[TYPO3-dev] idea: new TCA field type MultiField - a stripped down FlexForm

[Dmitry Dulepov]

Hi!

Martin Kutschker wrote:
> Ok, I gave this idea a second thought. If "sections" simply mean
> multiple "rows" (ie a numeric array) of the same set of fields, but
> without any nesting, I'm for it.

Sections is a synonym for "repeating elements". With sections you have different structures with any fields inside (single or multiple). You can even choose what kind of section it is, so you can mix different types in the same array. For example:

Data block
	- section (type=manager)
		- name
		- department
		- level (executive, etc)
	- section (type=employee)
		- name
		- department
		- manager
	- section (type=subcontractor)
		- contact_name
		- phone
		- project
	- section (type=employee)
		- name
		- department
		- manager
	....

As you see above there are three types and two entries of the same type. It is very flexible for creating data structures. I used it once for a product catalog. It was pure TemplaVoila implementation without any plugins. Everything was build using sections and grouping of data.

> For FE rendering it becomes only slightly more complex as you would need
> to have two features:
> 
> * a way to iterate over all rows
> * a way to address a single row via it's index

Not a big problem with sections. It will look complicated at the beginning but not much.

-- 
Dmitry Dulepov
TYPO3 core team

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