Create and organize CMS content — like blog posts — in a database called a Collection.
A CMS Collection is a database where you can store content to reference throughout your site. You'll create one Collection for each type of content (e.g., blog posts, authors, recipes, etc.), because each Collection uses a single page template and schema (i.e., the structure or blueprint) for all content entries. The individual content entries (i.e., CMS data) are called Collection items.
How to create a Collection
To add a new Collection:
- Click the CMS tab
- Click Create a Collection or the Create new Collection icon
- (Optional) Choose a Collection template to add preconfigured fields
- Name the Collection
- (Optional) Adjust your Collection URL and edit which Collection fields you want
- Click Create Collection
You can now create Collection items (e.g., individual blog posts, recipes, help articles, etc.) for this Collection.
Collection templates
If you aren’t sure what content structure you’ll need for your Collection, you can select a prebuilt Collection template from the top to get started. Choosing a template adds a default name, URL, and fields — all of which you can edit afterwards. The available templates include:
- Blog posts
- Authors
- Categories
- Projects
- Clients
- Team members
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- Listings
- Events
- Menu items
- Songs
- Shows
- Recipes
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Collection name
Use the Collection name field to change the name at any time. Webflow generates singular and plural versions of the Collection name to use throughout the site (e.g., blog post and blog posts).
You can edit these names by clicking in to Plural version or Singular version beneath the Collection name field.
Collection URL
The Collection URL field is the slug for the folder that holds your Collection pages (i.e., the pages generated for each Collection item). For example, if you have a Blog Posts Collection with the Collection URL post, the URL structure for a blog post would be: yourdomain.com/post/your-blog-post.
Webflow automatically generates a Collection URL that matches the Collection name, but you can customize the Collection URL if you want. If you rename the Collection URL after publishing your site, you’ll need to set 301 redirects to ensure that any existing external links to pages in your Collection continue to work.
Instead of setting a redirect for each Collection item, you can set one redirect as follows:
- Old path:
/old-collection-url/(.*)
- Redirect to path:
/new-collection-url/%1
Note
You can't use reserved slugs as Collection names or URLs. Additionally, you can’t enable Ecommerce on a site that has CMS Collections, static pages, or folders with Ecommerce slugs like product or category.
Collection fields
Collection fields store data for each Collection item (e.g., blog title field). When editing a Collection item, the Collection fields you've added to the Collection are available for you to enter data specific to that item (e.g., the blog title for the Collection item you're editing).
A Name and Slug field are required and added by default. You can add custom fields by clicking Add Field in the Custom fields section, or add one of the following default fields by clicking Add New Field.
- Plain text
- Rich text
- Image
- Multi-image
- Video link
- Link
- Email
- Phone
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- Number
- Date/time
- Switch
- Color
- Option
- File
- Reference
- Multi-reference
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When adding a field, you can enter Help text to clarify what the field is used for and mark whether the field is required or not.
Note
Ecommerce Collections include a set of default fields (e.g., “Price”) that can't be added as custom fields for non-Ecommerce Collections. Additionally, these Ecommerce fields can't be removed from an Ecommerce Collection.
How to edit a Collection
Good to know
Site managers on Enterprise plans or partners can limit which members can edit a Collection with CMS edit access.
A Collection's settings and fields can be edited at any time. If the schema is changed, a full-site publish is needed for the changes to be reflected on the site.
To edit a Collection:
- Click the CMS tab
- Hover over the Collection and click the Settings icon
- Make your edits (e.g., add, edit, or remove custom fields)
Note
You can’t delete custom fields that are currently in use on your site (e.g., used in your designs, Collection pages and their settings, Collection lists and their settings).
How to duplicate a Collection
You can duplicate a Collection to create a new one with the same settings and fields. The duplicate includes the Collection name, URL, basic info, and custom fields — but not the items or content from Collection template pages.
To duplicate a Collection:
- Click the CMS tab
- Hover over the Collection and click the Settings icon
- Click the Duplicate Collection icon at the top
- Rename the duplicate Collection — "Copy" is appended to its name and URL
- Update the settings and fields as-needed
- Click Create Collection to save the duplicated Collection
How to reorder Collections
You can change which order the Collections appear in the CMS panel.
- Click the CMS tab
- Hover over a Collection, then click and hold the Drag icon to the left
- Drag the Collection to a new position in the list
How to delete a Collection
You can delete Collections when they’re no longer needed. To delete a Collection, you’ll first need to delete all Collection items from the Collection and remove all connections to the Collection and its fields.