Written by
Thomas Höhler
For umbraco versions:
Not Version relatedReference
Document Types are the heart of the umbraco content handling. This book shows you what Document Types are and how they interact with Generic Properties and Templates and how they define the content structure of umbraco.
In an empty umbraco installation you have an empty content tree. So if you want to add a new content element you will do a right click on the content, select 'Create'. But the occuring dialog is completely empty (like the pic below). Neither the name is filled nor any document type is present and clicking the create button will give you an error.
So the first questions are:
- Why is there no Document Type after a fresh installation?
- And why can't a content element be created without Document Type?
The answer to the first question is: umbraco is installed completely empty. So you can create the website from scratch with no ballast from any prepared objects. If you want to have a sample site installed use some of the website wizards like the umbracoWebsiteWizard or Warren Buckley's WebsiteWizard.
The answer to the second question is: The architecture of umbraco does not allow to create a content element without document type because the document types define which properties, templates and hierarchy will be used for the content elements. We will see this in the next praragraphs. For now we have to accept that this is a restriction from umbraco.