Dynamic Module Content Items

I've been looking into dynamic content modules and I have been having issues building out the data model I need.  I need to have a parent content item with different child content types - multiple.  Currently I can't seem to make this work.

This has to be able to work somehow.  When the documentation said SiteFinity supported "hierarchical content items" to me, that implied it allowed multiple content items per parent.  I have a complex data model and I need to be able to represent it in a way that will make sense for permissioning and for the authors.

I totally agree this should be possible. I had to simplify my data model to make it work in the Module Builder, but I fear future requirements. Multiple children is a normal feature in any data model.

 I think Telerik has logged a feature request for this last year or so, but I could not find it. Hopefully someone can estimate a release date for this.

Can someone from Telerik weigh in on this?  Is there nothing I can do to support multiple child content items?  If so, can we at least be notified if this is planned at some point - hopefully soon?

 Thanks

+400 , REALLY REALLY want this

I have a follow-up to this.   It would seem that multiple child content types per parent is not currently available - for the module builder at least.

 Is this in any way possible if you create a custom module?

Putting is simply: "Can you define multiple child content types per parent in a custom module?"

I don't mind the extra effort of creating and managing a custom module as long as it gives the content structure I need.

Hi Mike,

You are right, the Module builder currently doesn’t support multiple child types.

Is it possible to realize your structure using Related data (User guide, Developers guide) feature? If not, could you please provide more information about your case and desired structure?

Regards,
Georgi Dimitrov
Telerik

Oh boy, theres a million and one scenarios where you'd want to craft a complex (ish) schema with multiple parent/children...related would just be a hack

 Like lets say you put a new related field to pick the parent, in the UI you have no way to even see that or 'drill down'...do you know what I mean?

 Like lets say my root type is cities, and the child is restaurants.  So I click the city in the backend UI and now I can add restaurants to that city...list auto-filtered and the API returns the right child items.  Thats a nice powerful way to empower the users to visualize the data.

And suppose Steve's cities not only have restaurants, but also tourist attractions and parking places. The easiest way would be to have 1 parent with 3 children. Very common data structure. Every relational database can do it.

Hi, Steve. It seems that your are mostly restricted to use the related data field in this case because of lack of convenient UI to drill down and follow the parent - child relations - if we add such convenient UI in the backend I suppose you will be ok to use the related data field in hierarchical structures?

Also one additional consideration for hierarchical types is that the child items get a URL slug generated with the parent item URL - is this something important that you will need (since related content do not support this). Plus is the cascade deletion of child items and important feature - cause we can probably add this to related content too?

@Nikolay,

  Am I right in reading that Sitefinity can handle this structure, but the UI is what's preventing it from working?

 Would need the parent slug yes, couldn't hurt for SEO as well...
/cities/toronto/restaurants/place1
/cities/toronto/parking/place1
/cities/toronto/attractions/place1
...so sure these could be catagories, but this is just an illustration of our need for more complex types.

 Cascading delete yes, wont be an issue though with the 7.1 recycle bin...could always get the children back.

 Steve

"Am I right in reading that Sitefinity can handle this structure, but the UI is what's preventing it from working?"

 Can we get clarification on whether this is a UI limitation on the Module Builder?  I have no problem building a custom module to structure the data the way I need it to to be, multiple child types and all.  I just don't know if it's possible.

Hello,

Thank you for your interest in that functionality.

We are discussing the questions raised and will prepare detailed answer of that matter.

Regards,
Svetoslav Manchev
Telerik

Any update on a formal response?

I greatly appreciate you looking into this on your end.

 Thanks

Hi Mike and all,

our idea is to solve this problem using Related Content, by extending the existing functionality to support grid views. The initial wireframes are posted in this thread.

Please review and let us know what you think of the proposed approach.
I suggest we continue the discussion there.

The major questions I have to you is:
>> In hierarchies, how do you want permissions to behave?
>> Do you expect to use cascading delete, i.e.: Deleting a parent should delete the child items as well?

Regards,
Kalina

@Kali

...I don't think you guys understand the problem, or addressed the root question?  This problem *ISN'T* solved with related content.

Attention all: Good news...this is coming for 7.1, please provide feedback

www.sitefinity.com/.../multiple-child-types-in-module-builder-for-sitefinity-7.1

Thx Kali