UI Schemas

UI Schemas customize how Contextual renders Object Type records in the admin experience.

At a high level, Contextual uses JSON Forms-style UI schemas for form layouts, but it also supports additional styles and options that go beyond vanilla JSON Forms.

Supported styles

Contextual UI Schemas can define different layouts for different experiences:

• createStyle - layout for creating a new record

• updateStyle - layout for editing an existing record

• readStyle - layout for read-only record views

• duplicateStyle - layout used when duplicating an existing record

• listStyle - table/list configuration for collections of records

• relatedStyle - related-record presentation used by relation-aware views

How this differs from vanilla JSON Forms

The form-oriented styles (createStyle, updateStyle, readStyle) follow the usual JSON Forms idea of composing controls and layouts.

Contextual also adds platform-specific styles and behavior, especially for:

• list/table configuration

• duplicate views

• related-record views

• specialized renderers selected by schema renderer values or UI schema options.renderer

List-style configuration

listStyle controls how records appear in grids and list views. In the current product, it supports concepts such as:

• columns

• default order

• pagination options such as including or excluding the total-count request

• column sizing such as width, minWidth, maxWidth, and flex

When you do not define a custom list schema, Contextual generates a default one from the scalar properties in your Object Type and uses the primaryKey as the default sort.

Custom renderers

Contextual supports custom renderers that are not part of standard JSON Forms. Examples visible in the current admin console include code-editor, relation, and flow-relation.

These renderers can be selected either:

• directly on a schema property via renderer

• through UI schema options such as options.renderer

For schema-level extensions that drive these behaviors, see Contextual Schema Extensions.

Practical guidance

• start with the generated defaults and customize only where the default UX is not sufficient

• use form styles for layout and grouping

• use listStyle when the record grid needs custom columns, order, or pagination behavior

• use renderer-driven customization sparingly and intentionally, since it couples the schema to Contextual-specific UI behavior