Datasources

A data source is a collection of key-value pairs. A collection like this can define the strict options in your application/website or it can be used to define the buttons/labels in your application, that is not context-specific. You can access datasources directly through the Delivery API or use them in the Storyblok UI as the source of data in the single-option or multi-options field.

A good sample from the world of tech writers is the type of article. You can define multiple types (“review”, “first try”, “tutorial”, … ) as datasource values and then use them to define your articles. Similar to tags.

The structure of datasource and datasource entry

Each datasource consists of one or more datasource entries and it is represented as a single JSON file. The datasource entry object consists of the following properties.

Datasource is defined by the following properties.

Datasource dimensions - internalisation

Each datasource may contain multiple dimensions. This dimension can be used to translate the values from key-values pairs. In general, the dimension can be used also for different purposes as defining different values for different situations.

You can define the dimension in the Settings of the datasource by defining its name and identifier. The name will be used in Storyblok UI and an identifier is used in the API request to get the dimension value.

To preview and edit the values in one of the dimensions, you need to enter the UI of the datasources. Click on the label with the name of the dimension under the search and you will see a new field under each default value of the datasource entry.

Datasource entry actions

By default, the datasource entries are saved automatically. If you want to change this behaviour, uncheck the Autosave option in the header of the datasource detail. Additional actions of the datasource entry can be found on the right-hand side of the datasource entry fields.

Import and export of the datasource

Datasource entries can be imported to and exported from Storyblok as the CSV file type. You can find this functionality in the Settings of the datasource. You may export/import the datasource entries per dimension.

Datasource in the Stories

One of the main use cases for datasources is to use them as the source in the Single-Option field or the Multi-Options field. This way you may use the same group of data in multiple places through your application/website. It is a highly recommended development strategy as it creates a single source of truth for your data, which allows you to edit data only in one place in future instead of updating all occurrences of those data.

You can set the datasource as a source of the Single-Option field or Multi-Options field by selecting the Datasource option in the source dropdown and choosing one of the internal datasources. See the example of the following image.

How to request datasource entries with Delivery API

Datasource entries can be requested from the Delivery API using the URL like this https://api.storyblok.com/v1/cdn/datasource_entries?datasource=:slug&token=:token

Sample response from a request can be found here.

// 20200626123726
// https://api.storyblok.com/v1/cdn/datasource_entries?datasource=labels&token=ask9soUkv02QqbZgmZdeDAtt

{
  "datasource_entries": [
    {
      "id": 22237,
      "name": "cancel",
      "value": "Abbrechen",
      "dimension_value": null
    },
    {
      "id": 22238,
      "name": "read_more",
      "value": "Mehr erfahren",
      "dimension_value": null
    },
    {
      "id": 37116,
      "name": "hello_email",
      "value": "hello@storyblok.com",
      "dimension_value": null
    }
  ]
}