Metadata

The magic of Centurion UI is done completely by providing a structured JSON document. The expectations for this document can be found below and further within additional sections as notated. As Centurion UI is a web application, all of the metadata is done via HTTP requests.

Definitions / Rendering

So as to easily identify the different areas of the Centurion UI The following definitions are used:

Component A single object within a section.
Field A single item as part of a dataset.
Layout Structure of a page.
Section A part of a page and normally will contain grouped items.

As part of Centurion UI the above objects are nestable. That order is: Layout -> Section -> Field or Component. All pages within Centurion UI follow this order when it comes to rendering your data.

Endpoints

As part of setup you will configure the root URL that the UI will base all queries from. Subsequent endpoints are obtained by the links you provide as part of navigation. When required Centurion UI will make the appropriate request via HTTP using method OPTIONS. An OPTIONS request to an endpoint is the expected metadata endpoint. Any other HTTP method type, is what Centurion UI will expect to be data.

Metadata Document Format

The metadata document contains everything that Centurion UI requires so that it may render the backends data that has been requested.

{
  "name": "",
  "description": "",
  "urls": {},
  "renders": [
    "application/json",
  ],
  "parses": [
    "application/json",
  ],
  "allowed_methods": [
    "GET",
    "HEAD",
    "OPTIONS"
    "PATCH",
    "POST",
    "PUT"
  ],
  "layout": [],
  "version": {
    "project_url": "",
    "sha": "",
    "version": ""
  },
  "navigation": []
}

Field	Type	When Required	When Optional	Description
`name`	string	always	-	For the Root request, use the websites name All other requests use the objects name.
`description`	string	List View Detail View	Root Request	The description to use for the view. Note: This is ignored in the root request.
`urls`	array[object]	always	-	The different URL applicable to the current endpoint.
`allowed_methods`	array[string]	always	-	The type of HTTP request methods supported by the endpoint.
`layout`	array[object]	Detail View	depends	How the page will be layed out.
`version`	array[object]	Root Request	-	Version details of your backend.
`navigation`	array[object]	Root Request	-	The sites navigation.

As the metadata document can become quite large, not all of its details are published within the table above, or the remainder of the document below. You can find the remaining details for that json key, by clicking on the field within the table. All other fields that are not linked in the table, their details can be found below.

Name

The name field defines the object(s) name. The only exception for this is the root metadata, which should be the sites name. For clarity this name should be unique across the site as a whole.

Description

URL

The urls key is used by the UI for actions within a view. The expected structue for this data is a JSON object.

{
    "self": "",
    "back": "",
    "sub_models": {
        "<model_key>": {
            "display_name": "<Human readable name>",
            "url": "<sub-model URL>"
        }
    },
    "return_url": ""
}

Field	Type	When Required	When Optional	Description
`self`	string	always	-	The url to itself. This should match the same url you used to request the metadata. It's also the same URL as will be made to request data, albeit by make a `GET` HTTP request.
`back`	string	??	??	This URL is used for by the interface as the URL for a back operation.
`sub_models`	object	ListView if multiple object tyes can be created.	Always	Denotes multiple endpoints for creating different types of the same object.
`return_url`	string	??	??	This URL if provided, is the URL used as the cancel url for a UI view. This key is optional and if it's not supplied, the `self` URL is to be used.

Sub Models

This ob

Allowed Methods

To Do: when used update

Layout

The layout key provides the required information to render each tab of a DetailView page.

[
    {
        "name": "Details",
        "slug": "details",
        "sections": []
    }
]

Field	Type	When Required	When Optional	Description
`name`	string	always	-	Friendly name for the tab that will be displayed to users.
`slug`	string	always	-	Unique value that will is used for the HTML element id.
`sections`	array[objects]	always	-	Each section to render for the current tab.

Sections

Each layout.<>.sections.<> object provides the section layout for each tab of a DetailView page.

[
    {   // Single column example.
        "layout": "single",
        "fields": [
            "config"
        ]
    },
    {   // Double column section example.
        "layout": "double",
        "left": [
            "organization",
            "device_type",
            "device_model",
            "name",
            "serial_number",
            "uuid",
            "inventorydate",
            "created",
            "modified"
        ],
        "right": [
            "model_notes",
            "is_virtual"
        ]
    },
    {   // Table section example.
        "layout": "table",
        "name": "Operating System",
        "field": "operating_system"
    }
]

	Field	Type	When Required	When Optional	Description
`Single Column section layout`
	`name`	string	-	always	Section name to use. Will be displayed as the sections title.
	`layout`	string	always	-	Use value `single` to set layout to be a single-column section.
	`fields`	array[string]	always	-	Names of the fields to display. This value is derived from the key name for the API data object to display.
`Double Column section layout`
	`name`	string	-	always	Section name to use. Will be displayed as the sections title.
	`layout`	string	always	-	Use value `double` to set layout to be a single-column section.
	`left`	array[string]	always	-	Names of the fields to display in the left hand column. This value is derived from the key name for the API data object to display.
	`right`	array[string]	always	-	Names of the fields to display in the right hand column. This value is derived from the key name for the API data object to display.
`Table section layout`
	`name`	string	-	always	Section name to use. Will be displayed as the sections title.
	`layout`	string	always	-	Use value `table` to set layout to be a single-column section.
	`field`	string			Name of the url key within the parent objects `_urls` field.

About:

This page forms part of our Project Centurion ERP UI.

Page Metadata

Version: ToDo: place files short git commit here
Date Created: 2024-11-30
Date Edited: 2026-05-17

Contribution:

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ToDo: Add the page list of contributors