Native CUE Stories

In native CUE stories, the rich text field is replaced by a storyline editor, which is defined like this in the content-type resource:

<field name="storyline" type="link">
  <relation>com.escenic.storyline</relation>
  <constraints>
    <mime-type>application/vnd.escenic.storyline+json</mime-type>
  </constraints>
</field>

The storyline field must be a link field (type=link) and must have:

• A child relation element with the content com.escenic.storyline

• A child constraints element that limits the content of the relation to the MIME type application/vnd.escenic.storyline+json

A storyline editor differs from the legacy rich text editor in the following ways:

• It does not conform to a generic predefined document format such as XHMTL. Instead, it offers a customizable set of styles defined in resource files called story element types and storyline templates.

• Because the document structure is extensible, it can include story elements for holding headlines, lead texts, bylines, images, videos, related stories. In other words, many things which have to be stored in separate fields in Escenic legacy stories can be included in the main flow of native CUE stories. It is still possible to make use of separate fields and relations where appropriate, but much more can now easily be included in the main flow of a story.

Here is a content type definition for a native CUE story:

<content-type name="story">
  <ui:icon>news</ui:icon>
  <ui:label>Story</ui:label>
  <ui:title-field>slug</ui:title-field>
  <panel name="main">
    <ui:label>Main</ui:label>
    <field name="storyline" type="link">
      <relation>com.escenic.storyline</relation>
      <ui:label>Storyline</ui:label>
      <constraints>
        <mime-type>application/vnd.escenic.storyline+json</mime-type>
      </constraints>
    </field>
  </panel>
  <panel name="metadata">
    <ui:label>Metadata</ui:label>
    <field mime-type="text/plain" type="basic" name="slug">
      <ui:label>Slug</ui:label>
      <ui:description>The working title of the story</ui:description>
      <constraints>
        <required>true</required>
      </constraints>
    </field>
  </panel>
</content-type>

The storyline field appears in the content type's first panel, and it is the only field in the panel. This ensures that the storyline editor is displayed by default when a content item is opened, and that it has the maximum amount of screen space available, since the tab it is displayed on contains no other fields.

This content type has fewer field definitions than the legacy story definition shown in Legacy Stories. The leadtext and dateline fields are no longer required because they can be defined as story elements inside the storyline field. The slug field, however, is retained as a separate field because it is used by CUE as a "working title" for the story. As in any other content type, The slug field must be a plain text field, and must be referenced by a ui:title-field element. It must also be defined as a required field.

Even though the slug field is required, the CUE user will rarely need to edit it in a native CUE story: when the story is saved for the first time, the content of one of the elements in the storyline field is copied into the slug field, which then becomes the story's working title. The story element used to fill the slug field is selected as follows:

• If available, the first non-empty element in the storyline that has a ui:title-field element in its story element type (see Story Element Types)

• Otherwise, the first non-empty element in the storyline.

The typical case is that there is a headline story element type that has a ui:title-field, and that this is a required element in the storyline, with the result that the slug field gets its content from the headline.

If the source story element is subsequently changed, the change is not copied over to the slug field, so the slug remains the same throughout the life of the story. A newly-created story cannot be saved until either the first element in the storyline field or the slug field itself has some content.

When a story content item is created in CUE, the user is immediately prompted to select a storyline template:

The content item is then created and the storyline field is populated with all the required and default element types specified in the selected template, ready for editing.