Group field type for nested field structures

[mvanhorn]

EmDash currently has 14 field types, all flat at the collection level. Content editors building real-world schemas need to group related fields together. An "address" needs street, city, state, zip as a unit. A "social links" section needs twitter, github, website. Without groups, these become a flat list of 15+ fields that gets hard to navigate.

Payload CMS has a "group" field type that nests sub-fields under a named parent, stored as a single JSON column. Strapi has "components" serving a similar purpose. This is common across mature CMS platforms.

Use cases

• Address fields (street, city, state, zip) as a collapsible unit
• Social links (twitter, github, website) grouped together
• SEO metadata (og:title, og:description, og:image) as a section
• Author details (bio, avatar, role) nested inside a content type

Proposed behavior

• A group field defines sub-fields via the admin schema builder
• Stored as a single JSON column (the same mapping as portableText and multiSelect)
• Admin UI renders sub-fields inside a collapsible section with the group name as header
• TypeScript types generated by emdash types include the nested structure
• Query API supports dot notation for filtering (e.g., address.city = 'Seattle')

Implementation notes

• New FieldType entry: group
• Column type: JSON (same as json/portableText)
• Schema builder UI: "Add group" button that opens a sub-field editor
• Sub-fields support all existing types except nested groups (depth limit of 1 for v1)

This extends the existing field type system without architectural changes. The JSON storage pattern is already proven by portableText and multiSelect.

Happy to implement if the direction looks good. Open to adjusting scope based on feedback.

[lightyearsagency]

Agree with this one too.

We've used tabs in ACF to split up block 'settings' and block 'content'.
If those can be tabbed, or collapsable in the UI, that's a great improvement on digestable blocks for clients.

[mvanhorn]

Great callout on tabs and collapsible sections, @lightyearsagency. That's a solid UX pattern for separating settings from content within a block. I'll keep that in mind if this gets greenlit - tabbed or accordion grouping would make complex field sets way more manageable.