Version 6 supported

Nested gridfields

The GridFieldNestedForm component allows you to nest GridFields in the UI. It can be used with DataObject subclasses with the Hierarchy extension, or by specifying the relation used for nesting.

Here is a small example of basic use of Nested GridField.

namespace App\Admin;

use MyObject;
use SilverStripe\Admin\ModelAdmin;
use Symbiote\GridFieldExtensions\GridFieldNestedForm;

class MyAdmin extends ModelAdmin
{
    public function getEditForm($id = null, $fields = null)
    {
        $form = parent::getEditForm($id, $fields);

        $gridField = $form->Fields()->dataFieldByName(MyObject::class);
        // Add Nested GridField to main GridField
        $gridField->getConfig()->addComponent(GridFieldNestedForm::create());

        return $form;
    }
}

There are several ways to use Nested GridField. The implementation depends on the type of data you will be using in your GridField. For instance, if there is a DataObject that has the Hierarchy extension, you can use the following approach.

As an example, here we can use a typical hierarchy of the Group model, where another Group can serve as a parent.

namespace App\Extensions;

use SilverStripe\Core\Extension;
use SilverStripe\Security\Group;
use Symbiote\GridFieldExtensions\GridFieldNestedForm;

class MySecurityAdminExtension extends Extension
{
    public function updateGridFieldConfig($config)
    {
        if ($this->owner->getModelClass() === Group::class) {
            $config->addComponent(GridFieldNestedForm::create());
        }
    }
}

Or also view a list of all members of a given group. Notice we call setRelationName() to explicitly state the relation which should be displayed in the Nested GridField.

namespace App\Extensions;

use SilverStripe\Core\Extension;
use SilverStripe\Security\Group;
use Symbiote\GridFieldExtensions\GridFieldNestedForm;

class MySecurityAdminExtension extends Extension
{
    public function updateGridFieldConfig($config)
    {
        if ($this->owner->getModelClass() === Group::class) {
            $config->addComponent(GridFieldNestedForm::create()->setRelationName('Members'));
        }
    }
}
SilverStripe\Admin\SecurityAdmin:
  extensions:
    - App\Extensions\MySecurityAdminExtension

Another way to use Nested GridField together with DataObjects that do not have the Hierarchy extension but have has_many relationships with other objects. Let's say you have the following DataObject that has multiple levels of relationships, and an admin section where the data of this object will be displayed. You want the user to be able to view information regarding this object and all nested objects on the same page, without the need to navigate to each object individually. In this case, you can use the following approach.

namespace App\Models;

use SilverStripe\ORM\DataObject;

class ParentNode extends DataObject
{
    private static $has_many = [
        'ChildNodes' => BranchNode::class,
    ];
}

You can define your own custom GridField config for the nested GridField configuration by implementing a getNestedConfig() method on your nested model. Notice this method should return a GridFieldConfig object.

namespace App\Models;

use SilverStripe\Forms\GridField\GridFieldConfig;
use SilverStripe\Forms\GridField\GridFieldConfig_RecordEditor;
use SilverStripe\ORM\DataObject;
use Symbiote\GridFieldExtensions\GridFieldNestedForm;

class ChildNode extends DataObject
{
    private static $has_one = [
        'ParentNode' => ParentNode::class,
    ];

    private static $has_many = [
        'GrandChildNodes' => GrandChildNode::class,
    ];

    public function getNestedConfig(): GridFieldConfig
    {
        $config = new GridFieldConfig_RecordEditor();
        $config->addComponent(GridFieldNestedForm::create()->setRelationName('GrandChildNodes'));

        return $config;
    }
}
namespace App\Models;

use SilverStripe\ORM\DataObject;

class GrandChildNode extends DataObject
{
    private static $has_one = [
        'ChildNode' => ChildNode::class,
    ];
}
namespace App\Admin;

use App\Models\ParentNode;
use SilverStripe\Admin\ModelAdmin;
use SilverStripe\Forms\GridField\GridFieldConfig;
use Symbiote\GridFieldExtensions\GridFieldNestedForm;

class MyAdminSection extends ModelAdmin
{
    private static string $url_segment = 'my-admin-section';
    private static string $menu_title = 'My Admin Section';

    private static array $managed_models = [
        ParentNode::class,
    ];

    protected function getGridFieldConfig(): GridFieldConfig
    {
        $config = parent::getGridFieldConfig();
        $config->addComponent(GridFieldNestedForm::create()->setRelationName('ChildNodes'));

        return $config;
    }
}

There is also the possibility to use Nested GridField with the data structure ArrayList. To do this, you can use the following approach.

namespace App\Models;

use MyDataObject;
use SilverStripe\ORM\ArrayList;
use SilverStripe\ORM\DataObject;

class MyDataSet extends DataObject
{
    public function getMyArrayList()
    {
        $list = ArrayList::create();
        $data = MyDataObject::get();

        foreach ($data as $value) {
            $list->push($value);
        }

        return $list;
    }
}
namespace App\Admin;

use App\Models\MyDataSet;
use SilverStripe\Admin\ModelAdmin;
use SilverStripe\Forms\GridField\GridFieldConfig;
use Symbiote\GridFieldExtensions\GridFieldNestedForm;

class MyAdminSection extends ModelAdmin
{
    private static array $managed_models = [
        MyDataSet::class,
    ];

    protected function getGridFieldConfig(): GridFieldConfig
    {
        $config = parent::getGridFieldConfig();
        $config->addComponent(GridFieldNestedForm::create()->setRelationName('getMyArrayList'));

        return $config;
    }
}

Notice that instead of the name of a relation, we're passing a method name into getMyArrayList(). That method must return an instance of SS_List to be used in the GridField.

Additional features and settings

Maximum nesting level

You can set the maximum number of nested levels using a $default_max_nesting_level configuration property. The default value is 10 levels.

Symbiote\GridFieldExtensions\GridFieldNestedForm:
    default_max_nesting_level: 5

You can also set this limit for a specific nested GridField using the setMaxNestingLevel() method.

use SilverStripe\Forms\GridField\GridFieldConfig;
use SilverStripe\Forms\GridField\GridFieldConfig_RecordEditor;
use Symbiote\GridFieldExtensions\GridFieldNestedForm;

public function getNestedConfig(): GridFieldConfig
{
    $config = new GridFieldConfig_RecordEditor();
    $config->addComponent(GridFieldNestedForm::create()->setMaxNestingLevel(5));

    return $config;
}

Updating nested config

You can also modify the default config (a GridFieldConfig_RecordEditor) via an extension to the nested model class, by implementing updateNestedConfig, which will get the config object as the parameter.

namespace App\Extensions;

use SilverStripe\Core\Extension;
use SilverStripe\Forms\GridField\GridFieldConfig;
use SilverStripe\Forms\GridField\GridFieldPaginator;

class NestedObjectExtension extends Extension
{
    public function updateNestedConfig(GridFieldConfig &$config)
    {
        $config->removeComponentsByType(GridFieldPaginator::class);
    }
}
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