Prismic Glossary
Definitions of key terms in Prismic.
API Explorer
A visual interface for querying the Content API. Use it at https://your-repo-name.prismic.io/builder/explorer or try the public version at http://prismic.io/explorer.
application programming interface (API)
A set of rules and tools for how software can request, send, and receive data from another system, like Prismic’s servers. Learn more →
archiving
Unpublishing a Prismic page and moving it to the “Archive” tab in the repository. Archived documents are excluded from the API. Learn more →
boolean
A field that stores true or false. Learn more →
color
A field that stores a hex color code. Learn more →
component
A reusable piece of code that creates part of a web page, like a header, image gallery, a button, etc (Typically stored in .vue, .jsx, .js, .svelte, .ejs, or .pug files).
Content API
Prismic’s read-only HTTP API endpoint for content.
Located at https://your-repo-name.cdn.prismic.io/api/v2/documents/search.
content delivery network (CDN)
A network of servers that helps deliver content faster worldwide. Prismic uses a CDN to speed up queries.
content management
Creating, updating, and removing website content, along with the rules and tools used to keep it organized.
content management system (CMS)
Software for creating and modifying content for a website.
content modeling
Creating content structures. In a Prismic repository, the largest unit of a content model is a page type. Page types are composed of a static zone and a slice zone, which are composed of fields and slices, respectively. Slices are also composed of fields. Fields are the smallest unit of a content model. Learn more →
content relationship
A field that links to another page so you can reuse or display its content, like showing related items. Learn more →
Custom Type
A content structure used to define fields and slices for non-page content, such as headers, footers, or settings. Learn more →
dashboard
The first screen you see after logging in to Prismic. It lists all of your repositories. Located at prismic.io/dashboard.
date
A field that stores a calendar date delivered in ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD). Learn more →
deleting
Erasing a page that has been archived. Deleted pages are not recoverable. Learn more →
deploying
Publishing a website on the internet.
Embed
A field that stores an oEmbed URL. Learn more →
environments
A premium Prismic feature that allows you to clone your production repository including all page types, slices, pages, and media files. So you can make content changes in a development environment. Learn more →
field
The most elementary component of a Prismic content model. Prismic has 18 different field types.
There are eight simple fields, which each return a primitive value (e.g. 8, false, "Dog"): UID, boolean, color, date, timestamp, number, text, and select.
There are ten structured fields, which each return an object value: rich text, image, content relationship, link, link to media, embed, geopoint, repeatable group, table, and integration.
geopoint
A field that stores geolocation coordinates or a Google Maps URL. The location is stored as a latitude and longitude. Learn more →
GraphQL
A data query language for APIs, created by Facebook.
GraphQL API
Prismic’s deprecated read-only GraphQL API endpoint.
It remains available for legacy use but is not recommended for new projects. Learn more →
GraphQL Explorer
A web interface for inspecting and testing queries against Prismic’s deprecated GraphQL API.
It remains available for legacy use but is not recommended for new projects. Located at https://your-repo-name.prismic.io/graphql
history
A log of past versions of a page in Prismic. Prismic saves all previous page versions in the history to view, compare, and restore. Learn more →
HTML serializer
The former name of the rich text serializer.
image
A field that stores an image with cropping, alt text, and various sizes. Learn more →
integration
A field that stores data synced from a third-party API. Learn more →
Integration Fields Write API
Prismic’s write-only HTTP API endpoint to create, modify, and delete content in an integration field database. Learn more →
Legacy Custom Type Builder
The interface for constructing content models in Prismic. It has been replaced by Slice Machine and will be deprecated in the future. Learn more →
link
A field that stores a link to the web, to media, or to an internal Prismic page. The link field is designed to facilitate creating links (href). Learn more →
link resolver
A function that receives a link field pointing to a Prismic page and returns the page’s URL. Learn more →
link to media
A field that stores a link to an item in the Media Library (images, videos, MP3s, GIFs, PDFs, and more). Learn more →
locale
A language and region setting used to translate and manage content in your repository. Each repository has a master locale as the default, and you can add more locales for additional languages.
locale code
The API ID for a locale. Prismic includes common locales with ISO language codes. Users can also define their own locales with custom locale codes. Learn more →
Media Library
The place to upload and manage media files, and edit their metadata. Learn more →
mock data
JSON that imitates content from the Prismic API to simulate slices in Slice Machine.
