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Your site’s CMS keeps lists of things in collections: blog posts, menu items, team members. When you need a new kind of list, you can make a collection for it, choose the details each item has, and fill it in without touching code. This guide adds a Roast Schedule to Northwind’s Pearl District site, with a title and a roast date for each coffee.

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Start a new collection

1

Open Manage collections

Open your site in the builder and click CMS in the row of icons above the preview. At the bottom left, click Manage collections, then New collection.
2

Pick a preset, or start from scratch

Presets such as Products, Team Members, Testimonials, FAQs and Case Studies come with their fields ready, and are added as soon as you click one. For a kind of content of your own, click Start from scratch.
New collection: Start with a preset, with Blog (already added), Products, Team Members, Testimonials, FAQs and Case Studies, and Start from scratch, a blank collection you design yourself, outlined

Presets, and Start from scratch

3

Name it

Type a Name. Under Format, pick JSON for a list of short items, or MDX for long articles with formatted text. Click Create.
The Name Roast Schedule, the Format MDX or JSON with JSON chosen, and Create, each outlined; the ID roast-schedule fills in from the name

Roast Schedule, as JSON

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Choose its fields

A new collection starts with a title. Add a field for each detail an item needs.
1

Click Add field

The collection opens for editing. Under Fields, click Add field.
2

Pick a type and name it

Pick the type of detail, such as Plain text, Number, Image, Date or Option (a list to choose from). Here it is Date. Type a Name (one word, used by your site’s code, such as roastDate) and a Label (what you see in the editor, such as Roast date). Then click the Add field button at the bottom of the form.
Add field with the Date type chosen, outlined; Name roastDate and Label Roast date, outlined; and the Add field button at the bottom, outlined

A Date field

The Add field button adds the field to the list. Save manifest at the very bottom saves the collection, so click Add field first: a field you are still filling in is not saved with it.
3

Save the collection

The new field is listed under Fields. Click Save manifest.
Fields (2): title, Plain text, Required, and Roast date, Date, outlined, and Save manifest, outlined

Two fields, ready to save

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Add the first entry

1

Click New entry

Click the new collection on the left, then New entry. Type a title; its web address fills in from the title. Click Create.
New Roast Schedule entry with the title Guatemala Huehuetenango, light roast, outlined, its web address guatemala-huehuetenango-light-roast, and Create, outlined

A new entry

2

Fill in the fields and save

Fill in each field, here the Roast date, and click Save. The entry stays a draft, visible only in the CMS, until you click Publish.
Roast Schedule with 1 entry, outlined, and the entry Guatemala Huehuetenango, light roast with Roast date 10/28/2026, outlined, and Saved

The first entry, saved

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Show it on your site

A new collection is not on any page yet, and the CMS says so in a yellow note at the top. Click Draft a request in chat in that note, or ask the builder AI yourself, to add a section or page that shows the collection, such as “show the roast schedule on the home page, newest first”. Then publish your changes.

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Good to know

  • Change it later. In Manage collections, the pencil beside a collection opens it again, to add more fields or drag them into a new order.
  • Link collections. A Reference field links an item to an item in another collection, such as a coffee to its farm.
  • Edit items any time in the CMS: see Edit Your Content in the CMS.