How to Create and Structure a Magnolia Light Module?

Magnolia Light Development offers a front-end-friendly, adaptable means of building digital experiences without heavyweight Java tools or build systems. Instead of heavyweight IDEs, you author modules in plain old folders and files, or “light modules.” These may be HTML, CSS, and configuration files that specify the behavior and layout of your site.

What sets Magnolia apart is that it uses YAML (a human-readable config language) to define things such as templates, dialogs, content types, and apps. This turns the development process into a file-based process and version controllable with tools such as Git. Developers can code faster, iterate faster, and not be reliant on backend dependencies—making Light Development an ideal choice for web teams today.

Light Development is Magnolia’s modern approach to constructing CMS capability using a frontend-oriented, file-based methodology. Instead of coding in a Java-heavy backend, developers use YAML files on the filesystem to configure templates, dialogs, and other components. This eliminates long deployment cycles or deep Java expertise. By addressing CMS development as static website development, Magnolia allows front-end developers to work in their comfort zone. They can work with tools they know, easily modify configurations, and get real-time feedback—no server restarts required. Light Development is bringing speed, simplicity, and agility to developing digital experiences and is perfect for agile teams and rapidly moving projects.

Which elements can be set up in a light module?

Light modules allow you to define many Magnolia components through YAML files.

• App definitions 

• Content type definitions 

• Dialog definitions 

• Field type definitions 

• Message view definitions 

• Module configurations 

• REST endpoint definitions 

• Site definitions 

• Template definitions 

• Virtual URI mappings

Creating a light module with Magnolia CLI:

The basic folder setup for a light module can be established by running create-light-module in the Magnolia CLI.

You have to check whether Magnolia CLI v5 is installed or not:

mgnl -V 

You should see something similar to the following:

Magnolia CLI: 5.0.0 (Node.js: v20.13.1)

To execute this command, first you have to go to your project’s directory.

npm run mgnl — create-light-module <light-module> 

For example, 

npm run mgnl — create-light-module test 

Using add-plugin: 

You have to execute this command from the base directory of your project.

npm run mgnl — add-plugin @magnolia/cli-create-light-module-plugin 

The plugin gets installed and seamlessly integrated into mgnl.config.js with this command. 

Folder organization:

Apps: It has application-specific logic or modules. It may include services which are encapsulated but part of the system as a whole. It is typically modular and can be enabled or disabled independently.

Config: It holds configuration files or scripts. It can hold environment setups, database configurations, or feature flags.

Decorations: It can add or override the default behavior of components like UI views or backend operations.

Dialogs: It stores reusable dialog definitions as seen in the admin interface.

Ecommerces: It contains commerce-related functionality: carts, checkout, payment, product listings, etc.

i18n: Abbreviation for internationalization. Serves to hold language files or translation resources. Makes the module capable of supporting multiple languages.

Includes: It holds reusable files or blocks of code that can be included elsewhere. May hold HTML fragments, script includes, or common templates.

Pipelines: Used for constructing and maintaining ordered sequences for data processing

RestEndpoints: It specifies RESTful APIs for internal or external communication and also specifies CRUD operations based on HTTP.

Spas: It is utilized to describe single-page applications. It can encompass front-end projects developed using React, Angular, or Vue.

Templates: It outputs UI HTML or template files. It can use a template backend, templating like Freemarker.

Traits: A trait is a reusable attribute or behavior. Traits in certain systems are synonymous with mixins, reusable pieces of functionality that can be used in multiple classes/components.

Web resources: Non-changing web resources such as JS, CSS, images, and fonts.

Module.YAML: It defines metadata like name, version, dependencies, and components.

README.md: It contains installation instructions, usage, intent, author, and other details needed.