Inline editing for relations

[IamSAB]

I tried to create a database model to define persons and their relationships. A relationship connects two persons and each side has a name for that relation e.g. in a family -> father - son, at work -> boss - employee

Models

person {
   id UUID
   name TEXT
   parents O2M relationship.child_id
   children O2M relationship.parent_id
}

relationship_type {
   id UUID
   parent_name TEXT
   child_name TEXT
}

relationship {
   id UUID
   relationship_type_id M2O relationship_type.id
   parent_id UUID
   child_id UUID
}

To create or edit a person I want to have the following UI:

Adding or editing a parents relation:

• Choose the relationship type by parent_name and a person by name (therefore set parent_id) & set the child_id = id of edited person and hide the child_name (only relevant for other side of relationship)

Adding or editing a children relation

• Choose the relationship type by child_name and a person by name (therefore set child_id) & set the parent_id = id of edited person and hide the parent_name (only relevant for other side of relationship)

I tried to configure it that way, but I cannot get it like I want it to be. Whenever I add a new relationship to a person, I have to manually add the person I am editing to the relationship which is a redundant step.
The problem is, that I have always the same form whether I add the relation from the relationship collections or from the parents or children relation within the person detail view.
Is there a way to add an "inline form" to a model, where I can define for each model relation which field to show or hide and set the corresponding id automatically depending on the current model I edit?

Currently you can set the interface for the relation which I could configure as I liked (by choosing the appropriate select fields), but these do not effect the create or edit form for the relation (only which fields are shown for the related items). Wouldn't it be more intuitive to let only these selected fields be editable for a relation within a model detail page?

Or is that already possible and I missed to check or add somewhere something?

[benhaynes]

I love this idea. I see two "easy" interface implementations that would solve most use-cases:

1. Add an option (or new interface) for "Inline M2O". This would basically show the fields from the related collection inline for editing. We'd also want to add an option to decide if it should add a related item (for the M2O): no matter what, or only if some values were entered into one of the M2O fields.

2. The second half of this would be for O2M (multiple items/forms on page). I think this is solved by the Relational Repeater. Essentially it's a repeater, with forms embedded within each row, that can be edited inline. We could have an option for if the rows are all open, all start closed, or accordion.

[davidbwaters]

If field groups were a separate abstraction and had parent child relationships, you could add simple conditional logic to show/hide fields with functional logic (key, value) => {} that returns true or false and/or/eventually have a simplified version of a gui like:

http://tiagofernandez.com/mui-querybuilder/?path=/docs/muiquerybuilder--supported-types
https://ej2.syncfusion.com/react/demos/#/material/query-builder/default
https://www.htmlelements.com/demos/querybuilder/overview/

If conditional fields are planned (even as a plugin) it would be easier to build and a cleaner UX than trying to implement as a a collection option, even if it were limited to a few options. even without a ui, a block for simple query statements that only returned false for a field key or group to hide it would be super powerful.

[benhaynes]

This will be done with a new interface (eg: "Inline M2O"). Since this is just a field, the normal conditional logic will apply, and nothing special is needed there. Basically, this is all just a simple UI addition, but we are busy on Docs and Core fixes at the moment.

[IamSAB]

Looking forward to this "Inline M2O" interface.

As reference you could take KeystoneJS: https://github.com/keystonejs/keystone/blob/master/examples-next/basic/schema.ts

  inlineEdit: { fields: ['type', 'value'] },
  inlineCreate: { fields: ['type', 'value'] },
  linkToItem: true,

Here you can specify, which fields you can create or edit inline. You can also choose, whether it should link created inline items automatically to the one you edit (therefore setting up the relationship without choosing it from "the other side").

[JonathanDoelan]

1. Add an option (or new interface) for "Inline M2O". This would basically show the fields from the related collection inline for editing. We'd also want to add an option to decide if it should add a related item (for the M2O): no matter what, or only if some values were entered into one of the M2O fields.

The really nice thing about "Inline M2O" or "Inline Relation" would be that we then have the ability to reuse a group of fields over and over again!

Imagine fields (collection) for "Meta Info" that consists of "Meta Title", "Meta Description" and an "Meta image". Defined once, we then can simply reuse them on every singleton page (Startpage, About, …) and channel page (news, events, blog, …).

I would love to see this in the near future!

[hanneskuettner]

I've just created a PR #18030 that implements this feature.

[somarand]

Hello, what is the status of this Issue? Does it have an ETA ? Thanks

[azrikahar]

Unfortunately, we can not provide estimates on features or fixes. As of now, the only way to get an accurate timeline or release date is to sponsor this task. We recognize that this may be an important feature/fix, but we are a small open-source organization with a lot to triage and complete. If you can't sponsor this ticket, then the next best thing is to increase its priority by giving it a 👍 . Or contribute a pull-request... after all, this is OSS! ¹

Footnotes

1. This is an automated response. ↩