URL

The “URL” attribute stores a link consisting of a title and a URL address. Alternatively, it can be set to pure URL output (without title). Typical use cases:

• External links to websites, documents, or social media profiles

• Internal links to Contao pages (via the page picker)

• Download links with descriptive title

External links must be entered including the protocol (e.g. https://www.example.com). Internal Contao links can be selected via the integrated page picker.

See also

For multilingual MetaModels, the attribute Translated URL is available.

Installation

The attribute is installed via the Contao Manager or Composer:

composer require metamodels/attribute_url

Settings when Creating the Attribute

In addition to the general attribute settings (name, column name, description, override variants), the URL attribute offers the following specific option:

Option	Description
Remove title	If this option is enabled, only the URL field is displayed and stored — the title field is omitted. Useful when only the pure URL without descriptive text is needed.

Settings in Render Settings

The URL attribute has its own render setting:

Option	Description
Do not open in new tab	If this option is active, the link is output without target="_blank" — it therefore opens in the same browser window. Default (not enabled): links open in a new tab.
Template	Selection of a custom template for the output of the link.
CSS class	Optional CSS class added to the output element.

Settings in the Input Form

When the URL attribute is added to an input form, the following options are available:

Display

Option	Description
Backend class	CSS classes for the display of the field in the backend form (e.g. long for full width).
Template for backend	Selection of a custom widget template for the backend form.
Template for frontend	Selection of a custom widget template for frontend editing (only available if the “Frontend Editing” extension is installed).

Functions

Option	Description
Required field	Makes the field a required field.

Filter Rules

The URL attribute can be used with the following filter rules:

Filter rule	Note
Levenshtein-based search	Similarity search with typo tolerance; requires the package attribute_levenshtein.
Loupe	Full-text index search; requires the package filter_loupe (from MM 2.4).

Special Functions

Database storage

If “Remove title” is disabled, the pair [title, URL] is stored as a serialized array in a blob NULL field. If “Remove title” is enabled, only the URL is stored as a simple string.

Input wizard

In the backend, a page picker wizard is automatically displayed next to the text field, allowing internal Contao pages to be selected. If “Remove title” is enabled, only a simple text field is available.