The @dotcms/client is a powerful JavaScript/TypeScript SDK designed to simplify the integration of dotCMS content into your applications. Whether building dynamic websites or content-driven apps, this SDK offers an intuitive API for seamless and type-safe content retrieval, enabling you to create engaging experiences effortlessly by accessing and displaying content from dotCMS.

When to Use It:#

• Building headless frontends that need dotCMS content
• Building content-driven apps that need to access dotCMS content
• Developing multi-language or personalized experiences
• Implementing dynamic navigation and page structures

Key Benefits:#

• Simplified Development: Write less code with intuitive methods and builders
• Type Safety: Built-in TypeScript definitions prevent runtime errors
• Universal Compatibility: Works in both browser and Node.js environments
• Security First: Handles authentication and requests securely
• Developer Experience: Rich autocompletion and documentation

📋 Migration Guides:

• From Alpha Version? If you're upgrading from the alpha version of @dotcms/client, please see our Migration Guide for step-by-step instructions.
• From v1.2.x to v1.3.0? See the Changelog section below for new AI Search API features.
• From v1.0.x to v1.1.1? See the Changelog section below for new features and improvements.

Getting Started#

---

Prerequisites & Setup#

Get a dotCMS Environment#

• Recommended: dotCMS Evergreen
• Minimum: dotCMS v25.05
• Best Experience: Latest Evergreen release

Environment Setup#

For Production Use:

• ☁️ Cloud hosting options - managed solutions with SLA
• 🛠️ Self-hosted options - deploy on your infrastructure

For Testing & Development:

• 🧑🏻‍💻 dotCMS demo site - perfect for trying out the SDK
• 📘 Learn how to use the demo site
• 📝 Read-only access, ideal for building proof-of-concepts

For Local Development:

• 🐳 Docker setup guide
• 💻 Local installation guide

Create a dotCMS API Key#

[!TIP] Make sure your API Token has read-only permissions for Pages, Folders, Assets, and Content. Using a key with minimal permissions follows security best practices.

This integration requires an API Key with read-only permissions for security best practices:

1. Go to the dotCMS admin panel.
2. Click on System > Users.
3. Select the user you want to create the API Key for.
4. Go to API Access Key and generate a new key.

For detailed instructions, please refer to the dotCMS API Documentation - Read-only token.

Installation#

Install the SDK and required dependencies:

npm install @dotcms/client@latest @dotcms/types@latest

[!TIP] If you are working with pure JavaScript, you can avoid installing the @dotcms/types package.

Your First API Call#

Here's a basic setup of the dotCMS Client SDK to help you get started:

import { createDotCMSClient } from '@dotcms/client';

// Create a client instance
const client = createDotCMSClient({
    dotcmsUrl: 'https://your-dotcms-instance.com',
    authToken: 'your-auth-token', // Optional for public content
    siteId: 'your-site-id' // Optional site identifier
});

// Start using the client!
const { pageAsset } = await client.page.get('/about-us');
console.log(pageAsset.page.title);

Example Projects#

While there isn't a dedicated example project specifically for the client SDK, you can see it in action within these full-stack examples:

• Next.js Example - Modern React-based SSR implementation
• Angular Example - Enterprise Angular implementation
• Astro Example - Astro implementation

These examples demonstrate how to use the client SDK as part of a complete web application.

How-to Guides#

---

How to Fetch Complete Pages#

The client.page.get() method is your primary tool for retrieving full page content. Here's how to use it effectively:

Basic Page Fetching#

// Fetch a page with its layout and content
const { pageAsset } = await client.page.get('/about-us');
console.log(pageAsset.page.title);

Customizing Page Requests#

// Fetch with specific language and persona
const { pageAsset } = await client.page.get('/about-us', {
    languageId: '2',
    fireRules: true,
    personaId: '1234'
});

Fetching Related Content#

// Pull in additional content with GraphQL
const { pageAsset, content } = await client.page.get('/about-us', {
    graphql: {
        content: {
            blogPosts: `
                BlogCollection(limit: 3) {
                    title
                    urlTitle
                }
            `,
            navigation: `
                DotNavigation(uri: "/", depth: 2) {
                    href
                    title
                }
            `
        }
    }
});

