Writing Content

Content in Ava CMS is just text. You write in Markdown, which is a simple way to format text, and save it as a file. There's no database to manage—your files are your content.

Ava CMS can handle any combination of Markdown and standard HTML, even within the same file. You can also embed safe and reusable PHP snippets using Shortcodes for absolute flexibility.

# Heading 1
## Heading 2

**bold** and *italic*

- bullet item
1. numbered item

[a link](https://example.com)

`inline code`

```php
// a code block
echo 'Hello';
```‎ 

Content Types

Content types define what kinds of content your site has. They're configured in app/config/content_types.php:

return [
    'page' => [
        'label'       => 'Pages',
        'content_dir' => 'pages',
        'url'         => ['type' => 'hierarchical', 'base' => '/'],
    ],
    'post' => [
        'label'       => 'Posts',
        'content_dir' => 'posts',
        'url'         => ['type' => 'pattern', 'pattern' => '/blog/{slug}'],
        'taxonomies'  => ['category', 'tag'],
    ],
];

For complete configuration options (fields, templates, sorting, archives), see Configuration: Content Types.

The Basics

Every piece of content is a .md file with two parts:

1. 💌 Frontmatter — Metadata about the content (like title, date, status) at the top. Think of it like the address on an envelope.
2. 📝 Body — The actual content, written in Markdown.

---
title: My First Post
slug: my-first-post
status: published
date: 2024-12-28
---

# Hello World

This is my first post. I can use **bold**, *italics*, and [links](https://example.com).

Set status: draft while writing, then switch to published when you’re happy.

Creating Content

Manually

Create a .md file in the appropriate content directory:

content/
└── pages/
    └── my-new-page.md   ← create your file here

Add frontmatter and content, then save. If content_index.mode is auto (the default) or always, the site updates immediately. If it’s never, run ./ava rebuild or rebuild from the admin dashboard.

Via the Admin Dashboard

If you have the admin dashboard enabled, you can create, edit, and delete content files directly in the browser. Ava CMS writes changes back to your Markdown files (files remain the source of truth).

See Admin Dashboard for setup and usage.

Via CLI

Use the make command:

./ava make <type> "Title"

Examples:

./ava make page "About Us"
./ava make post "Hello World"

  ╭───────────────────────────╮
  │  Created new post!        │
  ╰───────────────────────────╯

  File:       content/posts/hello-world.md
  ID:         01JGHK8M3Q4R5S6T7U8V9WXYZ
  Slug:       hello-world
  Status:     draft

  💡 Tip: Edit your content, then set status: published when ready

Run without arguments to see available types:

./ava make

  ✗ Usage: ./ava make <type> "Title"

  Available types:

    ▸ page — Pages
    ▸ post — Posts

  Example:
    ./ava make post "My New Post"

This creates a properly formatted file with:

• Generated ULID
• Slugified filename
• Date (for dated types)
• Draft status

Organising Your Files

Content lives in the content/ folder. You can organise it however you like, but typically it looks like this:

content/
├── pages/           # Standard pages like About or Contact
│   ├── index.md     # Your homepage (or _index.md, if you prefer)
│   ├── about.md     # /about
│   └── services/
│       ├── index.md # /services
│       └── web.md   # /services/web
├── posts/           # Example of a pattern-based type (only if you define it)
│   └── hello.md
└── _taxonomies/     # Optional term registries (only if you use taxonomies)
  ├── category.yml
  └── tag.yml

For hierarchical types (like the default pages), folder structure maps cleanly to URLs. For example content/pages/services/web.md becomes /services/web.

Frontmatter Reference

Frontmatter is metadata about your content, written in YAML between two --- lines at the top of your file. Think of it as the "settings" for each page.

Full Example

Here's a complete example showing all the common fields (but you can keep it much simpler if you prefer):

---
id: 01JGMK0000POST0000000000001
title: My Blog Post
slug: my-blog-post
status: published
date: 2024-12-28
updated: 2024-12-30
excerpt: A short summary for listings and search results.
template: custom-post.php
order: 10
category:
  - tutorials
  - php
tag:
  - beginner
meta_title: SEO-Optimised Title
meta_description: Description for search engines.
canonical: https://example.com/blog/my-blog-post
og_image: "@media:2024/social-card.jpg"
noindex: false
cache: true
redirect_from:
  - /old-url
  - /another-old-url
assets:
  css:
    - "@media:css/custom-post.css"
  js:
    - "@media:js/interactive.js"
---

Your Markdown content goes here...

Core Fields

These fields are used by Ava CMS to manage and display your content.

*Ava CMS’s linter validates that the computed title and slug are non-empty, but Ava CMS also supplies defaults:

• slug defaults to the filename (e.g. hello-world.md → hello-world)
• title defaults to a title-cased version of slug

In other words: you can omit title/slug in frontmatter, but your filename still needs to be a valid slug or ./ava lint will fail.

