Overview

Each document in Kentico CMS is of some type. Each document type has its own:

•	fields (data structure)

•	editing form layout

•	transformations (design)

•

queries

and other settings.

Document types are fully customizable - you can add, modify and delete custom fields. The advantage of using custom document types is that you can define custom structure of documents and store content (data) separated from design. This can be done in Site Manager -> Development -> Document types.

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General properties of a document type

Document type display name	The name of the site displayed to the users.
Document type code name	The name of the site used in the code.
New page	URL of the page that will be used for creating new documents of this type.
Editing page	URL of the editing page that will be used when the document is displayed in the editing mode, using the Page tab.
Editing form	URL of the editing page that will be used when the document is displayed in the editing mode, using the Form tab.
Preview page	URL of the editing page that will be used when the document is displayed in the preview mode.
List page	URL of the editing page that will be used when the document is displayed in the list mode.
Use publish from/publish to	Indicates if publish from/to fields should be displayed for this document type.
Show template selection	Indicates if users must select some page template first when they create a new document of this type.
Default page template	The page template used by default when the document is created. If no page template is specified, the document inherits the parent page template.
Behaves as Page (menu item) type	Indicates if the document type has similar behavior as Page (menu item) document type. The default view mode for such a document type is the Page tab. Viewer web parts are automatically set to display the child documents if the path is not configured and the document does not inherit its parent template by default.
Document is product type	Indicates if documents of this type are products of the E-commerce module.

Transformations are pieces of code that determine how Kentico CMS documents, or certain parts of them, are rendered by listing web parts and controls. They take raw data from the Kentico CMS database and transform it into the form you wish it to appear in. This makes them a crucial tool when displaying documents and document related data on the pages of your website. Transformations can be accessed in Site Manager -> Development -> Document types -> Edit () <document_type>, on the Transformations tab.

•	If you would like to learn about the functionality of transformations and/or would like to see examples of the code, please refer to the Transformations topic.

•	If you would like to learn how to define a new document type, please refer to the Defining a new document type topic.

•	If you would like to see an example of writing transformations for a particular document type, please refer to the Writing transformations topic.

•	If you would like to learn how to add your own functions to transformations, please refer to the Adding custom functions to transformations topic.

•	To learn how to add context menus to web parts displaying Users or Groups, please refer to the Context menus in transformations topic.

Kentico CMS E-commerce Guide contains several examples of the use of document types and transformations. See e.g. Integration with your existing Kentico CMS web site -> Web parts -> Random products, Customizing the product fields -> Defining a new product type or Customizing product design in the same section of the E-commerce Guide. Please note that these practical examples do not concern the whole functionality of the Document types and transformations section but focus on its specific application.

You will need to have the E-commerce Site sample website installed to follow Kentico CMS E-commerce Guide.

A number of practical examples of the use of document types and transformations are available in Kentico CMS Community Site Guide; please note that these examples are again specific applications within the context of the Community Site sample website. See e.g. Part 2 -> Creating the Blogs section -> Creating the Blogs page in Kentico CMS Community Site Guide.

Please note that Kentico CMS Personal Site Guide also contains several topics where the use of document types is mentioned.

Page url: http://devnet.kentico.com/docs/5_5r2/devguide/index.html?document_type_overview.htm