Working with References in Contentstack Just Got Easier

In Contentstack, you can reference other content types within a content type. A common example of a "reference" is listing an author or a category within a blog post. You might also include reference info for similar blog posts, images, or videos. 

There is a convention to be followed working with references: If you want to publish an entry that has references to other entries or assets, you should ideally publish all the referenced entries and assets first, and then publish the original entry.

Following this sequence ensures that the published entry has all the required content and is complete. But it’s easy to miss this. Many content editors forget to publish referred entities—especially if there are many references—before publishing the original entry. And the result is an entry with inadequate data and lots of rework.

Our latest update is an attempt to avoid this from happening. We have introduced a new alert window that works as a reminder as well as a tool to publish the unpublished (or draft) referenced entries or assets in a single click.

See It in Action

If you try to publish an entry that has references to other entries and/or assets, you will see a dialog box "Published References." This dialog box contains the list of all the unpublished entries and/or assets that are referred in the entry.

You can then choose the referred entries and/or assets should be published along with this entry. Or you can choose to publish the entry without publishing any referred entities (though it is not recommended). 

When you select the required entries/assets and click the "Publish with References" button, the entry will be published to the selected environment along with all the referenced entries and/or assets. It’s this simple. You don’t have to go back to the actual page of the referenced entries or assets in order to publish them.