number
A field that stores an integer (e.g. 3) or a float (e.g. 3.14). Learn more →
page
A unit of content in Prismic corresponding to an entity on a website (e.g., a document, a webpage, a post, author, tag, menu). Learn more →
Page Type
The model that defines the structure and fields of a page. Learn more →
Page Builder
A flexible content editing interface in Prismic that allows non-developers to create and customize pages by combining slices. Learn more →
previewing
Securely showing unpublished content and drafts on your website, so you can see changes exactly as they will appear before publishing. Learn more →
publishing
Making a version of a page live on the Prismic API. Learn more →
querying
Sending a GET request to a Prismic repository’s Content API to retrieve content. Learn more →
ref
A reference ID updated every time content is changed in a repository. Every repository has refs for the most recently published content, and all releases. Queries to the Content API must include a ref to specify what version of the content to return. Refs enable caching, which significantly speeds up API responses. Prismic keeps the six most recent refs (including the current one) and deletes older ones, therefore a ref cannot be reliably used to query outdated content versions. Learn more →
release
A way to plan and group content updates so you can preview and publish them all at once. Learn more →
repeatable group
A field that stores a repeatable collection of other fields. Learn more →
repository
An isolated collection of content in Prismic. It stores all of the pages, media, environments, translations, and settings for a given project. Repositories are accessible from the dashboard. Learn more →
Repository API
Prismic’s read-only Rest endpoint for metadata about a repository (including refs, which are necessary for requests to the Content API.
Located at https://your-repo-name.cdn.prismic.io/api/v2
REST
A standard API query language.
rich text
A field that stores formatted text, images, embeds, and more. Learn more →
rich text serializer
A function that describes how rich text elements should be rendered. We recommend using an object of custom components instead. Learn more →
roles
Permissions that define what actions a user can perform in a Prismic repository, such as editing, publishing, or managing settings. Learn more →
route resolver
An API option that allows users to define rules for building URL paths for pages, which the Prismic API will return as the url property on each page. Learn more →
routing
The structure of URL paths organizing pages of a website.
spaces
Used to organize content in the Page Builder by grouping pages into distinct sections. Spaces help teams manage content more efficiently and control user roles. Learn more →
select
A field that stores one of a collection of predefined values. Learn more →
Slice
A slice is a section of a webpage. Slices are arranged by you in a page’s slice zone. Each slice is rendered by a UI component in the web application (e.g. React, Vue, Svelte). Learn more →
Slice Machine
A local development tool for building content models that sync across your codebase and your Prismic repository. Learn more →
Slice Simulator
A Slice Machine tool that simulates what your slices will look like in production, using mock data. It also shows live slice previews in the Page Builder as you draft content. Learn more →
Slice Zone
A container for slices. Prismic provides SliceZone components for rendering slices in popular front-end JavaScript frameworks.
starter
A sample project launched from @slicemachine/init.
Static Zone
A container for immovable and non-repeatable fields, generally used for page metadata.
table
A field that stores tabular data. Learn more →
tags
Prismic’s built-in system for organizing content. Learn more →
Tag API
Prismic’s read-only Rest endpoint for a list of all tags used in a repository.
Located at https://your-repo-name.cdn.prismic.io/api/tags
templating
Creating code UI components that use data from Prismic (Typically written with .vue, .jsx, .js, .svelte, .ejs).
text
A field that stores a string of plain text without formatting. Learn more →
timestamp
A field that stores a calendar date and time. Learn more →
Types API
An HTTP API to create, read and edit a Prismic repository’s content models. Learn more →
UID
A metadata field that formats and stores a human-readable, SEO-friendly identifier for each page, unique to each page type and locale. Used for constructing URLs. Stands for “unique identifier.” Learn more →
versioning
Recording and managing changes over time. Codebases are generally versioned with a version control system like git. Content in Prismic is versioned with the history tool. Content models in Slice Machine can be versioned as part of a codebase. Learn more →
webhooks
HTTPS requests sent by Prismic to a user-defined endpoint on certain actions (e.g. page published). Used to trigger actions (like a website rebuild) on content changes. Learn more →