Long Text field

Detailed explanation of the Long Text field in ButterCMS, including input, output, configuration options, and use cases

The Long Text field can be used to enter multi-line alphanumeric content, such as a meta-description, article summary, or Markdown snippet.

If your content includes multiple paragraphs, they’ll appear as \n characters in the API Response.

Long Text at a glance

Input and output

Input type

Multi-line text area

API output

string (preserves line breaks with \n)

API response example

"article_summary": "A comprehensive guide.\nWe'll cover all aspects of content modeling in ButterCMS.\nWe'll explore Pages, Collections, and Components.",

Field configuration options

Set reasonable limits via min/max length. For example, meta descriptions should use a max length of ~160 characters.

Option Name	Type	Function
Required?	boolean	Make field required to save page
Help text	string	Add help text to describe usage to your team
Min length	number	Set a minimum length in characters
Max length	number	Set a maximum length in characters
Default value	string	Set a default value for the field
Exclude from translation	boolean	Exclude the field from translation function
Specific pattern	Dropdown	Validates field data against your choice of: Email URL US Phone Number US Zip Code Custom (Regex)

Common use cases

• Meta descriptions for SEO
• Article summaries and excerpts
• Product descriptions
• Author bios
• Plain text instructions
• Markdown content (when you’ll parse it on the frontend)
• JSON data (advanced use)

Using Long Text as a Markdown editor

Many developers use the Long Text field to store Markdown content, which is then parsed and rendered on the frontend. This approach is popular for:

• Technical documentation
• Developer blogs
• Content where authors are comfortable with Markdown syntax

Example workflow

1. Create a Long Text field named content_markdown
2. Authors write content using Markdown syntax
3. Frontend application parses the Markdown using a library (e.g., marked, remark, or markdown-it)

// Example: Parsing Markdown in JavaScript
import { marked } from 'marked';

const markdownContent = page.fields.content_markdown;
const htmlContent = marked.parse(markdownContent);

API response with Markdown

{
  "content_markdown": "## Getting Started\n\nFollow these steps:\n\n1. Install the SDK\n2. Configure your API key\n3. Fetch your first page\n\n```javascript\nconst butter = require('buttercms')('your-key');\n```"
}

Best practices

1. Consider WYSIWYG instead - If editors need formatting, use the WYSIWYG field
2. Document Markdown expectations - If using for Markdown, provide help text explaining the format
3. Set reasonable limits - For meta descriptions, use max length of ~160 characters
4. Use for SEO fields - Meta descriptions work great with Long Text

Field validation examples

Example: meta description (Long Text)

Field Name: meta_description
Max Length: 160
Help Text: "Enter a brief description for search results (max 160 characters)"
Required: No

Example: article excerpt (Long Text)

Field Name: excerpt
Min Length: 50
Max Length: 300
Help Text: "Summarize the article in 1-2 sentences"
Required: Yes