---
title: Working with Data Sources in ContentCreator
source: firstspirit-data-sources.html
---

# Working with Data Sources in ContentCreator

> Data sources are FirstSpirit's home for structured, reusable content — news, products, locations, authors and more. Instead of retyping the same information on every page, you maintain it once as a **dataset** and let pages, teasers and even other channels pull it in automatically. This guide walks an editor through browsing a data source, editing a dataset, and placing datasets on a page in ContentCreator.

> [!NOTE]
> This documentation was generated with AI and may contain inaccuracies or out-of-date details. Always verify critical information against the official FirstSpirit documentation before relying on it.

## What are data sources?

A **data source** is a structured store of content in FirstSpirit — think of it as a table where every row is a self-contained record. In FirstSpirit each record is called a **dataset**. A single news article, one product, one office location: each is a dataset with the same set of fields.

The value of storing content this way is **reuse**. A news article maintained as a dataset can appear as a teaser on the homepage, in a filtered "latest news" list, on a category landing page and in a mobile app — all from one record. Edit the dataset once and every place that shows it updates.

> [!INFO]
> The screenshots in this guide come from a FirstSpirit demo project. The data sources, field names and layout in your own project may differ depending on how it was set up by your administrators and developers.

## Data sources vs. pages

It helps to separate two things in FirstSpirit:

| Pages | Data sources |
|-------|--------------|
| Organised in the **site menu tree** (Navigation). | Organised as **tables of records**, independent of the menu. |
| One page = one URL in the site structure. | One dataset = one reusable record, shown wherever it is referenced. |
| Good for unique, hand-crafted layouts. | Good for repeating, list-like content (news, products, people). |

In the ContentCreator editing panel you can see both worlds. The **Navigation** and **Page** tabs let you work on the current page and its sections, while the panel at the bottom switches between **Media** and **Datasets** — the latter is your quick access to structured records.

## Opening the data sources report

To browse structured content, open the **Data sources report** from the top toolbar (the stacked-database icon). The report fills the workspace with a left-hand list of the project's data sources and a table of the records inside the selected one.

A typical project groups its structured content into several data sources. In the demo project these include:

| Data source | Holds |
|-------------|-------|
| **News** | News and blog articles. |
| **Product** | Product records. |
| **Category** | Content categories / topics. |
| **Location** | Offices or store locations. |
| **Author** | Author profiles referenced by articles. |
| **Tag** | Reusable tags applied to other records. |
| **Global** / **TranslationStudio** | Project-wide and translation-related entries. |

Selecting **News** shows every news dataset in a table. Each column maps to a field of the dataset — here **Headline**, **Subheadline**, **Date**, **Author**, **Tags**, **Distribution** and **Image**.

## Browsing datasets

The report offers different ways to look at the same records. Use the view switcher in the top-right of the report to move between a compact **list** and a **card** view that previews each dataset's headline, teaser and image — much closer to how the content will actually appear on the site.

> [!INFO]
> Use the search box at the top of the report to filter datasets by keyword. In large data sources this is far quicker than scrolling.

## Anatomy of a dataset

Open a dataset (double-click a row, or use its context actions) to see the **form** behind the record. The fields are defined by your project, but a news article typically carries:

| Field | What it holds |
|-------|---------------|
| **Headline** | The article title, shown on teasers and the detail page. |
| **Subheadline** / **Teaser Text** | Short summary text used in list and card previews. |
| **Article Text** | The full body, edited with a rich-text editor (paragraph styles, bold, italic, links, lists). |
| **Image** + **Alternative Text** | The lead image and its accessibility description. |
| **Date** · **Author** | Publication date and the author record. |
| **Tags** | Category tags (e.g. Technology, Security, Smarthome) used to filter and group articles. |
| **Distribution** | The channels the record is delivered to — for example *App* and *Website*. |

> [!NOTE]
> The *set* of fields and their rules (which are required, how they validate) is defined once by developers in the data source's structure. As an editor you fill them in — you don't design the form.

## Editing a dataset

Editing structured content is the same everywhere it is used, because there is only one record behind it:

1. Open the **Data sources report** and select the data source (e.g. **News**).
2. Find the dataset — scroll, switch to card view, or search by keyword.
3. Open it to reveal the form, then change the fields you need (headline, teaser, image, body…).
4. Click **Save**. The change is now stored on the record.
5. **Release** the dataset when you are ready for it to go live, following your project's release workflow.

> [!INFO]
> Because every teaser, list and channel references the same dataset, one edit updates all of them — there is no copy to keep in sync. This is the core benefit of content-based editing.

## Displaying datasets on a page

Datasets live in the data source, but visitors see them on pages. You surface them by adding a **section** that is wired to pull records from a data source. What that section is called, which fields it exposes, and how it filters records is entirely up to how each project's templates are built — FirstSpirit itself doesn't ship a fixed "news" or "list" section. One common pattern is a section that shows the latest datasets from a given data source, optionally filtered by some category field; the walkthrough below uses such a section as an illustration.

On any page in edit mode, click the **+** (add content) button in an empty content area. In the section-template picker, search for the section you want and select it.

## Configuring a data-driven section

Once added, the section opens its own small form — the fields here are defined by the template author, so the exact set varies by project. In the example used throughout this guide, the section lets you set a **Headline** and **Subheadline** for the block, plus a **News Tag** that decides *which* articles the section shows. Its tag choices happen to match the categories used on the example datasets:

- Technology
- Sustainability
- Security
- Smarthome
- Locations
- Mobility
- Gadgets

Pick a tag and the section renders the matching datasets automatically — you never paste article content into the page, you point the section at the data. A different project might filter by a different field, offer no filter at all, or expose entirely different configuration options; the underlying mechanism — a section referencing a data source — is what matters, not this specific form.

> [!WARNING]
> Whatever fields a template author marks as required are enforced the same way: leave one empty and FirstSpirit blocks release with an input-error message (in this example, *"Please select a tag"* and *"An input error will prevent releasing this object."*). Fill the highlighted field before saving and releasing.

## One change, every channel

Because the section pulls live from the data source, the published page always reflects the current datasets. Add a new article to the News data source and it appears in the news overview and in every matching "Latest News" section — no page edit required.

The **Distribution** field on each dataset makes this multi-channel: a record marked for both *Website* and *App* feeds the web pages *and* a mobile app from the same content. Structured, reusable data is what makes that omnichannel delivery possible.

## Tips & good practice

- **Edit the record, not a copy.** Always change content in its dataset; never re-type article text directly onto a page.
- **Tag consistently.** Tags drive which sections pick up an article. Use the agreed category tags so new articles appear where they should.
- **Fill required fields.** Watch for validation messages — a record or section with errors can't be released.
- **Write good alternative text.** The image alt text travels with the dataset to every channel, so it matters for accessibility everywhere.
- **Mind the Distribution.** Check which channels a dataset targets before publishing — it may be feeding more than the page you're looking at.
- **Search before you scroll.** Use the report's search box to find datasets fast in large data sources.