Items

Key Concepts

Items are the data that form collections. Items within the same collection will share the same structure. This structure is determined by the collection’s attributes.

Creating Items

If the parent collection was created from a file, the items and relevant attributes will be automatically created. For example, if uploading a .csv your column headings will equate to the attributes (‘key’, ‘value’, ‘other1’, ‘other2’) and the rows to the individual items.

You may, however, create a collection and its items directly in Coreo if you wish. This is often convenient for very simple collections such as ‘yes/no/maybe’ lists.

If you have an existing collection you wish to update, you can add items to it. You can either do this by amending the original source file (e.g. .csv) and re-uploading it, or you can add items directly in Coreo by clicking the “New Item” button .

The Structure of Items

Key (required)

Items are required to have a ‘key’. This is a system identifier which is unique to the collection the item belongs to. Keys are used in various ways within Coreo including identifying each item in a collection for rendering pages or collection select attributes. Keys are not shown in your app but, as the unique identifier for your items, they are used when linking records together.

Value (required)

Items are required to have a ‘value’, a non-unique property that is often used as a name for the item. This is the human readable label for your item and will be shown in lists and pages.

Other Data

Items can store many different kinds of data. This data is structured based on the parent collection’s attributes, which enforce what can be stored in that collection’s items.

Media

Items can also store media. In Coreo you are able to attach photos, video and audio to an item. This enables you to easily create select lists which are enhanced with photos. It also enables you to create media rich reference guides.

Ordering

The order in which items will be displayed can be controlled in several ways. They will display in your app in the same order they are shown in the collection viewer. To change this order you can simply drag and drop them into their new order in the collection viewer. You can also add an “Order” attribute to your items to give you fine grained control on how a collection list is presented.