How to Query Content Collections#

The client.content.getCollection() method uses a fluent builder pattern for querying content:

Basic Collection Queries#

// Fetch first 10 blog posts
const blogs = await client.content.getCollection('Blog').limit(10).page(1);

Filtering and Sorting#

// Filter by title and sort by date
const filtered = await client.content
    .getCollection('Blog')
    .query((qb) => qb.field('title').equals('dotCMS*'))
    .limit(5)
    .sortBy([{ field: 'publishDate', direction: 'desc' }]);

Complex Queries#

// Multiple filters with operators
const products = await client.content
    .getCollection('Product')
    .query((qb) => qb
        .field('category').equals('electronics')
        .and()
        .field('price').raw(':[100 TO 500]')
        .not()
        .field('discontinued').equals('true')
    )
    .limit(10);

How to Use AI-Powered Search#

[!WARNING] Experimental Feature: The AI API is currently experimental and may undergo breaking changes in future releases. Use with caution in production environments.

The client.ai.search() method enables semantic search using AI embeddings to find content based on meaning rather than exact keyword matches.

Prerequisites#

Before using AI-powered search, ensure your dotCMS instance is properly configured:

[!IMPORTANT] Required Setup:

1. dotAI must be activated in your dotCMS instance
2. OpenAI API Key must be configured in dotCMS
3. PostgreSQL 15+ with pgvector extension must be installed
4. Content indexes must be created and configured in dotAI

For detailed setup instructions, see the dotCMS dotAI documentation.

Basic AI Search#

// Search for content semantically related to your query
const results = await client.ai.search(
    'articles about machine learning',
    'content_index'
);
console.log(results.dotCMSResults);

Customizing Search Parameters#

// Fine-tune search with query parameters
const results = await client.ai.search(
    'artificial intelligence tutorials',
    'content_index',
    {
        query: {
            limit: 20,
            offset: 0,
            contentType: 'BlogPost',
            languageId: '1'
        }
    }
);

Adjusting AI Configuration#

import { DISTANCE_FUNCTIONS } from '@dotcms/types';

// Customize AI search behavior with threshold and distance function
const results = await client.ai.search(
    'deep learning concepts',
    'content_index',
    {
        config: {
            threshold: 0.75,              // Higher threshold = more relevant results
            distanceFunction: DISTANCE_FUNCTIONS.cosine, // Distance calculation method
            responseLength: 2048           // Maximum response length
        }
    }
);

Complete Example with All Options#

// Combine query and AI parameters for precise control
const results = await client.ai.search(
    'best practices for content management',
    'articles_index',
    {
        query: {
            limit: 10,
            offset: 0,
            contentType: 'Article',
            languageId: '1',
            siteId: 'my-site'
        },
        config: {
            threshold: 0.8,
            distanceFunction: DISTANCE_FUNCTIONS.innerProduct,
            responseLength: 1024
        }
    }
);

// Access results with match scores
results.dotCMSResults.forEach(result => {
    console.log(result.title);
    console.log('Matches:', result.matches); // Distance and extracted text
});

Understanding Distance Functions#

The SDK supports multiple distance functions for vector similarity:

import { DISTANCE_FUNCTIONS } from '@dotcms/types';

// Available distance functions:
DISTANCE_FUNCTIONS.cosine        // '<=>' - Cosine similarity (default)
DISTANCE_FUNCTIONS.innerProduct  // '<#>' - Inner product similarity
DISTANCE_FUNCTIONS.L2            // '<->' - Euclidean distance
DISTANCE_FUNCTIONS.L1            // '<+>' - Manhattan distance
DISTANCE_FUNCTIONS.hamming       // '<~>' - Hamming distance
DISTANCE_FUNCTIONS.jaccard       // '<%>' - Jaccard similarity

How to Use with TypeScript#

The SDK is built with TypeScript and provides comprehensive type definitions through the @dotcms/types package for enhanced developer experience and type safety.

