Sanity CMS, using type "object" as reference

Question

Is it not possible to use an object type as a reference in sanity? For example this is not working. When I go to the field nothing shows up. If I can't do this how can I access the indexPage objects that have been created under other documents?

export const indexPage = {
  title: "Index Page",
  name: "indexPage",
  type: "object",
  fields: [
    {
      title: "Subheading",
      name: "subheading",
      type: "array",
      of: [{ type: 'block' }] 
    },
    {
      title: "Content",
      name: "content",
      type: "array",
      of: [{ type: "block" }]
    },
  ]
}

// in another file

export const coolPage = {
  title: "Cool Page",
  name: "coolPage",
  type: "object",
  fields: [
    {
      title: "Reference Index Page",
      name: "refIndexPage",
      type: "reference",
      to: [{ type: 'indexPage' }] 
    }
  ]
}

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 19 '22 at 11:54

References can only point to other documents; not to a specific part of a document. So to achieve this, indexPage would need to be a document.

I think modelling indexPage as a document would be a viable option in your case. You mentioned "indexPage objects that have been created under other documents". Instead of creating indexPage data inside a specific document, indexPage should be its own document type. Any other document can then connect to it via a reference. This approach should be really flexible for you.

Sanity Studio recently added support for "references in place", which makes this workflow even better. The studio now allows you to create a document to reference while you are editing the document that references it—without leaving the editor. You can see a demo here (no extra work on your part is needed here, it's handled automatically by Sanity Studio).

In summary: if you have a piece of data you'd like to share between multiple documents, model it as its own document type that is referenced by every document that is related.

Sanity CMS, using type "object" as reference

1 Answers1