Inherit element type on child content types

[bjarnef]

Which Umbraco version are you using? (Please write the exact version, example: 10.1.0)

13.0.3

Bug summary

I noticed in a migrated project from Umbraco v8 -> v10 -> v12 -> v13, which didn't use ModelsBuilder before, it caused some issues.

The "Component" here was a document types and most children element types.

ModelsBuilder couldn't generate models for these as the parent "Component" was a document type, switching this to an element type fixed models generation.

However it causes other issues as "Emergency" is used as content node, so accessing this caused the following error, because it no longer implements IPublishedContent because it inherits "Component" whichs is an IPublishedElement:

Maye there should be an event, so it parent document type is changed to element type, it updates children/descendant content types to element type as well?

But in this case "Is an Element Type" is locked on "Emergency" content type - probably because it is already used as a node.

Often if would also be nice to move nested content types out of inheritance from UI. https://github.com/umbraco/Umbraco-CMS/discussions/15605

Specifics

No response

Steps to reproduce

• Add some nested document types
• Create a node with one of the nested content types
• Change parent to element type
• Update generate models and noticed the inherited content type change from IPublishedContent to IPublishedElement
• Go to content node - this returns an error now

Expected result / actual result

No response

[github-actions[bot]]

Hi there @bjarnef!

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[bjarnef]

I think the UI ideally show handle this:

• Document Type: Only document type is allowed to be created a child content type (otherwise the ModelsBuilder generation fails for child element type, because it expect parent to be element type.

• Element Type: Only element type is allowed to be created a child content type (otherwise the child document type will inherit from parent element type and implement IPublishedElement instead of IPublishedContent, which mean existing content created for that document type is newly created content based on that document type will throw an error.

• I noticed when moving the document type to root, it seems to have a reference to the "old" parent as a composition instead and it is allowed to use both document type and element type as composition on a document type.

[elit0451]

Hey @bjarnef 👋

Thanks for reaching out! To make sure I understood you correctly, can you please see if I am not missing any steps in the video below, as I am not getting the error when visiting the content node I created with one of the nested content types. In my case, the node named "Component" is a folder and the Models builder mode is "SourceCodeManual" 🙂

https://github.com/umbraco/Umbraco-CMS/assets/21998037/1476848b-7411-4e12-a483-4f4f38a70410

[bjarnef]

Hi @elit0451

The "Component" is not a folder / entity container - its a content type :)

This is a project migrated from v8 -> v10 -> v12 -> v13 ... but I think it was on v7 or previous v8 before folders were implemented.

The "Component" was a document type, while most children was element types - except "Emergency" which was a document type.

With this ModelsBuilder generation fails, because the child element types inherits from "Component", but it expect parent to inherit IPublishedElement.

Changing the "Component" document type to element type instead fix the models generation.

However if an existing node has been created of type "Emergency" or creating a new one of this type, it will throw an error, because "Emergy" now inherits from IPublishedElement, but it expect to implement IPublishedContent.

I solved this by moving "Emergency" document type to root instead by updating parentId and path in umbracoNode table.

[elit0451]

I see, here is a video of how I managed to reproduce the error:

https://github.com/umbraco/Umbraco-CMS/assets/21998037/1e978e20-da42-4094-8fcf-faf2e85258d5

I will talk to the team about how we want to approach this and will get back to you on Monday 💪

[bjarnef]

@elit0451 if you now disable element type on "Root" content type (so it's a document type), then accessing the node won't show the error, but generation of ModelsBuilder models fail, because of the other nested content type (element type), which expect the parent content type "Root" to be an element type.

[elit0451]

Great insights 🙌

[elit0451]

Hey again @bjarnef, and thanks for being patient with my reply 🙌 (busy days 🙈)

I will hopefully be able to provide some feedback for you tomorrow 🤞

[elit0451]

So, here it is:

1. You are completely right - the UI shouldn't allow the creation of an Element Type under a Document Type - I will mark this as up for grabs if you or anyone else wants to give it a go 😊
2. And there need to be additional checks when you try to change to and from an Element Type - we will take this into a sprint;

Thanks again for pointing this out!

[github-actions[bot]]

Hi @bjarnef,

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