The package.manifest JSON file format is used to describe one or more custom Umbraco property editors, grid editors or parameter editors. This page outlines the file format and properties found in the JSON.
This is a sample manifest, it is always stored in a folder in /App_Plugins/{YourPackageName}, with the name package.manifest
You can also register your files by implementing a IManifestFilter instead of creating a package.manifest. Create a ManifestFilter.cs file and implement the IManifestFilter interface. Then define the composer using the IComposer interface.
For a functional example, you will need to register the editor and create the HTML, JS, and CSS files in the App_Plugins/Suggestions folder. You can find some examples of registering the editor in the Suggestions.cs file and within the files in the App_Plugins folder. For more information, see the Creating a Property Editor article.
The manifest can contain seven root collections, none of them are mandatory:
From version 9.2, some additional root elements were added. Their purpose is to control and facilitate telemetry for the package but none of these are mandatory. The properties are:
name - Allows you to specify a friendly name for your package that will be used for telemetry, if no name is specified the name of the folder will be used instead
version - The version of your package, if this is not specified there will be no version specific information for your package
allowPackageTelemetry - Allows you to entirely disable telemetry for your package if set to false, defaults to true.
Example package.manifest
propertyEditors returns an array of property editor definitions, each object specifies an editor to make available to data types as an editor component. These editors are primarily property editors for content, media and members. They can also be made available as a macro parameter editor.
The basic values on any editor are alias, name and editor. These three must be set. Furthermore the editor value is an object with additional configuration options, it must contain a view value.
alias The alias of the editor, this must be unique, its recommended to prefix with your own "namespace".
name The name visible to the user in the UI, should also be unique.
editor Object containing editor configuration (see below).
isParameterEditor enables the property editor as a macro parameter editor can be true/false.
prevalues Configuration of editor prevalues (see below).
defaultConfig Default configuration values (see below).
icon A CSS class for the icon to be used in the 'Select Editor' dialog: e.g. icon-autofill.
group The group to place this editor in within the 'Select Editor' dialog. Use a new group name or alternatively use an existing one such as Pickers.
defaultConfig Provides a collection of default configuration values, in case the property editor is not configured or is using a parameter editor, which doesn't allow configuration. The object is a key/value collection and must match the prevalues fields keys.
editor Besides setting a view, the editor can also contain additional information.
view Path to the HTML file to use for rendering the editor.
hideLabel Turn the label on or off by using true or false, respectively.
valueType Sets the database type the value is stored as, by default it's string.
validation Object describing required validators on the editor.
supportsReadOnly Sets whether the editor supports read-only mode, if set to true, the editor is expected to have its own implementation of the read-only mode.
isReadOnly Disables editing the value.
valueType sets the kind of data the editor will save in the database, its default setting is string. The available options are:
STRING Stores the value as an nvarchar in the database
DATETIME Stores the value as datetime in the database
TEXT Stores the value as ntext in the database
INT Stores the value as a bigint in the database
JSON Stored as ntext and automatically serialized to a dynamic object
preValues is a collection of prevalue editors, used for configuring the property editor, the prevalues object must return an array of editors, called fields.
Each field contains a number of configuration values:
label The label shown on the Data Type configuration screen
description Help text displayed underneath the label
key The key the prevalue is stored under (see below)
view Path to the editor used to configure this prevalue (see below)
key on a prevalue, determines where it's stored in the database. If you give your prevalue the key "wolf" then this key will be used in the prevalue table.
It also means when this property editor is used on a property, the prevalue will be exposed on the model's configuration object. This occurs inside the property editor's controller, as shown below:
view config value points the prevalue editor to an editor to use. This follows the same concept as any other editor in Umbraco, but with prevalue editors there are a couple of conventions.
If you specify a name like boolean then Umbraco will look at /wwwroot/umbraco/views/prevalueeditors/boolean/boolean.html for the editor view. If you wish to use your own, you specify the path like /App_Plugins/{YourPackageName}/prevalue-editor.html.
The defaultConfig object provides a collection of default configuration values in case the property editor is not configured or is using a parameter editor. This object is a key/value collection and must match the prevalue field keys.
Similar to how the propertyEditors array defines one or more property editors, gridEditors can be used to define editors specific to the grid. Setting up the default richtext editor in the Umbraco grid could look like:
However the default grid editors are already configured. You can see the Grid Editors page for more information on grid editors.
parameterEditors returns an array of editor objects, each object specifies an editor to make available to macro parameters as an editor component. These editors work solely as parameter editors and will not show up on the property editors list.
The parameter editors array follows the same format as the property editors described above. However, it cannot contain prevalues since there are no configuration options for macro parameter editors.
javascript returns a string[] of JavaScript files to load on application start
css returns a string[] of css files to load on application start
bundleOptions is an enumerable type that expects one of the following values:
Default - The default bundling behavior for assets in the package folder where the assets will be bundled with the typical packages bundle.
None - The assets in the package will not be processed at all and will all be requested as individual assets and will effectively be a bundle that has composite processing turned off for both debug and production.
Independent - The packages assets will be processed as its own separate bundle. (In debug, files will not be processed)
The package.manifest JSON file has a hosted online JSON schema file. This allows editors such as Visual Studio, Rider, and Visual Studio Code to have autocomplete/intellisense support when creating and editing package.manifest files. This helps to avoid mistakes or errors when creating your package.manifest files.
To associate the hosted JSON schema file to all package.manifest files you will need to perform the following inside of Visual Studio 2015.
Tools -> Options
Browse down to Text Editor -> File Extension
Add manifest into the Extension box
Select JSON Editor from the dropdown and add the mapping
Open a package.manifest file and ensure in the top left hand corner you see the schema with the URL set to http://json.schemastore.org/package.manifest. You can also add the schema inline in the json file (see below).
To associate the hosted JSON schema file to all package.manifest files you will need to perform the following inside of Visual Studio 2015.
File -> Settings
Browse down to Editor -> File Types -> JSON
Add package.manifest to the list of file pattern names.
Browse down to Languages & Frameworks -> Schemas and DTDs -> JSON Schema Mappings
Add new by clicking the + symbol
Add package.manifest as Name
Add https://json.schemastore.org/package.manifest as the Schema File or URL, or choose package.manifest from the Remote Schema URls
Add package.manifest as File path pattern
Open a package.manifest file and ensure in the bottom tool bar you see the schema is detected as package.manifest.
To associate the hosted JSON schema file to all package.manifest files you will need to perform the following inside of Visual Studio Code editor.
File -> Preferences -> Settings. The Settings window opens.
In the User tab, go to Extensions -> JSON -> Schemas.
Select Edit in settings.json from the Schemas section.
Add the following snippet in the settings.json file:
Editors like Visual Studio can use the $schema notation in your file.