smallwheels
Well-known member
The data model of XF is following a classical hierarchical approach, more flexibility would be very beneficial for many purposes.
What does this mean? Currently you have forum nodes and within those you have threads threads. Each thread belongs to a fixed node hierarchy (and only to one node). This is fine for a forum and in most cases sufficient, though sometimes it could still be nice being able to have the same thread showing in more than just one forum node. I think there is an add on that can create something like aliases. However, not a huge problem.
Things change when looking at i.e. the Gallery add-on: It would be really nice, if one could create albums on the fly from existing pictures with the same picture being able to be in more than one album. Instead of a strict 1:1 hierachy we are talking about a 1:n model here.
When it comes to more advanced things this would be even more helpful: A typical case is when you want to create something like a directory of links: Currently this has to be hierarchical, so a given link can only belong to one node/category of the directory (and is thus only shown in one node). But in practice, often enough a link could belong not to one but to two, three or more categories. Not possible with the current data model. The same issue arises with many applications, basically with every "directory-like" purpose where you have a structure for the content: Events, articles, whatever comes to your mind. And you have the same issue also with the Ressource Manager: The 1:1 hierarchy is a sad limitation here.
While the XF core forum application itself does not suffer too much from the limitation the two factory add ons do and they suffer massively. As do many 3rd party add ons like the LinkDirectory by @Bob or all the Event Manager add ons.
Possibly it is not a simple thing to change the options for the data model - but it would definitively be worth it as it would really create way more and better possibilities for many purposes. In practice, with tags there is already something built into XF that follows a n:n route - just that tags are of very limited use for said purposes.
What does this mean? Currently you have forum nodes and within those you have threads threads. Each thread belongs to a fixed node hierarchy (and only to one node). This is fine for a forum and in most cases sufficient, though sometimes it could still be nice being able to have the same thread showing in more than just one forum node. I think there is an add on that can create something like aliases. However, not a huge problem.
Things change when looking at i.e. the Gallery add-on: It would be really nice, if one could create albums on the fly from existing pictures with the same picture being able to be in more than one album. Instead of a strict 1:1 hierachy we are talking about a 1:n model here.
When it comes to more advanced things this would be even more helpful: A typical case is when you want to create something like a directory of links: Currently this has to be hierarchical, so a given link can only belong to one node/category of the directory (and is thus only shown in one node). But in practice, often enough a link could belong not to one but to two, three or more categories. Not possible with the current data model. The same issue arises with many applications, basically with every "directory-like" purpose where you have a structure for the content: Events, articles, whatever comes to your mind. And you have the same issue also with the Ressource Manager: The 1:1 hierarchy is a sad limitation here.
While the XF core forum application itself does not suffer too much from the limitation the two factory add ons do and they suffer massively. As do many 3rd party add ons like the LinkDirectory by @Bob or all the Event Manager add ons.
Possibly it is not a simple thing to change the options for the data model - but it would definitively be worth it as it would really create way more and better possibilities for many purposes. In practice, with tags there is already something built into XF that follows a n:n route - just that tags are of very limited use for said purposes.
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