Basic Type Usage#

import { createDotCMSClient } from '@dotcms/client';
import type {
    DotCMSPageAsset,
    DotCMSPageResponse,
    DotCMSBasicContentlet,
    DotCMSNavigationItem,
    DotCMSAISearchResponse,
    DotErrorPage,
    DotErrorContent,
    DotErrorAISearch
} from '@dotcms/types';

const client = createDotCMSClient({
    dotcmsUrl: 'https://your-dotcms-instance.com',
    authToken: 'your-auth-token',
    siteId: 'your-site-id'
});

Typing Page Responses#

import type { DotCMSPageAsset } from '@dotcms/types';

// Basic page fetch with type inference
const { pageAsset } = await client.page.get('/about-us');
// pageAsset is automatically typed as DotCMSPageAsset

// Explicit typing
const response: { pageAsset: DotCMSPageAsset } = await client.page.get('/about-us');

// Access typed properties
console.log(pageAsset.page.title);        // string
console.log(pageAsset.layout.body.rows);  // Row[]
console.log(pageAsset.viewAs.language);   // LanguageView

Typing Content Collections#

import type { DotCMSBasicContentlet } from '@dotcms/types';

// Define your custom content type interface
interface BlogPost extends DotCMSBasicContentlet {
    title: string;
    body: string;
    author: string;
    publishDate: string;
    tags: string[];
}

// Use the generic type parameter for type-safe content
const response = await client.content
    .getCollection<BlogPost>('Blog')
    .limit(10);

// Now contentlets are typed as BlogPost[]
response.contentlets.forEach(post => {
    console.log(post.title);      // ✅ Type-safe: string
    console.log(post.author);     // ✅ Type-safe: string
    console.log(post.publishDate); // ✅ Type-safe: string
});

Typing AI Search Results#

import type {
    DotCMSAISearchResponse,
    DotCMSBasicContentlet,
    DISTANCE_FUNCTIONS
} from '@dotcms/types';

// Define your content type
interface Article extends DotCMSBasicContentlet {
    title: string;
    content: string;
    category: string;
}

// Type-safe AI search
const results: DotCMSAISearchResponse<Article> = await client.ai.search<Article>(
    'machine learning tutorials',
    'content_index',
    {
        query: {
            limit: 20,
            contentType: 'Article'
        },
        config: {
            threshold: 0.75,
            distanceFunction: DISTANCE_FUNCTIONS.cosine
        }
    }
);

// Access typed results with match information
results.dotCMSResults.forEach(article => {
    console.log(article.title);           // ✅ Type-safe: string
    console.log(article.category);        // ✅ Type-safe: string

    // Access AI match data
    article.matches?.forEach(match => {
        console.log(match.distance);      // ✅ Type-safe: number
        console.log(match.extractedText); // ✅ Type-safe: string
    });
});

Typing Navigation#

import type { DotCMSNavigationItem } from '@dotcms/types';

// Navigation is automatically typed
const nav: DotCMSNavigationItem[] = await client.navigation.get('/', {
    depth: 2,
    languageId: 1
});

// Access typed navigation properties
nav.forEach(item => {
    console.log(item.title);    // ✅ Type-safe: string
    console.log(item.href);     // ✅ Type-safe: string
    console.log(item.children); // ✅ Type-safe: DotCMSNavigationItem[] | undefined
});

Type-Safe Error Handling#

import type {
    DotHttpError,
    DotErrorPage,
    DotErrorContent,
    DotErrorAISearch
} from '@dotcms/types';

try {
    const { pageAsset } = await client.page.get('/about-us');
} catch (error) {
    // Type guard for specific error types
    if (error instanceof DotErrorPage) {
        // TypeScript knows this is DotErrorPage
        console.error('Page error:', error.message);
        console.error('Context:', error.context);
        if (error.httpError) {
            console.error('Status:', error.httpError.status); // ✅ Type-safe
        }
    } else if (error instanceof DotErrorContent) {
        // TypeScript knows this is DotErrorContent
        console.error('Content error:', error.contentType);
        console.error('Operation:', error.operation);
    } else if (error instanceof DotErrorAISearch) {
        // TypeScript knows this is DotErrorAISearch
        console.error('AI Search error:', error.prompt);
        console.error('Parameters:', error.params);
    }
}

