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@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+---
+'@object-ui/fields': patch
+---
+
+A `composite` or `record` field value reads as labelled sub-values, not as its stored JSON (objectui#11697). On the record page, and in every grid cell that draws from the same cell-renderer table, a composite value such as `{"width":10,"height":20}` showed as raw JSON in a monospace face. It now reads `Width 10 · Height 20`. A record value reads one labelled group per entry name, so `{ primary: { name: "A", score: 9 }, backup: { name: "B", score: 7 } }` reads `Primary (Name A · Score 9) · Backup (Name B · Score 7)`. A record entry that is not a sub-object reads as a pair.
+
+- **Labels** are the humanized key. The field metadata has no sub-field declaration to read one from: `@objectstack/spec`'s field schema declares none for these types and refuses `fields` / `subFields` as unrecognized keys.
+- **Sub-values.** A number is formatted as the number cell formats a field with no declared `scale`, and a boolean reads as Yes / No in the reader's language. A string reads as itself and an unset sub-value as the shared "No value" dash. An object or array nested inside a sub-value stays compact JSON.
+- **One line.** The value is one truncated line in the grid, on the record page and in the summary chip, with the full text in its `title`. It is a description list, so a screen reader reads term and value pairs.
+- **Unchanged.** An empty value, `[]`, `{}` and a non-object value read exactly as the JSON cell reads them, and a string holding JSON is never parsed. `json` and `object` keep the JSON cell. The record page's copy button still copies the stored JSON.
+
+Nothing is added to the package entry: no export, prop, type member or language-pack key. The new renderer is module-local and is reached through `getCellRenderer('composite')` and `getCellRenderer('record')`.
@@ -131,8 +131,7 @@ The object field stores data as parsed JSON:
 ## Cell Renderer
 
 In tables/grids, an `object` value is rendered by the JSON cell renderer —
-`getCellRenderer('object')` resolves to this same component, shared with `json`,
-`composite` and `record`:
+`getCellRenderer('object')` resolves to this same component, shared with `json`:
 
 ```ts
 import { JsonCellRenderer } from '@object-ui/fields';
@@ -142,6 +141,24 @@ import { JsonCellRenderer } from '@object-ui/fields';
 // A null or empty value renders an em-dash instead.
 ```
 
+`composite` and `record` values are not drawn as JSON. Their cell — in a grid and
+on the record page alike — is one line of labelled sub-values, with the full text
+in the `title`:
+
+```plaintext
+// composite  { width: 10, height: 20 }
+Width 10 · Height 20
+
+// record     { primary: { name: "A", score: 9 }, backup: { name: "B", score: 7 } }
+Primary (Name A · Score 9) · Backup (Name B · Score 7)
+```
+
+A label is the humanized key: the field metadata declares no sub-fields to take a
+label from. A number sub-value is formatted as the number cell formats it, a boolean
+reads as Yes / No in the reader's language, a string reads as itself, and an object or
+an array nested inside a sub-value stays compact JSON.
+An empty value, `[]`, `{}` and a non-object value read as the JSON cell reads them.
+
 ## Schema Validation
 
 For typed object fields, you can define a schema in two formats:
 
@@ -158,7 +158,9 @@ describe('address display renderer — controls (unchanged surfaces)', () => {
 
   it('leaves genuinely structural types stringifying as JSON', () => {
     // `address` moved out of the JSON bucket; `json` / `object` stay in it.
-    for (const type of ['json', 'object', 'composite', 'record']) {
+    // `composite` / `record` moved out too (objectui#11697): they draw labelled
+    // sub-values, pinned in `compositeRecordCell-11697.test.tsx`.
+    for (const type of ['json', 'object']) {
       const { container } = renderThroughDisplayRegistry(type, { a: 1 });
       expect(container.textContent).toBe('{"a":1}');
     }
 
