Sanity CMS, using type "object" as reference - sanity

Question

Is it not possible to use an object type as a reference in sanity? For example this is not working. When I go to the field nothing shows up. If I can't do this how can I access the indexPage objects that have been created under other documents?
export const indexPage = {
title: "Index Page",
name: "indexPage",
type: "object",
fields: [
{
title: "Subheading",
name: "subheading",
type: "array",
of: [{ type: 'block' }]
},
{
title: "Content",
name: "content",
type: "array",
of: [{ type: "block" }]
},
]
}
// in another file
export const coolPage = {
title: "Cool Page",
name: "coolPage",
type: "object",
fields: [
{
title: "Reference Index Page",
name: "refIndexPage",
type: "reference",
to: [{ type: 'indexPage' }]
}
]
}

Answer 1

References can only point to other documents; not to a specific part of a document. So to achieve this, indexPage would need to be a document.
I think modelling indexPage as a document would be a viable option in your case. You mentioned "indexPage objects that have been created under other documents". Instead of creating indexPage data inside a specific document, indexPage should be its own document type. Any other document can then connect to it via a reference. This approach should be really flexible for you.
Sanity Studio recently added support for "references in place", which makes this workflow even better. The studio now allows you to create a document to reference while you are editing the document that references it—without leaving the editor. You can see a demo here (no extra work on your part is needed here, it's handled automatically by Sanity Studio).
In summary: if you have a piece of data you'd like to share between multiple documents, model it as its own document type that is referenced by every document that is related.