Custom Content Types with Relationships#

import type { DotCMSBasicContentlet } from '@dotcms/types';

// Define related content types
interface Author extends DotCMSBasicContentlet {
    name: string;
    email: string;
    bio: string;
}

interface Category extends DotCMSBasicContentlet {
    categoryName: string;
    description: string;
}

// Main content type with relationships
interface BlogPost extends DotCMSBasicContentlet {
    title: string;
    body: string;
    author: Author;        // Nested type
    category: Category;    // Nested type
    tags: string[];
    publishDate: string;
}

// Fetch with depth to include relationships
const response = await client.content
    .getCollection<BlogPost>('Blog')
    .depth(2)
    .limit(5);

// Access nested typed properties
response.contentlets.forEach(post => {
    console.log(post.title);              // ✅ string
    console.log(post.author.name);        // ✅ string
    console.log(post.author.email);       // ✅ string
    console.log(post.category.categoryName); // ✅ string
});

Using with Async/Await and Promises#

import type {
    DotCMSPageAsset,
    GetCollectionResponse
} from '@dotcms/types';

// Async function with typed return
async function fetchBlogPosts(): Promise<GetCollectionResponse<BlogPost>> {
    return await client.content
        .getCollection<BlogPost>('Blog')
        .limit(10);
}

// Promise chain with types
client.page.get('/about-us')
    .then((response: { pageAsset: DotCMSPageAsset }) => {
        console.log(response.pageAsset.page.title);
        return response;
    })
    .catch((error: DotErrorPage) => {
        console.error(error.message);
    });

How to Work with GraphQL#

GraphQL allows you to fetch exactly the data you need in a single request:

Fetching All Page Fields#

// Use _map to get all page fields including custom ones
const { pageAsset } = await client.page.get('/about-us', {
    graphql: {
        page: '_map'
    }
});

Querying Relationships#

// Fetch related content using fragments
const { pageAsset } = await client.page.get('/blog-post', {
    graphql: {
        page: `
            containers {
                containerContentlets {
                    contentlets {
                        ... on Blog {
                            author {
                                title
                                email
                            }
                            category {
                                categoryName
                            }
                            tags {
                                tagName
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        `
    }
});

Using Variables and Fragments#

// Reusable fragments with variables
const response = await client.page.get('/about-us', {
    graphql: {
        content: {
            blogPosts: `
                BlogCollection(limit: $limit) {
                    ...blogFragment
                }
            `
        },
        fragments: [
            `fragment blogFragment on Blog {
                title
                urlTitle
                blogContent {
                    json
                }
            }`
        ],
        variables: { limit: 5 }
    }
});

API Reference#

---

Client Initialization#

createDotCMSClient(config: DotCMSClientConfig): DotCMSClient

Parameters#

Example#

const client = createDotCMSClient({
    dotcmsUrl: 'https://your-dotcms-instance.com',
    authToken: 'your-auth-token',
    siteId: 'your-site-id',
    httpClient: customHttpClient // Optional: provide custom HTTP client
});

HTTP Client Configuration#

The SDK now supports custom HTTP client implementations for advanced use cases. By default, it uses the built-in FetchHttpClient based on the native Fetch API.

Default HTTP Client#

// The SDK automatically uses FetchHttpClient if no custom client is provided
const client = createDotCMSClient({
    dotcmsUrl: 'https://your-dotcms-instance.com',
    authToken: 'your-auth-token'
    // No httpClient specified - uses FetchHttpClient internally
});

Custom HTTP Client#

import { BaseHttpClient } from '@dotcms/types';

// Implement your own HTTP client by extending BaseHttpClient
class CustomHttpClient extends BaseHttpClient {
    async request<T>(url: string, options?: DotRequestOptions): Promise<T> {
        // Your custom implementation
        // Must handle JSON parsing, error conversion, etc.
        return customRequest(url, options);
    }
}

const client = createDotCMSClient({
    dotcmsUrl: 'https://your-dotcms-instance.com',
    authToken: 'your-auth-token',
    httpClient: new CustomHttpClient()
});