Slugs and URLs (pattern vs hierarchical)

Ava CMS supports two URL styles per content type (configured in app/config/content_types.php):

• Pattern URLs (url.type = pattern): the item’s slug is used in the URL pattern (e.g. /blog/{slug}), and as the lookup key.
• Hierarchical URLs (url.type = hierarchical): the URL is derived from the file path, not the item’s slug.

For hierarchical types:

• content/pages/about/team.md becomes /about/team.
• index.md or _index.md represent the folder URL (e.g. content/pages/docs/index.md → /docs).
• The internal lookup key is the path (e.g. about/team). If you fetch items manually in templates, use that key:

$item = $ava->get('page', 'about/team');

Setting slug: in frontmatter does not change the URL for hierarchical content (the filesystem path wins).

IDs: optional, but powerful

The id field is optional.

Benefits of setting/keeping IDs:

• Ava CMS can fetch an item by ID via the repository index.
• You can create stable, rename-proof permalinks by using {id} in a pattern URL (e.g. '/p/{id}').
• Ava CMS detects duplicate IDs during indexing (helpful when merging content).

If you don’t need any of that, you can omit id: entirely.

Taxonomy Fields

Assign content to categories, tags, or any taxonomy defined in taxonomies.php.

category:
  - tutorials
  - php
tag:
  - getting-started
  - beginner

You can use either a single value or a list. Ava normalizes both into an array.

Alternative format: tax: map

Group all taxonomies under a single key:

tax:
  category: [tutorials, php]
  tag: beginner

Accessing Terms in Templates

<?php foreach ($content->terms('category') as $term): ?>
    <a href="<?= $ava->termUrl('category', $term) ?>">
        <?= $ava->termName('category', $term) ?>
    </a>
<?php endforeach; ?>

See: Taxonomies for full documentation on term storage, registry files, hierarchical terms, and template helpers.

SEO Fields

Control how your content appears in search engines and social media.

Your theme must output SEO meta tags in the page <head> (for example by including <?= $ava->metaTags($content) ?>).

Hierarchy & Ordering Fields

Control content structure and manual sorting.

Example using order for manual sorting:

---
title: Getting Started
order: 1
---

---
title: Advanced Usage
order: 2
---

In templates, sort by order:

$items = $ava->query()
    ->type('page')
    ->published()
    ->orderBy('order', 'asc')
    ->get();

Behaviour Fields

Fine-tune how Ava CMS handles this specific piece of content.

Per-Item Assets

Load CSS or JS only on specific pages (for "art-directed" posts). See Per-Item Assets for details.

Custom Fields

You can add any custom fields you like—they're just YAML keys in your frontmatter:

---
title: Team Member
slug: jane-doe
status: published
role: Lead Developer
website: "https://janedoe.com"
featured: true
---

Access them in templates with $item->get('field_name'):

<p>Role: <?= $ava->e($item->get('role')) ?></p>
<?php if ($item->get('featured')): ?>
    <span class="badge">Featured</span>
<?php endif; ?>

Want validation and admin UI for your custom fields? Define them in your content type configuration to get proper form inputs, type validation, and linting. See Fields for the complete guide to typed fields.

Redirects

When you move or rename content, set up redirects in the new file:

redirect_from:
  - /old-url
  - /another-old-url

Requests to the old URLs will 301 redirect to the new location.

Per-Item Assets (Art-Directed Posts)

For art-directed blogging, you can load custom CSS or JS on specific pages. Put your files in public/media/ and reference them:

assets:
  css:
    - "@media:css/my-styled-post.css"
  js:
    - "@media:js/interactive-chart.js"

Your theme must include <?= $ava->itemAssets($item) ?> in the <head> for these to load (the default theme already does this).

See also: Theming - Per-Item Assets for how to implement this in your theme.

Images and Media

Store images, PDFs, and other files in public/media/. Reference them using the @media: path alias:

![Team photo](@media:team/group.jpg)

[Download PDF](@media:docs/guide.pdf)

The @media: alias expands to /media/ at render time. You can add custom aliases (like @cdn:) in ava.php—this makes it easy to change asset locations later without updating every content file.

Uploading files:

• Manually — Drop files into public/media/ via SFTP or your file manager
• Admin Dashboard — Use the built-in media uploader (see Admin Dashboard)

Shortcodes

Embed dynamic content using shortcodes:

Current year: [year]

Site name: [site_name]

Include snippet: [snippet name="cta" heading="Join Us"]

See Shortcodes for the full reference.

Content Status

Previewing Your Site

Local Development

Run PHP's built-in server to preview locally:

composer install                    # First time only
php ava rebuild                     # Build content index
php -S localhost:8000 -t public     # Start dev server

Then open http://localhost:8000 in your browser.

Live Editing

Editing files directly on your server works great too! Ava CMS's auto-rebuild mode (the default) means changes appear immediately—just save and refresh.

Validation

Run the linter to check all content:

./ava lint

This catches:

• Invalid YAML syntax
• Missing required fields
• Invalid status values
• Malformed slugs
• Duplicate content keys (slug for pattern types; path key for hierarchical types)
• Duplicate IDs (when IDs are present)

See CLI Reference - Lint for more details.