Items Manager - ver: 1.4

[shawn_a]

I am still contemplating how to best implement custom field categories, which is delaying the next version from being released. I want to make it as least complicated as possible.

I have been thinking about this because I need it, i am hacking in a way to simply hide fields depending on the category you select for now.

So I was thinking..

You could either have a full separate config for each category, with a results set code, custom fields etc.

Or perhaps have just shared custom fields.
Each field would be assignable to a category/categories with some sort of check boxes or a multi select box.
Fields can be assigned ( or included in) single or multiple categories, similar to a permissions system.
But this has many drawbacks. It could become cumbersome for many different categories that do not reuse fields at all, the labels might need tweaking per category, and its not ideal for all users.

For item manager,
When creating an item, you select a category for an item, the interface can change the custom fields visible for that category. Changing categories for an existing item might be an issue, but should work same way it does now when you add or remove custom fields, but it might leave artifacts around in files.

So maybe you have make it so you create a new item in the category as opposed to the assign a category to an item way things are now. So instead of add items, you go into a category and add an item inside that category.

I am doing the separate templates per category now in a way by having separate templates for each category using conditionals in my results set and item record logic. Only downfall is the admin side, I just have all the fields available and visible for all categories, and ignore the ones I am not using in some of them.