When You Might Need a Custom HTTP Client#

• Corporate Proxies: "All our API calls must go through our corporate proxy with authentication"
• Request Monitoring: "We need to log every dotCMS API call for our compliance audit trail"
• Custom Authentication: "Our enterprise SSO requires adding custom headers to every request"
• Performance Optimization: "We want to reuse HTTP connections and implement our own retry logic"

HTTP Client Features#

• Automatic Response Parsing: JSON responses are automatically parsed
• Error Standardization: All HTTP failures are converted to DotHttpError instances
• Type Safety: Full TypeScript support with generic response types
• Universal Compatibility: Works in both browser and Node.js environments

page.get() Method#

get<T extends DotCMSExtendedPageResponse = DotCMSPageResponse>(
  url: string,
  options?: DotCMSPageRequestParams
): Promise<DotCMSComposedPageResponse<T>>

Parameters#

Options#

Example#

const { pageAsset } = await client.page.get('/about-us');

content.getCollection() Method#

getCollection<T = DotCMSBasicContentlet>(
  contentType: string
): CollectionBuilder<T>

Parameters#

Builder Methods#

Example#

const blogs = await client.content.getCollection('Blog').limit(10).page(1);

ai.search() Method#

[!WARNING] Experimental Feature: The AI API is currently experimental and may undergo breaking changes in future releases. Use with caution in production environments.

Performs semantic search using AI embeddings to find content based on meaning rather than exact keyword matches.

[!NOTE] Prerequisites: This feature requires dotAI to be activated in your dotCMS instance with a configured OpenAI API key. See the dotAI setup documentation for configuration details.

search<T extends DotCMSBasicContentlet>(
  prompt: string,
  indexName: string,
  params?: DotCMSAISearchParams
): Promise<DotCMSAISearchResponse<T>>

Parameters#

Search Parameters (params.query)#

AI Configuration (params.config)#

Response#

interface DotCMSAISearchResponse<T> {
    dotCMSResults: Array<T & {
        matches?: Array<{
            distance: number;      // Similarity score
            extractedText: string; // Matched text excerpt
        }>;
    }>;
}

Examples#

Basic Search:

const results = await client.ai.search(
    'machine learning articles',
    'content_index'
);

With Parameters:

import { DISTANCE_FUNCTIONS } from '@dotcms/types';

const results = await client.ai.search(
    'AI tutorials',
    'content_index',
    {
        query: {
            limit: 20,
            contentType: 'BlogPost',
            languageId: '1'
        },
        config: {
            threshold: 0.75,
            distanceFunction: DISTANCE_FUNCTIONS.cosine
        }
    }
);

Promise-Style:

client.ai.search(
    'content management best practices',
    'content_index',
    {
        query: { limit: 10 },
        config: { threshold: 0.8 }
    }
).then((results) => {
    console.log('Found:', results.dotCMSResults.length);
    return results;
}).catch((error) => {
    console.error('Search failed:', error.message);
});

navigation.get() Method#

get(
  uri: string,
  options?: {
    depth?: number;
    languageId?: number;
  }
): Promise<DotCMSNavigationItem[]>

Parameters#

Options#

Example#

const nav = await client.navigation.get('/', { depth: 2 });

Error Handling#

The SDK provides comprehensive error handling with specific error types for different API operations. These domain-specific errors may wrap DotHttpError instances when HTTP failures occur and include contextual information to help with debugging.

Error Types#

Basic Error Handling#

try {
    const { pageAsset } = await client.page.get('/about-us');
    console.log(pageAsset.page.title);
} catch (error) {
    if (error instanceof DotErrorPage) {
        console.error('Page error:', error.message);
        console.error('Context:', error.context);
    } else {
        console.error('Unexpected error:', error);
    }
}

Content Collection Error Handling#

try {
    const blogs = await client.content
        .getCollection('Blog')
        .limit(10);
} catch (error) {
    if (error instanceof DotErrorContent) {
        console.error('Content error:', error.message);
        console.error('Content type:', error.contentType);
        console.error('Operation:', error.operation);
        if (error.httpError) {
            console.error('HTTP status:', error.httpError.status);
        }
    }
}

