How to store data

[Melvin Suter]

Hi there

 

I've been wondering, how to do this the right way... How do you store data? For example:
I've created a recipe-book for myself. Every recipe is a page. Inside those recipes I've got a textarea with instructions and I need to have a list/table with ingreadiants and amount. Right now I'm using a yaml-field, as it is the easiest way. But is there a better/correcter way to store data like that? Or as a better example, if you have a page and want comments to that page?

Basically it's just the setup where yo have items/pages with multiple sub-entries with multiple values.
Do I write a module/template which access the database directly over the $database API and create my own table? Or do I create sub-pages to that page for each entry? Or do I use yaml-fields?

I get that normaly a page would be the primary data-entries. But with time that would make the tree quiet bloated, wouldn't it?

 

Thanks and Regards

[Nicolas]

Hi,

From the top of my head this could do it this way :

a template with a title and body (recipe) field and a repeater field to hold the ingredients list :

a text field to hold the ingredient name

a text field to hold the amount of ingredient

a select field to hold the amount unit (tsp, l, ml? etc..)

[wbmnfktr]

There are so many ways in ProcessWire to do or save things.

Depending on your background and history with ProcessWire you will find other ways or solutions.

I know recipe-collectors that would only need two fields. A title and a textarea.

I personally would go a more abstract way to be able to much more and other things.

• Template: Recipe
  • Fields:
    • title (text)
    • summary/introduction (textarea)
    • preparation (textarea)
    • ingredients (repeater)
      • Fields:
        • ingredient (page reference - pages with template ingredient)
        • amount (int or text)
        • unit (select options - grams, cups, liters, hint)
    • images (image)
• Template: Ingredient
  • Fields:
    • title

With that setup I can easily collect all my recipes, create a list of all ingredients I need for all of my recipes. Can look for recipes with a special ingredient and so on.

[Nicolas]

1 minute ago, wbmnfktr said:

There are so many ways in ProcessWire to do or save things.

Depending on your background and history with ProcessWire you will find other ways or solutions.

I know recipe-collectors that would only need two fields. A title and a textarea.

I personally would go a more abstract way to be able to much more and other things.

• Template: Recipe
  • Fields:
    • title (text)
    • summary/introduction (textarea)
    • preparation (textarea)
    • ingredients (repeater)
      • Fields:
        • ingredient (page reference - pages with template ingredient)
        • amount (int or text)
        • unit (select options - grams, cups, liters, hint)
    • images (image)
• Template: Ingredient
  • Fields:
    • title

With that setup I can easily collect all my recipes, create a list of all ingredients I need for all of my recipes. Can look for recipes with a special ingredient and so on.

+1 for the ingredient template allowing to create a ingredient database.

[wbmnfktr]

Correct.

Ingredient database and therefore filters/presets.

[louisstephens]

2 hours ago, wbmnfktr said:

There are so many ways in ProcessWire to do or save things.

Depending on your background and history with ProcessWire you will find other ways or solutions.

I know recipe-collectors that would only need two fields. A title and a textarea.

I personally would go a more abstract way to be able to much more and other things.

• Template: Recipe
  • Fields:
    • title (text)
    • summary/introduction (textarea)
    • preparation (textarea)
    • ingredients (repeater)
      • Fields:
        • ingredient (page reference - pages with template ingredient)
        • amount (int or text)
        • unit (select options - grams, cups, liters, hint)
    • images (image)
• Template: Ingredient
  • Fields:
    • title

With that setup I can easily collect all my recipes, create a list of all ingredients I need for all of my recipes. Can look for recipes with a special ingredient and so on.

I actually did exactly as wbmnfktr suggested in a previous project (still in development). At first I was a bit hesitant of having to create new ingredients every time I wanted to add a new unique recipe, but the pros quickly outweighed the cons. It makes filtering on the front end a lot better/easier, as well as makes new recipes easier.

[wbmnfktr]

Allow creating new pages from page reference field and ingredients aren't a thing anymore.
Add autosuggest and everything is fine.
I actually imported lots of ingredients before. So authors typed bro... and they got broccoli already. Less typos. Perfect.

I clean up once in a while but that's a matter of minutes now.

[Melvin Suter]

Wow. First of: thanks to EVERYONE. That's a greate community!!!
 

Secondly: I'll have to look into your answer. I didn't knew you could create repeater fields. Something learned here. :)
Thank you all for those fast and informative answers!

[wbmnfktr]

Repeaters are kind of awesome. 

https://modules.processwire.com/modules/fieldtype-repeater/

You have to install repeater and select options (maybe even page reference - I'm not sure about them) first in order to use them.
You will find them under /youradminurl/module/ (Core tab) - look for repeater, select options and page reference.

 

[wbmnfktr]

If you @Melvin Suter or everyone else wants to play around with a recipe site profile: 

https://github.com/webmanufaktur/pwrecipes

 

It's by far not complete or a ready-made website but it shows some things I mentioned in first anwer here.