Thread

Hello,

I’d like to know whether this is possible in EE.

I have 3 type of “containers” in a website that was based on CodeIgniter and that I want to move to EE.

1) Publications
1.1 Publication of type Article
1.2 Publication of type Bookmark
1.3. Publication of type Image
1.4 Publication of type Video

2) Folders

3) Labs

So a user can publish a publication of type Article, Bookmark and so on.
A user can also publish a Folder or a Lab.

Now when a user publishes a Folder or Lab, in the form, there is a popup menu for each type of publications (Article, Bookmark, etc…) that will “link” this folder or lab to articles, bookmarks and so on.

An example of the Folder form look like this:

*******************************
- Folder Title
- Folder Presentation
- Author

- Associated articles (popup menu that contains a list of articles)
- Associated bookmarks (popup menu that contains a list of bookmarks)
- Associated images (popup menu that contains a list of images)
- Associated videos (popup menu that contains a list of videos)
*******************************

When a folder is published, I will have these elements:

- Folder Title
- Folder Presentation
- Author

- Number of links that point to associated articles.
- Number of links that point to associated bookmarks.
- Number of links that point to associated images.
- Number of links that point to associated videos.

When a user click on the line containing the number of, say, associated articles, that open a new page that list the associated articles. If the user click on the title of an associated article, that will open a new page displaying the say article.

My idea is to have a channel for each container:

1. Publications
2. Folders
3. Labs

And then creating for each channel a channel field group.

For publications, I guess, there is no problem since it’s the same form for all type of publication. So I will use categories to specify the type (Article, Bookmark, etc).

My question is about the channel field group for the channels Folders and Labs. I don’t know how I will be able in, say the Folder channel field group, to let the user create a relationship with available publications of type Article, Bookmark, Images, etc).

As I said, in the CodeIgniter project, when creating a folder, you have a simple popup menu that list for example available articles. When the user chooses an article, an Ajax request adds the pointer in the DB for the current folder and adds the article in the form dynamically. And the user can add any number of articles. The user will see in his form in real time the articles he linked to this folder.

I’d like to be able to do something similar in EE, but I’m not sure if it’s possible. Do I need the Playa plugin for that?
http://pixelandtonic.com/playa

Thanks!

Yes- the problem with using stock EE here is the desire to select an unlimited number of articles you want to relate to.  If you just need to relate a lab to a single article?  Then stock relationships would work perfectly.  You could even have multiple labs relate to that single article, and when you show the article, also show all of the labs that relate to it (via reverse related entries).  BUT- you can only make one relationship per relationship field- not multiple ones.  And my understanding is- you really want to be able to relate that lab to multiple other articles.

Of course- you could do it by having more than one relationship- but where you want that number to be fluid and unlimited, Playa is going to give you a better experience.

Make sense where the hang up is?