Proper way to implement array of objects as Craft field

Question

I'm using Craft CMS for the first time and have a question about the proper/best practice to store what would equate to an array of objects (or just a plain array) in Javascript or JSON.

Say I'd like to store a number of entries with the following shape :

{
    newspaper: 'New York Times',
    article: 'How to Write Web Apps Without Help From Stack Overflow',
    authors: [
        {
            name: 'John Doe',
            title: 'Staff Writer'
        },
        {
            name: 'Jane Smith',
            title: 'Editor'
        }
    ],
    categories: [ 'technology', 'web' ]
}

I understand that I store the first two properties as "Plain Text" fields, but I am confused on the proper way to store the authors and categories arrays as Fields. It looks like I would use a Matrix Field for this, but in the demo I'm referencing, they use Matrix fields in a slightly different way.

Just looking for validation that I should use matrix fields in this case, or some direction otherwise.

Answer 1

There really isn't a "proper/best practice" that fits all situations. Any determination will depend on the complexity of the data, and what you plan to do with it (both now and in the future).

For example:

• If the data is simple (i.e. text or other simple field type), likely to be unique or one-offs, not linked to anything else, only 1 level deep, and only a few data points, then you might consider using a simple "table" field.

• If the data is more complex (i.e. more than 1 level, anything other than text or other simple data type, or more than a few data points), then consider a 'matrix' or 'super-table' (plugin) field; or, if relational in any way, use a 'categories', 'entries', or 'users' field (depending on other considerations).

• If you want to limit the input to predefined options, or the data is used more than once (i.e. the same author writes several articles) then you might consider an 'entries' or 'users' field (as, among other things, it normalizes the data and prevents entry errors).

• Likewise, if you ever plan on providing an alternate display of the data (i.e. display all articles by author 'Jane Doe'), then you might consider an 'entries' or 'users' field.

• If the 'authors' have anything to do with access to the system (i.e. at some point we want 'authors' to able to log-in and update their own data, etc) then you would likely want a 'users' field; otherwise an 'entries' field might be better (as it will have less overhead/entry requirements).

• If there is no compelling reason to use an 'entries', 'categories' or 'users' field (i.e. the data is unique and does not need to be relational), but the data is still complex or has many data points, then a 'matrix' field is a good option, because it's a bit easier to view, edit and manage (i.e. you don't need to double click to edit; all data is visible; you can enable/disable matrix blocks; etc, etc).

These are just a few considerations, but I think that you get the point that it really depends on the use/context.

For this use-case, for 'authors', I would likely opt to use an 'entries' field and set up a separate section for 'authors' (or a 'users' field if I thought that 'authors' might ever have anything to do with login, access, or 'ownership' of the entry). Otherwise, I might go with a simple 'table' field, if I knew that each author is a one-off and I will never want to search, link to, or otherwise display data by author.

Answer 2

Probably you would want to use:

• Users field as a relation to one or more of the users
• Categories field as a relation to one or more of the categories