@@ -0,0 +1,212 @@
+/**
+ * ObjectUI
+ * Copyright (c) 2024-present ObjectStack Inc.
+ *
+ * This source code is licensed under the MIT license found in the
+ * LICENSE file in the root directory of this source tree.
+ */
+
+/**
+ * objectui#11697: a `composite` or `record` value read as its stored JSON on
+ * the record page — `{"width":10,"height":20}` in a monospace face — because
+ * the cell-renderer table mapped both types to `JsonCellRenderer`. They now
+ * draw labelled sub-values on one line.
+ *
+ * Every case resolves its renderer through `getCellRenderer`, the resolver the
+ * record page and the grid both call, so a regressed table entry goes red here
+ * and not only a regressed renderer. The record-page end of the path is pinned
+ * in `@object-ui/plugin-detail`'s `DetailSection.compositeRecord-11697`.
+ *
+ * Values are the platform's own producers where one exists: the showcase Field
+ * Zoo seeds `f_composite` / `f_record`, and the SQL driver's fidelity test and
+ * the dogfood field-zoo matrix write a `record` whose entries are scalars.
+ */
+
+import { describe, it, expect, afterEach } from 'vitest';
+import React from 'react';
+import { render, cleanup } from '@testing-library/react';
+import type { FieldMetadata } from '@object-ui/types';
+import { getCellRenderer, resolveCellRendererType } from '../index';
+
+afterEach(() => cleanup());
+
+/** Resolve + render exactly the way `DetailSection` builds a read-mode value. */
+function renderCell(type: string, value: unknown) {
+  const Renderer = getCellRenderer(resolveCellRendererType({ type }) || type);
+  const field = { type, name: `f_${type}` } as unknown as FieldMetadata;
+  return render(<Renderer value={value} field={field} />);
+}
+
+/** What assistive technology reads in an element: its text minus `aria-hidden` nodes. */
+function spokenText(element: Element): string {
+  const clone = element.cloneNode(true) as Element;
+  clone.querySelectorAll('[aria-hidden="true"]').forEach((node) => node.remove());
+  return (clone.textContent ?? '').trim();
+}
+
+/** The `dt` / `dd` pairs directly under one `<dl>`, as spoken. */
+function pairsOf(list: Element): Array<[term: string, definition: string]> {
+  return Array.from(list.querySelectorAll(':scope > div')).map((group) => [
+    spokenText(group.querySelector(':scope > dt')!),
+    spokenText(group.querySelector(':scope > dd')!),
+  ]);
+}
+
+/** The face's outer `<dl>`; fails loudly when the cell drew something else. */
+function outerList(container: HTMLElement): HTMLElement {
+  const outer = container.firstElementChild as HTMLElement | null;
+  expect(outer?.tagName, 'the face is a description list').toBe('DL');
+  return outer!;
+}
+
+describe('objectui#11697 — composite and record values render as labelled sub-values', () => {
+  it('a composite value renders each sub-field as a labelled pair, not as its JSON', () => {
+    // The Field Zoo seed for `f_composite`, the value the card reported.
+    const { container } = renderCell('composite', { width: 10, height: 20 });
+    const outer = outerList(container);
+
+    expect(pairsOf(outer)).toEqual([
+      ['Width', '10'],
+      ['Height', '20'],
+    ]);
+    expect(container.textContent).toBe('Width 10 · Height 20');
+    expect(container.textContent, 'no stored-JSON signature').not.toMatch(/[{}"]/);
+  });
+
+  it('a record value renders one labelled group per entry name, holding that entry’s pairs', () => {
+    // The Field Zoo seed for `f_record`.
+    const { container } = renderCell('record', {
+      primary: { name: 'A', score: 9 },
+      backup: { name: 'B', score: 7 },
+    });
+    const outer = outerList(container);
+
+    const entries = Array.from(outer.querySelectorAll(':scope > div'));
+    expect(entries.map((entry) => spokenText(entry.querySelector(':scope > dt')!))).toEqual([
+      'Primary',
+      'Backup',
+    ]);
+    const groups = entries.map((entry) => entry.querySelector(':scope > dd > dl')!);
+    expect(pairsOf(groups[0])).toEqual([
+      ['Name', 'A'],
+      ['Score', '9'],
+    ]);
+    expect(pairsOf(groups[1])).toEqual([
+      ['Name', 'B'],
+      ['Score', '7'],
+    ]);
+    expect(container.textContent).toBe('Primary (Name A · Score 9) · Backup (Name B · Score 7)');
+    expect(container.textContent, 'no stored-JSON signature').not.toMatch(/[{}"]/);
+  });
+
+  it('a record entry that is not a sub-object is drawn as a pair, with no group', () => {
