Creating Content Structures

Liferay DXP 2026.Q3+

Create content structures to define data models for content and files in the CMS. You can reuse existing models or create new ones. To work with content structures,

Create a content structure and configure its fields.
Configure the structure’s fields and general options, including field types, labels, mandatory settings, localization, and the spaces where the structure is available.
After publishing, customize the structure’s experience to control how users interact with it.
Assign workflows to manage content approval, if needed.
Manage the structure by editing, copying, exporting, importing, setting permissions, or deleting it.

Creating and Configuring Content Structures

Open the Global Menu () and click CMS.
In the left menu, click Content Structures.
Click New and choose a structure type: Content or File.

Every content structure starts with a text field called Title. File structures include an upload field called File.
In the structure builder page, enter a title and name for the structure.
In the General tab, set a unique ERC (External Reference Code) for easy reference across Liferay.
Optionally, set the Slug for the structure.

The slug becomes part of the URL of every content item built on this structure. It’s prefilled from the Content Structure Label (the title above the tabs) and keeps matching it until you type your own value. Publishing stops that tracking, though the field stays editable. Publish with an empty slug field and Liferay derives the slug from the Content Structure Name instead, prefixed with c_. See Configuring Content URLs for how the URL is assembled and what changes when you edit the slug later.
Under Space Availability, decide where to publish your structure. To select spaces, uncheck Make this content structure available in all spaces, including those yet to be created, and then select the space(s) you want.
On the left panel, select from the below field types for the content structure:
- Text, Long Text, Rich Text
- Numeric, Decimal
- Email
- Phone Number
- Select from List
- Date, Date and Time
- Boolean
- Upload
- Select Related Content (to reference one or multiple entries from a different content structure)
- Referenced Content Structure (to include an existing structure)
Configure each field. See Content Structure Fields Configuration Reference for details.
Use the Workflow tab to set a default workflow for the content structure.
Click Publish to make the structure available, or click Save to continue editing and publish it later.

The content structure appears under the Contents or Files section, depending on its type.

The new content structure appears under the Contents or Files section.

Customizing Content Structure Experiences

Subscription

By default, a content structure experience is generated automatically when you publish a content structure. If you have an Enterprise subscription you can preview and edit this experience to control the form’s layout and behavior.

Click Customize Editor at the top of the structure view to open the page editor experience.

You can preview the content structure experience and arrange fields and fragments for end-user forms to control how the content structure appears.

In the page editor, customizing the content structure experience works the same way as editing a regular page with form fragments. You can add, rearrange, and style fragments to control the form’s appearance and behavior.

See Using Form Fragments for details on available fragments and configuration options. Starting with Liferay DXP 2025.Q4, you can use these fragments in a content structure experience:

Fragment	Description
Accordion	Organizes content into collapsible sections.
URL Video Previewer	Displays a video preview from a provided URL.
Inline Text	Adds editable text directly within the form layout.
Spaces	Shows the spaces where the structure is available.
Drag and Drop Upload	Lets users upload files by dragging them into the form area.

When you finish editing the experience, click Publish. You can see the result by creating an entry with the custom content structure.

Create an entry with the custom structure to see how the experience looks.

Assigning Workflows to Content Structures

Assign a workflow to a content structure to control how its entries are approved. You can set a default workflow for every space where the structure is available, and override that default for individual spaces.

Open the Content Structures list and click the structure to open it in the structure builder.
Click the Workflow tab, beside the General tab.
Under Default Workflow, select a workflow (for example, Single Approver) or keep No Workflow.

Choose from the workflow definitions in your instance; see Designing and Managing Workflows. The default applies to entries created with this structure in every space that follows the default, including spaces created later. Assigning a workflow doesn’t change entries that already exist; each keeps its current status until someone next submits it, when it goes through the workflow.
(Optional) Under Workflow per Space, find the space in the table, using Search Space to filter the list. Select a workflow to override the default for that space alone.

Only the spaces where the structure is available appear. Space Availability is set on the content structure’s General tab. You can override the space default with another workflow, but you can’t set No Workflow while the structure default sets a workflow.
(Optional) Return a space to the structure default by selecting the Default option (for example, Default: Single Approver). The label updates when you change the default, and the space follows the new workflow.
Click Publish (or Save before the first publish). Workflow assignments are saved with the structure.

Important

If you remove a space from Space Availability, its row disappears from the Workflow per Space table, and its workflow assignment is discarded when you publish the structure. You can only remove a space that holds no content created from the structure; see the Space Removal Safeguard.

There is no workflow setting inside a space, so per-space workflows are assigned only from the structure’s Workflow tab.

To set the default workflow for one or several structures at once, use Assign Default Workflow in the Content Structures list; see Managing Workflows in Bulk. For the model behind these settings, see Workflow in the Content Management System.