Navigation Error Handling#

try {
    const nav = await client.navigation.get('/missing-path');
} catch (error) {
    if (error instanceof DotErrorNavigation) {
        console.error('Navigation error:', error.message);
        console.error('Path:', error.path);
        if (error.httpError) {
            console.error('HTTP status:', error.httpError.status);
        }
    }
}

AI Search Error Handling#

try {
    const results = await client.ai.search('machine learning', 'content_index');
} catch (error) {
    if (error instanceof DotErrorAISearch) {
        console.error('AI Search error:', error.message);
        console.error('Prompt:', error.prompt);
        console.error('Index Name:', error.indexName);
        console.error('Parameters:', error.params);
        if (error.httpError) {
            console.error('HTTP status:', error.httpError.status);
        }
    }
}

Promise-Style Error Handling#

// Content collections support .then() with error handling
const result = await client.content
    .getCollection('Blog')
    .limit(10)
    .then(
        (response) => {
            console.log('Success:', response.contentlets);
            return response;
        },
        (error) => {
            console.error('Error:', error.message);
            // Return fallback data or re-throw
            return { contentlets: [], total: 0 };
        }
    );

Common Error Scenarios#

401 Unauthorized

// Missing or invalid authentication token
DotHttpError: status 401, message: "Authentication required"

403 Forbidden

// Valid token but insufficient permissions
DotHttpError: status 403, message: "Access denied"

404 Not Found

// Page, content, or navigation path not found
DotErrorPage: "Page /missing-page not found. Check the page URL and permissions."

Network Errors

// Connection issues, timeouts, etc.
DotHttpError: "Network request failed"

Concepts & Architecture#

---

Key Concepts#

Choosing the Right Method#

The dotCMS Client SDK provides four core methods for fetching data. Use this quick guide to decide which one is best for your use case:

Start with page.get(): The One-Request Solution#

For most use cases, client.page.get() is all you need. It lets you retrieve:

• The full page layout
• Related content
• Navigation structure

All in a single request using GraphQL.

Only use content.getCollection() or navigation.get() if you have advanced needs, like real-time data fetching or building custom dynamic components.

🔍 For comprehensive examples of advanced GraphQL querying including relationships and custom fields, see the How to Work with GraphQL section.

Architecture Overview#

The SDK follows a client-builder pattern with four main APIs:

• Page API (client.page.get()) - Fetches complete page content with layout and containers
• Content API (client.content.getCollection()) - Builder pattern for querying content collections
• AI API (client.ai.search()) - AI-powered semantic search using embeddings and vector similarity ⚠️ Experimental
• Navigation API (client.navigation.get()) - Fetches site navigation structure

All APIs support:

• Type-safe responses with TypeScript
• GraphQL query extensions (Page API)
• Localization and personalization
• Browser and Node.js compatibility

Support#

---

We offer multiple channels to get help with the dotCMS Client SDK:

• GitHub Issues: For bug reports and feature requests, please open an issue in the GitHub repository.
• Community Forum: Join our community discussions to ask questions and share solutions.
• Stack Overflow: Use the tag dotcms-client when posting questions.
• Enterprise Support: Enterprise customers can access premium support through the dotCMS Support Portal.

When reporting issues, please include:

• SDK version you're using
• dotCMS version
• Minimal reproduction steps
• Expected vs. actual behavior

Contributing#

---

GitHub pull requests are the preferred method to contribute code to dotCMS. We welcome contributions to the dotCMS Client SDK! If you'd like to contribute, please follow these steps:

1. Fork the repository dotCMS/core
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

Please ensure your code follows the existing style and includes appropriate tests.

Changelog#

---

v1.3.0#

✨ Added - AI Search API (Experimental)#

⚠️ Experimental Feature: The AI API is experimental and may undergo breaking changes in future releases.

