Nested Collections Listing

[ryangittings]

Having an issue since the 3.6.0 update - it's causing nested index.md files in the collection to appear in the sidebar, rather than the main pages listing - unlike 3.5.0. This is a massive regression in my opinion.

[demshy]

Hi @ryangittings do you mind sharing your config for this collection (and maybe a screenshot of the file structure)?

[ryangittings]

local_backend: true
backend:
  name: git-gateway
  branch: main
media_folder: 'src/uploads'
public_folder: '/uploads'
editor:
  preview: false

meta: &META
  label: 'Meta'
  name: 'meta'
  widget: 'object'
  collapsed: true
  fields:
    - { label: 'Title', name: 'title', widget: 'string', required: false }
    - { label: 'Description', name: 'desc', widget: 'string', required: false }

button: &BUTTON
  label: Button
  name: button
  widget: object
  fields:
    - label: Text
      name: text
      widget: string
    - label: Link
      name: link
      widget: string
      
theme: &THEME
  label: Theme
  name: theme
  widget: select
  options: ['gray-100', 'navy-400', 'turq-100', 'gray-100']
  required: false

navigation: &NAVIGATION
  label: 'Navigation'
  name: 'eleventyNavigation'
  widget: 'object'
  collapsed: true
  fields:
    - { label: 'Key', name: 'key', widget: 'string', required: false }
    - { label: "Parent", name: "parent", widget: "relation", required: false, collection: "pages", search_fields: ["title"], value_field: "title", display_fields: ["title"] }
    - { label: 'Excerpt', name: 'excerpt', widget: 'markdown', required: false }
    - { label: 'Order', name: 'order', widget: 'number', required: false }
    - { label: 'Icon', name: 'icon', widget: 'image', required: false }

blocks: &BLOCKS
  label: Blocks
  name: blocks
  widget: list
  types:
    - label: Hero
      name: hero
      widget: object
      fields:
        - { label: 'Title', name: 'title', widget: 'string' }
        - { label: 'Image', name: 'image', widget: 'image', required: false }
        - { label: 'Decorator', name: 'decorator', widget: 'string' }
        - { label: 'Content', name: 'content', widget: 'markdown', required: false }

collections:
  - label: 'Pages'
    name: 'pages'
    folder: 'src'
    identifier_field: 'title'
    create: true
    extension: 'md'
    filter: { field: 'layout', value: 'layouts/page.njk' }
    meta: { path: { widget: string, label: 'Path', index_file: 'index' } }
    nested:
      depth: 10
      summary: '{{title}}'
    fields:
      - { label: 'Layout', name: 'layout', widget: 'hidden', default: 'layouts/page.njk' }
      - { label: 'Title', name: 'title', widget: 'string' }
      - *BLOCKS
      - *NAVIGATION
      - *META

[martinjagodic]

@ryangittings, thanks for raising this, and sorry for your trouble. This was introduced in PR #7359, which solved issue #4972. Nested collections are used in many ways, and we didn't anticipate this would impact you so severely. We also introduced this because nested collections are still flagged as beta, indicating that breaking changes are possible.

We will find some time to put this feature under an opt-in flag.

[ryangittings]

I just think it makes no sense from a visual point of view. To have one page in the pages list seems like a bug to me - if all the other pages are on the same level? The UI only ever shows one page in this setup - which fundamentally is incorrect with the tree.

[demshy]

@ryangittings would you mind testing with the following cms build (built from the linked PR) and config settings:
https://loquacious-bombolone-591afc.netlify.app/decap-cms.js

    nested:
      depth: 10
      subfolders: true
      summary: '{{title}}'

[ryangittings]

@demshy this resolves the issue - yes!

[ryangittings]

But - I'd prefer something that isn't a breaking change for all the sites I've built with Decap.

[ryangittings]

Any update on this? It's a breaking change and I'm getting a lot of support enquiries asking why this has changed? Cheers!

[martinjagodic]

@ryangittings, we are collecting feedback on this issue to see if anyone has a similar situation to you. For now, it looks like more users are in favor of subfolders: false being the default. We will merge this flag soon, but you will have to add it to all your projects.

@demshy can we make this flag available on the root level also?

[ryangittings]

@martinjagodic I can't stress how important this is for me as a decision. As you've acknowledged, this is a breaking change (even if it's a minority use case), and as such should be an opt in, rather than opt out - as it's fundamentally broken to UX of all my CMS based sites. I have lost a bit of confidence in the CMS to be honest.

[demshy]

Here is my proposal (I have discussed it already with @martinjagodic):

I will make a patch (will probably release today) that will make the subfolders flag true. We then have until the next major release to decide which one we want as default.
At the next major, we can put nested collections out of beta and note the breaking change in case we decide that we want the new approach to be default.
So I'd suggest that you add the param to all the projects that you work on until then.