Repeatable does not work in repeatable

[maig81]

Bug report

What I did

I have added a repeatable field in a repeatable field (nested)

$this->crud->addField([   // repeatable
            'name' => 'section',
            'label' => __('Sekcije'),
            'type' => 'repeatable',
            'tab' => __('Sekcije'),
            'fields' => [
                [
                    'name' => 'section_title',
                    'type' => 'text',
                    'label' => __('Naslov'),
                ],
                [
                    'name' => 'subsection',
                    'label' => __('Podsekcije'),
                    'type' => 'repeatable',
                    'fields' => [
                        [
                            'name' => 'subsection_subtitle',
                            'type' => 'text',
                            'label' => __('Naslov'),
                        ],

                    ],
                ]
            ]
        ]);

What I expected to happen

Expected to save nested JSON in the database similar to this

[
  {
    "section_title": "Section title",
    "subsection": "[
           {
              "subsection_subtitle":"Subsection subtitle"
           }
         ]",
  }
]

What happened

On first look, the layout looks ok, the fields are nested, but when I enter some content, it saves an extra field, so after save the data is not valid. Here is an example JSON after

[
  {
    "section_title": "test",
    "subsection": "[{\"subsection_subtitle\":\"test\"}]",
    "subsection_subtitle": "test"
  },
  {
    "subsection_subtitle": "test"
  }
]

What I've already tried to fix it

Nothing actually :(

Backpack, Laravel, PHP, DB version

When I run php artisan backpack:version the output is:

PHP VERSION:

PHP 7.3.12 (cli) (built: Nov 19 2019 13:58:02) ( ZTS MSVC15 (Visual C++ 2017) x64 ) Copyright (c) 1997-2018 The PHP Group Zend Engine v3.3.12, Copyright (c) 1998-2018 Zend Technologies

LARAVEL VERSION:

v6.18.11@73bc10bb23aab7539c8ffae6d5dc3c4b277de557

BACKPACK VERSION:

4.1.x-dev@00150a6e5c7e527d2f3121730dcf8ed4dcc2b6b9

[tabacitu]

Right. Indeed @maig81 , you can't put a repeatable field inside another repeatable field. You get only one 😄 Sorry but we don't intend to add this feature in the near future. It would be a MONSTROUS challenge, for very little benefit - I expect very very few people need this. And the effort to create, and maintain such a field and such a JSON will make it a pain, for both Backpack maintainers and the developers that use it. If you end up needing something this complicated, that may be a sign that you need to rethink your DB design.

However, you can use the table field - which works well inside repeatable. Also, you can use the InlineCreate operation inside the relationship field.

Cheers!

PS. If anybody else stumbles upon this, and really really need it, please reply.

[kamilkozak]

@tabacitu I think this is very necessary. The repeatable field is very well suited for editing embedded documents in mongodb. Sometimes documents are nested deeper. In fact, mongodb allows 100 nesting levels. This is normal in the world of nonrelational databases. I will be forever grateful if you can do it.

By the way, please fix the fake field because it doesn't work with mongodb. Problem causing linevendor/backpack/crud/src/app/Library/ CrudPanel/Traits/AutoSet.php: 82

[dividy]

I can relate.

I used a repeatable for adding a "products" field. The customer wants to be able to add photos to the products. I was going for nested repeatable fields but I wanted to check here first ;)

@tabacitu you're right about the JSON becoming a pain to maintain, unless you intercept it and transform it into real fields (just a thought)

[tabacitu]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

[chivomd]

I don't know if is a bug or not. But when adding a table field into a repeatable one. When you add a repeatable group and after that you add a row in the table field, rows are duplicated, triplicated, etc... Only the last repeatable element is working normally. The other ones are adding unnecessary rows like they were accumulating the number of rows to add when button is clicked depending on the repeatable position.

[dividy]

@chivomd seems like a nasty event bug

[tabacitu]

Ouch @chivomd - sounds like a bug indeed. I've moved your text here https://github.com/Laravel-Backpack/CRUD/issues/3012 to talk individually about that problem. Thanks!

[matthbon]

Would be really nice if this would work. I am trying to make a dynamic page builder where you can make content blocks with text or like a carousel module where you can select multiple images.

So a repeatable in repeatable would be necessary for this. Or maybe someone has another idea how to fix this.

[kee0624]

Agree. When integrated with the carousel, I think a nested repeatable field is very necessary.

For example below situation

  [hero_item] - repeatable field
    [hero_item_img]
    [hero_item_title]
    [hero_item_buttons]
      [button] - repeatable field
        [label]
        [url]
        [type]

but since there is no solution for now. What I did is fixed the button length using the general field.

[enefeka]

Any news on this? I also stumbled upon this and would really love repeatable inside repeatable feature. Thanks.

[pxpm]

Hello @enefeka this migth be possible after we refactor repeatable in 4.2 it's already on the roadmap. Currently how we implement it, is not possible or easily feasible at all.

[enefeka]

Thanks @pxpm, I guess you don't have an approximate release date yet.

[tabacitu]

@enefeka we'll probably release Backpack 4.2 by the end of Nov 2021. But we can't promise it'll allow repeatable inside repeatable. We won't know until we rewrite the field entirely... Sorry to bring no actual news 😅

[ampedweb]

I'm looking for something exactly like this. So hopefully you guys will do it! =) fingers crossed. I'm currently writing a "Food menu" system, and the menu has sections to it. So top level entity is "Main menu" then you have sections inside it like "Speciality Burgers", "Light Bites" and then nested inside those you have the actual dishes. So a nested repeatable would be great right now! =)

I think I can make it work with a table though...