Active"
      filters {
        active true
      }
    }
  }
}

form

If set, runtime generated forms will render only specified properties. Otherwise all properties are rendered.

WARNING

This property alone won't keep any of non-specified collection properties to be written. If you need to make properties read-only, use the writable property in an exclusive manner.

collection Person {
  form {
    name
    document
  }
}

formLayout

This property controls how inputs should be dynamically rendered inside frontend forms.

collection Person {
  formLayout {
    fields {
      responsible @if(age == 18)
    }
  }
}

icon

This property may be used to specify an icon from an icon library to be associated with the collection in the frontend. It will be shown on navbars, breadcumbs, etc.

collection Person {
  icon "file"
}

immutable

This property may be used to specify properties that should be writable upon creation, but read-only upon update. If set to true, then will enable immutability to all properties, if set to an array of strings, only specified properties will receive that attribute.

collection Person {
  immutable {
    status
  }
}

indexes

This optional property may be used to specify an icon from an icon library to be associated with the collection in the frontend. It will be shown on navbars, breadcumbs, etc.

collection Person {
  indexes {
    name
    document
  }
}

individualActions

Actions associated with a single database entry. In a tabular layout, these are displayed inside a dropdown in the last column.

collection Person {
  individualActions {
    remove {
      label "Remove"
    }
  }
}

owned

This property is used to control the access of user-owned resources. If set to true or 'always' in a description, users will only be able to view and edit resources created by themselves.

Accepted values:

• true
• "always"
• "on-write"

collection Person {
  owned true
}

table

This property is used exclusively by the frontend. Case set to an array of strings, will specify properties to be used as columns in aeria-crud component. Otherwise all properties will be used.

NOTE

In the frontend, Aeria will smartly request only required properties in order to make network payloads lighter. This is specialy important in runtime generated views. If you need to use a property that isn't set as a column inside your view, please add the tableMeta property.

collection Person {
  table {
    name
    document
  }
}

tableMeta

If set, grid and tabular runtime generated views will request the specified properties alongside the ones specified in table.

collection Person {
  tableMeta {
    extra_property
  }
}

tableLayout

collection Person {
  tableLayout {}
}

timestamps

This property should only be used to disable automatic timestamps in a certain collection (created_at and updated_at). Timestamps are always enabled by default.

collection Person {
  timestamps false
}

layout

Specifies a layout to override the default tabular one.

collection Person {
  layout {
    name "tabular"
    options {
      title title
    }
  }
}

preset

Merges a description preset into the current one. To see what each preset contains please head to the source code.

collection Person {
  presets {
    crud
    view
  }
}

writable

If set, all properties except the one specified will be made read-only. Trying writing on them will trigger an Access Control error.

collection Person {
  writable {
    name
    document
  }
}

search

Activates a search bar in the frontend that will perform a MongoDB $text query.

collection Person {
  search {
    placeholder "Search by name or by document"
    indexes {
      name
      document
    }
  }
}