Anybody using the Combo field?

[bernhard]

In some recent discussions some of you mentioned that profields like the combofield are essential to you. I'm curious: What do you use the combo field for?  How do you use it? Some examples would be nice ? Thx!

@Ivan Gretsky

[gornycreative]

It is something I have used a little bit when the alternative would be too many additional fields created in the list that are just taking up space. Say if I have a set of fields that I know are only going to be used in a single field group, it makes sense for me to store those in a combo field because I never plan on calling them independently.

For example, if I have a product, odds are good I may pull the product title in a number of different contexts, and perhaps prices and variants - so I'll set up normal fields for those. But things like manufacturer, dimensions, weight, checkbox features, warranty length, UPN etc. are things it doesn't necessarily make sense to have a separate field for because outside of the context of recalling a particular item/page, those fields are never referred.

I see it as the difference between having a sort of 'local' field group where everything is 1:1 and bound to view together, vs a 'global' field where I may want to include it of view in it context with other templates, other indices, other tags, etc.

That being said, I have also run into situations where I have a value that originally is in a combo field, but then we discover that we want to actually build that piece of information out into a separate template entity - so it is most valuable when you plan ahead.

Things like testimonial entries, product reviews, these each have multiple fields, but honestly, they could each be put on a card and stored away - there is no real value that any single field in the group has independent from the card - indeed, sometimes having the information in separate places can sometimes make the information more confusing and less valuable.

[Jonathan Lahijani]

While I'm not using it in real world project yet, the Combo field works well for a "link" field.  For example, you could link something to a page (page field), a external website (url field) or a modal (page field), or a page + url parameters.  Also, what about absolute vs relative URLs?

Here's an export of that field you can import and play around with:
https://pastebin.com/N8UuiFKQ

Somewhat related is this module:

 

[psy]

On many of my sites I have a page for business information which includes:

• toggle for site down for maintenance or live
• combo field for business name, address, phone, email, contact name, etc
• functional field for common phrases

The combo field is great in this scenario. The data is fairly static and I only need to add the one combo field for a bunch of 'sub' information, bits of which may be used throughout the site. The alternative is to create a fieldset with individual fields, all of which would only be used in a single template and have one entry per field.

[gornycreative]

3 hours ago, psy said:

On many of my sites I have a page for business information which includes:

• toggle for site down for maintenance or live
• combo field for business name, address, phone, email, contact name, etc
• functional field for common phrases

The combo field is great in this scenario. The data is fairly static and I only need to add the one combo field for a bunch of 'sub' information, bits of which may be used throughout the site. The alternative is to create a fieldset with individual fields, all of which would only be used in a single template and have one entry per field.

As an aside, I started using Settings Factory for this - it's an interesting alternative if you ever want a combo setting that isn't tied to a page, but it does require some scripting knowledge to configure. Not meaning to derail from the combo discussion.

[Klenkes]

Most of the time I use Combo for settings in my MatrixFields to build sections of content.

Like this:

Or like that:

All the fields are in one place and showif works great within Combo.
Not so great if you have a dependancy in a parent field.