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# Data sources

A data source is a state entry whose value comes from somewhere rather than being typed in: a URL, the browser's storage, a form, your project's content, a database table. You add one from the **[Data panel](/docs/studio/logic/data)**'s **+ Add…** picker, and from then on it behaves like any other value: bind it, compute from it, show it. Sources are reactive, so when the underlying data changes, everything built on it updates. The model behind that is **[Reactivity](/docs/framework/concepts/reactivity)**.

Each source's editor shows just the fields that source needs.

## Request: fetch from a URL

**Fetch from a URL** loads data over HTTP, most typically a JSON API.

![The Data panel editing a Request source's URL, method, and timing](/content/docs/images/data-source-request.png)

- **URL**: where to fetch from.
- **Method**: `GET`, `POST`, `PUT`, `DELETE`, or `PATCH`.
- **Timing**: `client` fetches in the visitor's browser; `server` runs the request on the server instead, which is useful when an API can't be called from a browser.

While the request is in flight the entry reads as `pending` in the **[Data panel](/docs/studio/logic/data)**; the resolved response then flows wherever the entry is used.

## LocalStorage and SessionStorage: remember in the browser

Both persist a value in the visitor's browser: **LocalStorage** survives closing the browser, **SessionStorage** lasts for the visit. Their editors are identical:

- **Key**: the name the value is stored under.
- **Default**: what the entry is worth before anything has been stored. JSON here gives you a structured default.

Writing to the entry (from an event handler, say) stores it; the visitor's next visit reads it back. Think "remember my theme choice", "keep the cart".

## Cookie: a value shared with the server

- **Cookie**: the cookie's name.
- **Default**: the value before the cookie exists.

Use a Cookie instead of LocalStorage when the server needs to see the value on each request.

## IndexedDB: a structured browser database

For larger structured data the browser stores locally:

- **Database**: the database name.
- **Store**: the object store within it.
- **Version**: the schema version number.

## FormData: the state of a form

**FormData** holds a browser form-data object, the shape requests use to submit forms:

- **Fields**: a JSON object naming the fields and their starting values.

The entry starts out seeded with those fields, ready to fill in and send as a request body.

## Set and Map

Two small structural sources round out the built-ins: **Set** (a list without duplicates) and **Map** (a keyed collection). Each has a single **Default** field, edited as JSON.

## ContentCollection: query your project's content

**ContentCollection** turns your project's content (the entries behind your **[content types](/docs/studio/projects/content-types)**) into a queryable list: "the six newest posts", "properties under $500k". It's provided by the parser extension, so it appears in the **+ Add…** picker via your project's imports. Its form is generated from the source's own description:

- **contentType**: which content type to query, picked from the ones your project defines.
- **filter**: zero or more rules, each a **field** (picked from the content type's own fields), an **op** (`==`, `!=`, `>`, `<`, `>=`, `<=`, `contains`, `not contains`, `empty`, `not empty`), and a **value**.
- **sort**: zero or more rules, each a **field** and an **order** (`asc` or `desc`).
- **limit**: the maximum number of entries to return.

A field that already holds a reference is edited with a binding picker instead of a plain value. The picker lists **Static value** (which clears the binding and hands the field back its ordinary editor), then one entry per URL parameter the page's address declares (`$params/slug` and friends), then **Custom…**, which reveals a free-form `#/$params/…` field for any other pointer. That is how a detail page queries "the entry this URL names".

## Database sources

Everything above reads from the browser, the network, or your project's files. With the connector extension enabled, your **[data tables](/docs/studio/data)** join the picker too. They hold the data that appears and changes while the site runs. Each of these sources starts with a **table**, the name of a table your project defines:

- **TableQuery**: the rows matching a query. **filter** and **sort** take the same rules as ContentCollection above, and **limit** and **offset** page through the results; **include** names reference fields to expand, so a query for posts can carry each post's author with it.
- **TableEntry**: a single row, named by **id**, with the same **include**. On a page with a dynamic address the id can bind to a URL parameter, which is how a detail page shows the row its URL names.
- **TableInsert**, **TableUpdate**, and **TableDelete**: writes rather than reads. Insert and update take **values**, literal columns merged over the fields of the form that submits them; update and delete take an **id**. Each resolves to a handler, so you point a form's submit event at one instead of displaying it. Once a write lands, the queries on the page refresh themselves.

## Account sources

The auth extension adds two more, both about who is looking at the page:

- **Session** holds the signed-in visitor: a `userId`, their `role` if your project defines roles, and the user record. The whole entry is `null` when nobody is signed in (not an empty object), so test the entry itself before reaching into it for a `userId`. It updates live when someone signs in or out, and it is also always `null` on a page as it is generated: every prerendered page ships its signed-out view and fills in once the browser has checked. The one field, **baseUrl**, defaults to your own site's `/_jx/auth`.
- **AuthActions** holds the handlers behind sign-up, sign-in, social sign-in, and sign-out, wired to a form's submit event like the table actions. **redirects** sets where a visitor lands after signing in or out, **provider** names the default social provider, and **baseUrl** is the same as above.