When the structure assigns a workflow for the entry’s space, the Publish button in the content editor is replaced with a Submit for Workflow button. If no workflow applies, entries are published immediately without review.

Working Faster in the Structure Builder

The structure builder includes usability features that speed up field management and help you avoid accidental data loss.

Help and Shortcuts: Click Help and Shortcuts () in the lower right of the structure builder, or press Shift+?, to open the Help and Shortcuts modal. The modal lists the builder’s shortcuts in three sections: Actions for field and structure operations, Selection for selecting several fields at once, and Help for the shortcut that opens the modal.

The Help and Shortcuts modal lists the builder's shortcuts under the Actions, Selection, and Help sections.

This table lists builder shortcuts, including the pointer equivalents and the Escape shortcut the modal leaves out.

Section	Action	Shortcut
Actions	Duplicate Item	Ctrl+D
Actions	Delete Selected Item	Backspace or Delete
Actions	Add Referenced Structure	Shift+Enter
Actions	Create Repeatable Group	Ctrl+G
Actions	Ungroup	Shift+Ctrl+G
Actions	Rename	Alt+Ctrl+R
Actions	Copy	Ctrl+C
Actions	Paste	Ctrl+V
Actions	Save	Ctrl+S
Actions	Publish	Ctrl+P
Selection	Range Selection	Shift+click, Shift+Up Arrow, or Shift+Down Arrow
Selection	Noncontinuous Selection	Ctrl+click or Ctrl+Enter
Selection	Clear Selection	Escape
Help	Help and Shortcuts	Shift+?

The modal lists all four arrow keys for Range Selection, but only Up Arrow and Down Arrow change the selection. On macOS, Noncontinuous Selection requires Command rather than Ctrl.

Several shortcuts are context dependent, and pressing one when it doesn’t apply does nothing.

Shortcut	Availability
Duplicate Item	One field at a time. Not available on the locked Title field or on fields that belong to a referenced content structure.
Rename	One field at a time. Not available on the locked Title field, Select Related Content fields, or a referenced content structure.
Ungroup	One repeatable group at a time, and not one that belongs to a referenced content structure.
Save	Not available once the structure is published. Publish again to save later changes.

While the cursor is in a text box, a drop-down, or a rich text editor, the builder ignores these keyboard shortcuts, so you can type freely when editing a field’s label. Escape is an exception, and pressing it while you type can clear your field selection.

Copying and Pasting Fields: Copy one or more fields and paste them elsewhere in the structure.

Select the field or fields to copy. Click a field, Shift+click to select every field between it and the one you clicked first, or Ctrl+click to add and remove individual fields. With two or more fields selected, a toolbar shows the number of items selected and a Selection Options () button.

You can’t copy the locked Title field, Select Related Content fields, or fields that belong to a referenced content structure. If the selection holds none of the fields you can copy, Copy does nothing.
Click Selection Options, then click Copy (or press Ctrl+C). The menu also lists Create Repeatable Group, Duplicate, and Delete.
Open the options menu () on the paste target, either a repeatable group or the top row of the Content Structure Fields panel, and click Paste, or select the target and press Ctrl+V.

A successful paste adds the copied field or fields inside the target. Copying shows no confirmation message; the field is ready to paste as soon as you click Copy. Copied fields stay available only in this structure while the builder is open — they aren’t placed on your computer’s clipboard, so you can’t paste them into another structure or another application. If the target does not accept the copied field, such as a single field or a repeatable group that belongs to a referenced structure, Liferay DXP shows this error message: “Items could not be pasted because the target is not allowed.”

Deleting Published Fields: When you delete one or more fields and at least one of them is already published, a confirmation modal titled “Delete Fields” appears with a “Do not show me this again.” checkbox and Cancel and Delete buttons. Checking the box suppresses the modal for the rest of your session, whether you then click Cancel or Delete. Deleting a field that was never published does not show this modal.

The Delete Fields confirmation modal warns that deleting fields may impact existing stored data.

Space Removal Safeguard: Under Space Availability, if you try to remove a space that already has content created from the structure, Liferay DXP blocks the removal and shows an error naming the affected space: “The space [space name] cannot be removed because it has content created from this structure.” If a removed space still has content when you publish the structure, Liferay DXP restores the space to the structure’s availability and shows a confirmation dialog before you continue publishing.

Repeatable Groups and Referenced Content Structure Fields: If you select a field that belongs to a referenced content structure, alone or together with other fields, and try to create a repeatable group from the selection, Liferay DXP blocks the action. Moving such a field into an existing repeatable group is blocked the same way, with a message explaining that the field belongs to a referenced content structure.