For engineers & integrators

Developer Documentation

Build customer sites on Core dna: thirteen guides that read in order, task-sized how-tos, and answers grouped by symptom.

13
Guides
91
How-tos
100
Answers
Guide 00 L0

Core dna for site builders

Read this guide first. Core dna is hosted, so there is nothing to install; your repository holds only templates and front-end assets; and a new kind of page starts in the admin, with a layout. In half a day, from what the platform is to a page you built, deployed and rendered in Smarty or Twig.

Start here
  1. 01What you are building on
  2. 02From zero to a deployed change
  3. 03Your first page, end to end
  4. 04From URL to rendered page
  5. 05Choosing what to read next

Guides

Each guide is a book, read in order. The meter shows depth, from L0 orientation to L3 internals.

Guide 01 L2 Choosing how to build Decide where the pages of a Core dna site are composed before writing code: on the platform, in your own application, or on the platform with a few pieces filled in by the browser. The decision tree, each shape in depth, multi-brand and languages, and a table and case studies to make the call. 6 units · 29 pages → Guide 02 L1–L2 Template languages: Smarty and Twig Core dna renders server-side sites with Smarty or with Twig, one engine per site, and treats the two as peers. This guide is the one place both are documented: what they share, each engine's language and the platform's additions and limits, the two side by side, and translation. 5 units · 25 pages → Guide 03 L1–L2 The theme repo and the asset pipeline Everything a developer changes on a Core dna site lives in its theme repository. This guide covers the repository and its build, printing records in templates, stylesheets and client-side code, and the parts of a site around the main content. 5 units · 35 pages → Guide 04 L1–L3 Input types, layouts, components and images The platform's central abstraction, in one line: an input type defines what an editor can enter, a layout area binds one input type to a named slot, a layout groups areas and points at a template, a record or component holds the content for each area, and the template reads it back. Read this book straight after the template languages. 9 units · 45 pages → Guide 05 L1–L3 Content types and custom entities Which built-in type fits which purpose, how categories, tags, slugs, custom URLs and SEO settings behave across them, how revisions and publishing gate what the public sees, how to model a domain the platform has no type for, and where uploaded files live. 6 units · 35 pages → Guide 06 L1–L3 The APIs: REST, GraphQL and custom endpoints Every Core dna site answers three kinds of API request under /cdna-api: REST for everything, GraphQL for reads that span several entity types, and web events for endpoints you define yourself as jobs. Which fits which task, one worked request for each, and what is true of all three. Jobs were called hooks until the module was renamed Orchestration; the API's routes still use the old name. 7 units · 25 pages → Guide 07 L2 Members, accounts and gated content Building a member area on Core dna: who a member is in the data, the sign-in flows and their templates, single sign-on and passkeys, the my-account routing convention, members-only content, sessions and the page cache, and the security checks to run before launch. 7 units · 36 pages → Guide 08 L2–L3 Commerce A Core dna store is a set of records and an API that moves a purchase from cart to order: products described in every language and priced in every currency the store sells in, a cart, a checkout that becomes an order, invoices, payments, tax and shipping. The site builds the storefront on top: the cart and checkout pages, their scripts, and the customer emails. 8 units · 31 pages → Guide 09 L2–L3 Automation, jobs and integration A job is a trigger, conditions and an ordered list of actions, set up under Customization › Orchestration in the admin; jobs were called hooks before the module was renamed, and the API's routes keep that name. What starts a job, what it can do, branches and loops, email, scheduled work, integrations with other systems, and every event and action. 8 units · 31 pages → Guide 10 L1–L2 Forms and data capture Building forms with the Forms module: how a form is put together and placed on a page, validating and branching, presenting it, where submissions are stored, and what happens after one arrives, from jobs and records to CRMs and payments. 7 units · 20 pages → Guide 11 L2 Search, filtering and faceted navigation Site search on Core dna is an Elasticsearch index that the platform fills and queries, and a page you build. What reaches the index, search views, the search page, product facets, filtered listings that need no index, and when to go beyond the built-in index. 5 units · 20 pages → Guide 12 L2–L3 Performance, caching, deployment and go-live How Core dna caches pages, what makes a render fast, how code reaches a site and what stays behind, the go-live checklist, and running a site once it is live. For developers, leads and site operators who already build pages in a theme repository. 6 units · 34 pages →

How-to library91 how-tos

Task-shaped pages: a title that starts with a verb, the situation in a few lines, the steps, the working code in both engines, and why this way rather than another. Found from a search, done, and left.

Getting things on screenTemplates in both enginesLayouts, areas and componentsImagesContent modellingAPIs and JavaScriptJobs and automationFormsPerformance, deployment and operationsMigration

Troubleshooting100 answers

Grouped by symptom, never by module, because the person with the problem does not know which module has it. One hundred questions across ten pages, each answered with the causes in the order they usually turn out to be true.

It is not showing upErrors and blank pagesData and authoringTemplates and enginesImagesMembers and authenticationCommerceJobs and automationPerformanceAPI requests

Reference

Models, routes, default templates and core classes, generated from the platform, and the REST API.

ModelsEvery record type with its properties and methods, in the Templates, API & Jobs and Admin views. RoutesThe URLs each module answers, their parameters and the variables each template receives. TemplatesThe default templates each module renders, what they receive, and the path to override one. Core classesHelpers and value types that models and templates hand you: collections, the request, pagination, money. API ReferenceEvery REST endpoint, with authentication and examples.