# How to manage content types and records in Data Manager

Source: https://dev.arcxp.com/custom-content/how-to-guides/how-to-manage-content-types-and-records-in-data-manager/

Data Manager is the Arc XP application for Structured Content. It has two sides: **Schema Manager**, where a content type is designed, and the **record list**, where editors create and edit the records of a content type. This guide walks through both. For the same operations over the API, see the [developer guide](https://dev.arcxp.com/custom-content/core-concepts/developer-guide) and the [endpoint reference](https://dev.arcxp.com/custom-content/reference/draft-api-sct-endpoints).

## Before you start

- Access to Data Manager is granted in Arc Admin’s Permissions app, under the **Data Center** permission group (see [Getting access](https://dev.arcxp.com/custom-content/core-concepts/getting-access-to-structured-content-ui-and-apis)). Read lets you browse records, Write lets you create and edit them.
- **Schema Manager** is an admin surface. A user needs the Admin scope, globally or on any site, to see it.
- Every rule described here is enforced by the Draft API. Data Manager checks the same rules before saving.

## Schema Manager: designing a content type

Open **Schema Manager** from the top navigation; its sidebar is headed **Content Types** and lists every content type in the organization — type to filter it — and shows the organization’s usage against its limits: how many content types exist out of the maximum, how many indexed fields are in use out of the purchased capacity, and the per-type ceiling of 200 fields.

![Content Types: the sidebar lists every schema with the usage limits beneath, and the main panel invites you to select or create one](https://dev.arcxp.com/images/custom-content/data-manager/content-types-list.png) 

### Creating a content type

**Create New Schema** opens an empty definition. Give it a **name** — the permanent identifier, lowercase words separated by hyphens (`event-venue`), which cannot be changed or reused once saved — a **display name**, and an optional description. Then add fields.

Each field card holds:

| Setting            | Notes                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| ------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Key**            | The machine identifier your developers query by. Lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens, underscores; unique within the type. Locked after the first save.                                   |
| **Display Name**   | The label editors see. Change it any time.                                                                                                                                                |
| **Help text**      | Optional. Shown to editors beneath the input.                                                                                                                                             |
| **Type**           | One of the [field types](https://dev.arcxp.com/custom-content/reference/structured-content-field-types). Locked after the first save.                                                     |
| **Required**       | Can be switched **off** later, never **on** — existing records would fail validation.                                                                                                     |
| **Search Indexes** | Editorial (Data Manager search) and Retrieval (Content API queries), each with the index kinds valid for the type. An index can be added later but never removed once the field is saved. |

Type-specific settings appear when relevant: **Enum Values** (one per line) for `enum`; **Array Item Type** for `array` — `Untyped` for a free-form list, `reference` for a list of references, or `enum` for a multi-select whose options are its **Enum Values**; **Target Kind** and, for `schema` targets, **Target Schema** for `reference` fields.

![A saved field: key and type are greyed out, display name and help text remain editable, and the Search Indexes panel shows the editorial and retrieval toggles](https://dev.arcxp.com/images/custom-content/data-manager/schema-field-editor.png) ![A reference field with the Target Kind list open: schema, image, video, gallery, story, author](https://dev.arcxp.com/images/custom-content/data-manager/reference-field-target-kind.png) 

Reorder fields with the arrows on each card; the order is the order editors see in the form. **Add Field** appends another.

### What you can change later

The builder greys out what is immutable and refuses to save what would break existing records — the same rules the API applies on `PATCH`:

- **Always allowed:** display name, description and help text; adding a field; adding an index kind (if capacity allows); relaxing Required from on to off.
- **Never allowed after the first save:** changing a field’s key or type; removing a field; removing an index; making a field required; changing a reference field’s Target Kind, Target Schema or an array’s item type.

If a saved field needs one of those changes, the path is a new content type with a different name — see [Recovering from a schema design mistake](https://dev.arcxp.com/custom-content/core-concepts/developer-guide#recovering-from-a-schema-design-mistake).

### Indexed-field capacity

Every field with an Editorial or Retrieval index counts once against the organization’s searchable-field capacity, shared by all content types. The sidebar shows the total and, while a type is open, that type’s share. Saving stops with an **Index limit reached** message when a new index would exceed it; since indexes on saved fields cannot be removed, capacity is only freed by deleting a content type. `reference`, `rich-text`, `object` and `array` fields (except multi-selects) take no index and use no capacity. Additional capacity is a paid add-on — see [Limits and quotas](https://dev.arcxp.com/custom-content/reference/limits-and-quotas-for-structured-content-types).