New Features:

• client.ai.search() - AI-powered semantic search using embeddings and vector similarity
• Search content by meaning rather than exact keyword matches
• Support for custom AI search indexes
• Configurable similarity thresholds and distance functions
• DotErrorAISearch error class for AI-specific error handling with prompt and index context

Prerequisites:

• Requires dotAI to be activated in your dotCMS instance
• OpenAI API key must be configured
• PostgreSQL 15+ with pgvector extension
• Content indexes must be created in dotAI

Basic Usage:

// Semantic search with required index name
const results = await client.ai.search(
    'machine learning articles',
    'content_index'
);

// With advanced configuration
const results = await client.ai.search(
    'AI tutorials',
    'content_index',
    {
        query: {
            limit: 20,
            contentType: 'BlogPost'
        },
        config: {
            threshold: 0.75,
            distanceFunction: DISTANCE_FUNCTIONS.cosine
        }
    }
);

Key Features:

• Type-safe with full TypeScript support
• Supports multiple distance functions (cosine, L2, inner product, etc.)
• Returns match scores and extracted text excerpts
• Integrates seamlessly with existing content workflows

v1.1.1#

Version 1.1.1 introduces significant improvements to error handling and HTTP client architecture. Most applications will continue to work without changes.

✨ Added - Enhanced Error Handling#

New Features:

• Introduced specific error types: DotErrorPage, DotErrorContent, DotErrorNavigation
• Domain-specific errors wrap DotHttpError instances with contextual information
• Enhanced error context and debugging information
• Improved error handling in promise chains

Migration Required If:

• You're catching generic Error instances from SDK calls
• You're using .then() callbacks on content collections without return values
• You're parsing raw HTTP error responses manually

Before (v1.0.x):

try {
    const { pageAsset } = await client.page.get('/about');
} catch (error) {
    // Generic error handling
    console.error('Error:', error.message);
    console.error('Status:', error.status); // May not exist
}

// Collection error handling
client.content.getCollection('Blog').then(
    (response) => console.log(response),
    (error) => {
        console.error(error.status); // Raw HTTP status
        // No return value required
    }
);

After (v1.1.1):

try {
    const { pageAsset } = await client.page.get('/about');
} catch (error) {
    // Specific error type checking
    if (error instanceof DotErrorPage) {
        console.error('Page Error:', error.message);
        console.error('Context:', error.context);
        if (error.httpError) {
            console.error('HTTP Status:', error.httpError.status);
        }
    }
}

// Collection error handling with required return values
client.content.getCollection('Blog').then(
    (response) => {
        console.log(response);
        return response; // Return value recommended
    },
    (error) => {
        if (error instanceof DotErrorContent) {
            console.error('Content Error:', error.contentType, error.operation);
        }
        return { contentlets: [], total: 0 }; // Return fallback or re-throw
    }
);

✨ Added - HTTP Client Architecture#

New Features:

• New DotHttpClient interface for pluggable HTTP implementations
• Default FetchHttpClient replaces direct fetch() calls
• Better TypeScript support for custom HTTP clients

Migration Required If:

• You're extending or mocking SDK internals
• You need custom HTTP behavior (proxies, interceptors, etc.)

New Capabilities:

// Custom HTTP client support
const client = createDotCMSClient({
    dotcmsUrl: 'https://your-instance.com',
    authToken: 'your-token',
    httpClient: new CustomHttpClient() // Optional: custom implementation
});

🔄 Changed - Type Updates#

Improvements:

• RequestOptions renamed to DotRequestOptions
• GraphQL response types improved
• Error response types standardized

Migration Required If:

• You're importing RequestOptions directly
• You're using internal type definitions

Update Imports:

// Before
import { RequestOptions } from '@dotcms/types';

// After
import { DotRequestOptions } from '@dotcms/types';

Licensing#

---

dotCMS comes in multiple editions and as such is dual-licensed. The dotCMS Community Edition is licensed under the GPL 3.0 and is freely available for download, customization, and deployment for use within organizations of all stripes. dotCMS Enterprise Editions (EE) adds several enterprise features and is available via a supported, indemnified commercial license from dotCMS. For the differences between the editions, see the feature page.

This SDK is part of dotCMS's dual-licensed platform (GPL 3.0 for Community, commercial license for Enterprise).

Learn more at dotcms.com.