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I need to create a hierarchy that looks something to the effect of

  • parent 1

    • parent 1 child 1
    • parent 1 child 2
    • parent 1 child 3

  • parent 2

    • parent 2 child 1
    • parent 2 child 2
    • parent 2 child 3

and so on. My initial thinking was to use the matrix field type....a lot but, unfortunately, a matrix field can't have child fields of matrix field, and each child will need a matrix due to not knowing how many items each one could have as well as keeping them all together and allow for easy reordering.

The other requirement is that a "child" can't exist without a "parent", so I essentially only want to allow a user to create a "parent" at the root level and "child" types under each parent.

Is this even possible in Craft? If it is, could you point me in the direction of where it's documented as I can't seem to find anything that resembles what I'm trying to achieve.

Thank you in advance

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2

Sounds like a feature request for maximum number of levels in a structure.

But had a thought about this. Since structures have a level parameter, you could make a simple plugin to more or less restrict the number of levels you can have a structure. If it's more than 1, then set the page's parent to the top most parent, effectively limiting it to have that parent/child relationship.

Unfortunately, that'll only work on a "regular" entry save. If you move structures up and down in the admin—when not editing an entry— it looks like Craft doesn't call the onSave or onBeforeSave events. Bug perhaps?

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  • Sort of, but also limiting what entry types can be created at each level. Essentially preventing "child" from existing at the root and "parent" existing under another "parent" – user4041 Sep 8 '15 at 10:01
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I came up with a less than ideal workout, but it's still somewhat of a solution

I first created a channel to contain all of the "child" entry types. This allowed each one to have a matrix property to account for the dynamic creation of the "child" fields

I then created another channel with an entry type that also contains an Entry select field which allows for unlimited selection of Entries of the "child" types

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For very simple use cases, I've created a plugin that adds some validation to enforce this type of hierarchy: https://github.com/jordanlev/craft-EnforceDualHierarchy

If you'd like to see better / more robust functionality added to the Craft system in the future, please upvote this feature request: https://github.com/craftcms/cms/issues/1628

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It's possible I'm misunderstanding, but aren't you just looking for a Structure Section?

It's like a Channel except that it allows for both order and hierarchy.

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  • I did look into it, but a Structure allows for all entry types to be created at any level. I'm trying to restrict the root level to only allow for the creation of a "parent" which can only have "child" entry types. I've figured out a work around using a channel with entry types that contain a matrix of Entries, but it's not ideal – user4041 Sep 7 '15 at 15:20
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    Fair enough... would you mind posting your workaround as an answer for other people? – Brad Bell Sep 7 '15 at 15:38
  • Sure, I'll create a new response – user4041 Sep 7 '15 at 15:42

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