### Deleting a content type

**Delete Schema** is refused while the type still has records, and while another content type has a `reference` field pointing at it. Remove those first; records can be deleted from the record list, one at a time or several at once with **Select**. A deleted name is retired permanently.

### Settings

**Settings** in the top navigation holds the per-type display and access settings:

- **Display Name Field** — which required `short-text` field is used as a record’s title in lists and pickers.
- **Preview URL** — a template with `${id}` and `${schema}` placeholders; when set, every record gets a **Preview** button.
- **Site Restrictions** — which websites may circulate records of this type.
- **List columns** — the fields shown as columns in the record list. Each user can override this for their own browser with the list’s **Columns** button.

The **Display** section sets the **Time zone** dates are shown in, for your browser only.

## Records

The record list opens on the content type chosen in the left column. The search box above the list searches the fields that carry an Editorial index; the filter pills narrow by **Status** (published or draft), **Website**, and when a record was **Modified**, **Published** or **Created**; **My items** shows what you created or contributed to. Sort sits at the right end of the same row and is disabled while a text search orders the results by relevance.

![The Book record list: a search bar, filter pills for Status, Website, Modified, Published, Created and My items, the sort control, and a table of records](https://dev.arcxp.com/images/custom-content/data-manager/record-list.png) 

**Create Item** opens the form. The form is generated from the schema: each field renders the input for its type, required fields are marked, and help text appears beneath. Saving keeps a draft; **Publish** makes the record available to the Content API and to PageBuilder.

### Reference fields

A reference field shows the referenced items as chips — the target’s title once it has loaded, with a type icon so an image and a video are told apart at a glance. Click a chip to open the target in its own application. The button beside the chips is named for the target — **Add image**, **Add story**, **Add book** for list fields, **Select gallery** for a single-value field — and opens a picker matched to the field’s Target Kind:

| Target Kind    | Picker                                                                                                             |
| -------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| schema         | Data Manager’s own record list, filtered to the target content type, in select mode                                |
| story          | A story search with the same filters as Composer: website, publish state, dates, headline, author, source, subtype |
| image, gallery | The Photo Center panel                                                                                             |
| video          | The Video Center panel                                                                                             |
| author         | A search by name or email                                                                                          |

Pick one or several (for list fields), then **Select**. An **ID** toggle beside the button accepts a document id typed by hand for every kind; an id is not verified on save — an unknown one is left unresolved when the record is published.

![A record form with reference fields: image, video, story, author and book references shown as chips, each with an Add button and an ID toggle](https://dev.arcxp.com/images/custom-content/data-manager/reference-field-form.png) ![The story picker: filters for status, website and date range on the left, a searchable list of stories with checkboxes on the right](https://dev.arcxp.com/images/custom-content/data-manager/story-picker.png) ![The record picker: Data Manager's own Book list in select mode, with checkboxes and a Select button](https://dev.arcxp.com/images/custom-content/data-manager/record-picker.png) 

Worth telling editors: **the referenced content is copied at publish time.** The published record carries the target as it was when the record was last published. When a target changes, republish the records that point at it.

### Rich-text fields

A `rich-text` field opens an editor with headings, bold, italic, underline and strikethrough, links, bulleted and numbered lists, and paragraph alignment, plus undo/redo and a maximize control for long text. Content is stored as HTML and cleaned on save against a fixed allowlist of tags and attributes (listed in [Rich-text fields](https://dev.arcxp.com/custom-content/reference/structured-content-field-types#rich-text-fields)), so anything pasted from elsewhere that is not on the list — scripts, embedded objects, inline styling — is dropped. The limit is 0.5 MB per field.

![A rich-text field: toolbar with undo, redo, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, bulleted and numbered lists, alignment and maximize, above formatted text with nested lists](https://dev.arcxp.com/images/custom-content/data-manager/rich-text-editor.png) 

### The Usage tab

Open a record and switch to **Usage**. It lists every document that references this one — stories and records of any content type — with the state the reference appears in (Published, Draft or both) and when that document was last updated. Filter chips narrow by document type; a search box filters by title or id; each row opens the referencing document.

This is the tool for the copy-at-publish rule above: after changing a record that others reference, Usage tells you exactly which documents need republishing.

![The Usage tab: Referenced by 3 documents, filter chips for All, Story and Content type, and a table of the referencing documents with their Published or Draft state](https://dev.arcxp.com/images/custom-content/data-manager/usage-tab.png) 

### History and URLs

**History** lists the record’s revisions and lets you compare or restore one. **URLs** shows the URLs the record has been given per website and lets you regenerate them when the URL rules change.