+    // The shape the SQL driver's fidelity test and the dogfood matrix write.
+    const { container } = renderCell('record', { home: '+1', work: '+2' });
+    const outer = outerList(container);
+
+    expect(pairsOf(outer)).toEqual([
+      ['Home', '+1'],
+      ['Work', '+2'],
+    ]);
+    expect(outer.querySelector('dd dl'), 'a scalar entry opens no group').toBeNull();
+  });
+
+  it('a nested object or array inside a sub-value stays compact JSON', () => {
+    const composite = renderCell('composite', { size: { w: 1 }, tags: ['a', 'b'] });
+    expect(pairsOf(outerList(composite.container))).toEqual([
+      ['Size', '{"w":1}'],
+      ['Tags', '["a","b"]'],
+    ]);
+    expect(
+      composite.container.querySelector('dd dl'),
+      'a composite never groups: its sub-field holds an object, it is not a map entry',
+    ).toBeNull();
+    cleanup();
+
+    const record = renderCell('record', { primary: { dims: { w: 1 } } });
+    expect(record.container.textContent).toBe('Primary (Dims {"w":1})');
+  });
+
+  it('each scalar sub-value reads through this package’s face for its type', () => {
+    const { container } = renderCell('composite', {
+      total: 1234.5,
+      active: true,
+      archived: false,
+      note: null,
+      code: 'x-1',
+    });
+    const pairs = pairsOf(outerList(container));
+
+    // The number is the `number` cell's own text for a field with no `scale`:
+    // compared against that cell, not against a literal, so the two agree by
+    // construction rather than by a copy.
+    const numberCell = render(
+      React.createElement(getCellRenderer('number'), {
+        value: 1234.5,
+        field: { type: 'number', name: 'n' } as FieldMetadata,
+      }),
+    );
+    expect(pairs[0]).toEqual(['Total', numberCell.container.textContent]);
+    expect(pairs[0][1], 'grouped, natural precision').toBe('1,234.5');
+    // A boolean is the locale's word, the boolean-as-text face.
+    expect(pairs[1]).toEqual(['Active', 'Yes']);
+    expect(pairs[2]).toEqual(['Archived', 'No']);
+    // A floor member is the shared affordance, with its accessible name.
+    const noteValue = outerList(container).querySelectorAll(':scope > div > dd')[3];
+    expect(
+      noteValue.querySelector('[data-slot="empty-value"]')?.getAttribute('aria-label'),
+      'an unset sub-value is the shared "No value" affordance',
+    ).toBe('No value');
+    expect(pairs[4]).toEqual(['Code', 'x-1']);
+  });
+
+  it('the face is one truncated line whose title carries the full text', () => {
+    const { container } = renderCell('record', {
+      primary: { name: 'A', score: 9 },
+      backup: { name: 'B', score: 7 },
+    });
+    const outer = outerList(container);
+    for (const token of ['block', 'max-w-full', 'truncate']) {
+      expect(outer.classList.contains(token), `the line carries \`${token}\``).toBe(true);
+    }
+    expect(outer.getAttribute('title'), 'the hover text is the line itself').toBe(container.textContent);
+  });
+});
+
+describe('objectui#11697 — what does NOT move', () => {
+  for (const type of ['composite', 'record'] as const) {
+    it(`\`${type}\`: the floor and the unrecognized shapes answer exactly as the JSON cell does`, () => {
+      for (const empty of [null, undefined, '']) {
+        const { container } = renderCell(type, empty);
+        expect(
+          container.querySelector('[data-slot="empty-value"]'),
+          `${type} holding ${JSON.stringify(empty)}: the shared affordance`,
+        ).not.toBeNull();
+        expect(container.querySelector('dl')).toBeNull();
+        cleanup();
+      }
+      // The literals objectui#8474 and objectui#8481's fence pinned, and a
+      // string that happens to hold JSON: drawn as it is, never parsed.
+      for (const [input, text] of [
+        [[], '[]'],
+        [{}, '{}'],
+        ['{"width":10}', '{"width":10}'],
+      ] as const) {
+        const { container } = renderCell(type, input);
+        expect(container.textContent, `${type} holding ${JSON.stringify(input)}`).toBe(text);
+        expect(container.querySelector('dl')).toBeNull();
+        cleanup();
+      }
+    });
+  }
+
+  it('`json` and `object` keep the compact JSON face', () => {
+    for (const type of ['json', 'object']) {
+      const { container } = renderCell(type, { width: 10, height: 20 });
+      expect(container.textContent, `${type}: a free-form JSON value reads as JSON`).toBe(
+        '{"width":10,"height":20}',
+      );
+      cleanup();
+    }
+  });
+});