Both extensions are covered from the other side in **[Databases](/docs/studio/data)** and **[Auth and secrets](/docs/studio/data/auth-and-secrets)**: the tables, the settings, the secrets.

## External sources

**From a module…** points an entry at a JavaScript module of your own (**Source** and **Kind** fields); if the module describes its options, Studio renders them as a form, the same way it does for ContentCollection. Sources added by any other installed extension list themselves in the **+ Add…** picker the same way.

Note

Every source is stored as a small JSON object in the file's&#x20;
`state`
, a&#x20;
`$prototype`
&#x20;naming the kind plus the fields above. Nothing here is code; the runtime interprets these declarations, as described in&#x20;
**[Reactivity](/docs/framework/concepts/reactivity)**
. The table sources are rewritten at build time into ordinary fetches against&#x20;
`/_jx/data`
, so no extension code ships to the browser.

## Next

- Watch a source resolve, live, in the **[Data panel](/docs/studio/logic/data)**
- Compute over fetched data with **[Formulas and expressions](/docs/studio/logic/formulas)**
- Content types themselves are managed in **[Content types](/docs/studio/projects/content-types)**

✕

Start here[Overview](/docs/start/)Get started[Install Jx Studio](/docs/start/install/)[Your first project](/docs/start/first-project/)[A tour of Jx Studio](/docs/start/studio-tour/)Tutorials[Tutorial: interactive component](/docs/start/first-component/)[Tutorial: blog with collections](/docs/start/first-collection/)[Video tutorials](/docs/start/videos/)Coming from another tool[Coming from WordPress](/docs/start/coming-from-wordpress/)[Coming from Webflow or Framer](/docs/start/coming-from-webflow/)[Coming from Wix or Squarespace](/docs/start/coming-from-wix/)[Coming from Lovable or Builder.io](/docs/start/coming-from-ai-builders/)Studio[Overview](/docs/studio/)[The desktop app](/docs/studio/desktop/)The workspace[Overview](/docs/studio/interface/)[Welcome screen](/docs/studio/interface/welcome-screen/)[Editors and views](/docs/studio/interface/modes/)[The canvas](/docs/studio/interface/canvas/)[Documents and panes](/docs/studio/interface/tabs/)[Quick 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architecture[Overview](/docs/framework/site/)[project.json](/docs/framework/site/project-json/)[Routing](/docs/framework/site/routing/)[Layouts](/docs/framework/site/layouts/)[Content collections](/docs/framework/site/content-collections/)[Jx Markdown](/docs/framework/site/jx-markdown/)[Obsidian vault as content](/docs/framework/site/obsidian-vault/)[Relationships](/docs/framework/site/relationships/)[SEO and metadata](/docs/framework/site/seo/)[Locales and languages](/docs/framework/site/i18n/)[Images](/docs/framework/site/images/)[Redirects](/docs/framework/site/redirects/)[Feeds](/docs/framework/site/feeds/)[Site search](/docs/framework/site/search/)[Build output and adapters](/docs/framework/site/deployment/)How compilation works[Overview](/docs/framework/build/)[The dev server](/docs/framework/build/dev-server/)[CLI commands](/docs/framework/build/cli/)Working with agents[Overview](/docs/framework/agents/)[Authoring rules for 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guestbook](/docs/extending/extensions/tutorial-guestbook/)[First-party extensions](/docs/extending/extensions/first-party/)Embedding[Overview](/docs/extending/embedding/)[Hosting the Studio assets](/docs/extending/embedding/hosting/)[Writing a platform adapter](/docs/extending/embedding/platform-adapter/)[The backend protocol](/docs/extending/embedding/backend-protocol/)[Dev server internals](/docs/extending/embedding/dev-server/)[Embedding the runtime in your app](/docs/extending/embedding/runtime-host/)[Writing assistant tools](/docs/extending/embedding/assistant-harness/)UI kit[The Jx UI kit](/docs/extending/ui-kit/)Reference[Protocol routes](/docs/extending/reference/studio-routes/)[Implementation status](/docs/extending/reference/implementation-status/)[Spec changelog](/docs/extending/reference/spec-changelog/)[Standards alignment](/docs/extending/reference/standards/)Contributing[Working in the monorepo](/docs/extending/contributing/monorepo/)[Contributing to these docs](/docs/extending/contributing/docs/)[AI assistant evals](/docs/extending/contributing/ai-evals/)

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