directus/docs/concepts/collections.md

Collections

Each Collection contains some number of fields, and is a container for a specific grouping of Items. Each collection represents a table in your database.

Directus automatically uses a built-in title formatter to display your database table names prettified, however you can use schema translations to completely rename them if needed.

Collections can be organized in any way that is appropriate for your project. You can architect them platform-specific (eg: pages of a website), or in a more platform-agnostic way (eg: raw customers of your business). While there's no right or wrong way to structure your data-model, we recommend keeping your data as agnostic as possible so it is easier to repurpose in the future. In short, learn to see your data as its own asset — not only through the lens of your immediate project needs.

The only requirement of a collection is that it must contain a Primary Key field. This field stores a unique value that is used to reference the Collection's items throughout the database/platform.

Relevant Guides

• Creating a Collection
• Configuring a Collection
• Deleting a Collection
• Adjusting a Collection Layout

Collection Presets & Bookmarks

Presets store the exact state of a collection detail page. They are used to set layout defaults for a user, or to define bookmarks that can be used to quickly recall specific datasets. Each preset stores the following information:

• Collection — The collection of the preset
• Layout — The Layout the preset applies to
• Layout Query — Order direction, order field, pagination, etc
• Layout Options — The configuration of all layout options
• Search — Any fulltext search query applied
• Filters — Any advanced fitlers applied
• User — Optional; scopes to a specific user
• Role — Optional; scopes to a specific role
• Bookmark Name — Optional; determines if the preset is a bookmark

Relevant Guides

• Creating a Preset
• Deleting a Preset