GridFieldEditableColumns does not support many_many through relationship's extra fields

[rasstislav]

Hello,

I have this issue.

This module does not support many_many through relationship joined on a separate DataObject (https://docs.silverstripe.org/en/4/developer_guides/model/relations/#many-many-through-relationship-joined-on-a-separate-dataobject).

PRs

• FIX Allow editing extra fields from ManyManyThroughList. #372 (didn't fix it apparently)

[GuySartorelli]

Hi rasstislav,

Can you please provide some details?
What happens when you try, are there errors? If so what are the errors including the stack trace?
What version of the module and of silverstripe/framework are you seeing this problem on?
What specific component(s) are you using? And what were you doing at the time of the failure? This module comes with a lot of components and I'd be shocked if they all don't work with a many_many through relationship.

[rasstislav]

Hi @GuySartorelli,

Thank you for your response.

Module supports only standard ManyManyList, but not ManyManyThroughList.

You can see e.g. here https://github.com/symbiote/silverstripe-gridfieldextensions/blob/3.6.3/src/GridFieldEditableColumns.php#L253.

[GuySartorelli]

Hi @rasstislav
Thank you for that. Please answer all of the questions I asked in my comment, including whether this is limited to just one or some components, or if it's actually all components in this module which don't support that relation type.

[rasstislav]

I am only using the GridFieldEditableColumns component and for Ranking field is displayed ReadonlyField.

Versions:
silverstripe/framework: 4.13.13
symbiote/silverstripe-gridfieldextensions: 3.6.3

Code:

class Team extends DataObject
{
    private static $db = [
       'Name' => 'Varchar(35)',
    ];

    private static $many_many = [
        'Supporters' => [
            'through' => TeamSupporter::class,
            'from' => 'Team',
            'to' => 'Supporter',
        ]
    ];

    public function getCMSFields()
    {
        $fields = parent::getCMSFields();

        $supportersGFConfig = ($supportersGF = $fields->dataFieldByName('Supporters'))
            ->getConfig();

        $columns = ($supportersGFDataColumns = $supportersGFConfig->getComponentByType(GridField\GridFieldDataColumns::class))
            ->getDisplayFields($supportersGF);

        unset($columns['Name']);

        $supportersGFDataColumns->setDisplayFields($columns);

        $supportersGFConfig->addComponent(
            GridFieldEditableColumns::create()
                ->setDisplayFields([
                    'Name' => 'Name',
                    'Ranking' => 'Ranking',
                ]),
            GridField\GridFieldButtonRow::class,
        );

        return $fields;
    }
}

[GuySartorelli]

In the future please answer all questions asked in comments like that - it wasn't clear at all from your comments what about it wasn't working, so I had to boot up a fresh installation and run through a bunch of scenarios to find out for myself.

In any case: ManyManyThroughList works just fine for most scenarios, but doesn't support extra fields that are added as db fields on the through class. In the code example above, it is the "Ranking" field, which is taken from https://docs.silverstripe.org/en/5/developer_guides/model/relations/#many-many-through and is a db field on the TeamSupporter class.

It's an easy fix so I'll raise a PR momentarily.

[kinglozzer]

Fixed in #372

[rasstislav]

@kinglozzer Thanks :).

@GuySartorelli It's better now, but it still doesn't work. Am I doing something wrong?

Team

ID	ClassName	LastEdited	Created	Name	State
1	Team	2023-08-21 13:09:34	2023-08-21 13:00:05	First Team	1
2	Team	2023-08-21 13:10:00	2023-08-21 13:06:45	Second Team	0
3	Team	2023-08-21 13:06:50	2023-08-21 13:06:50	Third Team	0

Supporter

ID	ClassName	LastEdited	Created	Name	State
1	Supporter	2023-08-21 13:06:22	2023-08-21 13:00:16	First Supporter	0
2	Supporter	2023-08-21 13:10:04	2023-08-21 13:04:34	Second Supporter	1
3	Supporter	2023-08-21 13:06:31	2023-08-21 13:04:38	Third Supporter	0

TeamSupporter

ID	ClassName	LastEdited	Created	Ranking	TeamID	SupporterID
1	TeamSupporter	2023-08-21 13:13:33	2023-08-21 13:00:16	1	1	1
2	TeamSupporter	2023-08-21 13:13:33	2023-08-21 13:07:26	2	1	2

<?php

use SilverStripe\Forms\GridField;
use SilverStripe\ORM\DataObject;
use Symbiote\GridFieldExtensions\GridFieldEditableColumns;

class Team extends DataObject
{
    private static $db = [
       'Name' => 'Varchar(35)',
       'State' => 'Boolean',
    ];

    private static $many_many = [
        "Supporters" => [
            'through' => TeamSupporter::class,
            'from' => 'Team',
            'to' => 'Supporter',
        ]
    ];

    public function getCMSFields()
    {
        $fields = parent::getCMSFields();

        if ($supportersGF = $fields->dataFieldByName('Supporters')) {
            $supportersGFConfig = $supportersGF->getConfig();

            $columns = ($supportersGFDataColumns = $supportersGFConfig->getComponentByType(GridField\GridFieldDataColumns::class))
                ->getDisplayFields($supportersGF);

            $columns['State'] = 'State';

            $supportersGFDataColumns->setDisplayFields($columns);

            $supportersGFConfig->addComponent(
                GridFieldEditableColumns::create()
                    ->setDisplayFields([
                        'Ranking' => 'Ranking',
                    ]),
                GridField\GridFieldDataColumns::class,
            );
        }

        return $fields;
    }
}

class Supporter extends DataObject
{
    private static $db = [
       'Name' => 'Varchar(35)',
       'State' => 'Boolean',
    ];

    private static $belongs_many_many = [
        'Supports' => Team::class,
    ];
}

class TeamSupporter extends DataObject
{
    private static $db = [
        'Ranking' => 'Int',
    ];

    private static $has_one = [
        'Team' => Team::class,
        'Supporter' => Supporter::class,
    ];

    private static $default_sort = '"TeamSupporter"."Ranking" ASC';
}

[kinglozzer]

My bad, I should’ve double-checked the fix was complete before merging.

The field now shows, but it won’t load the value because values on the “through” record for many-many-through aren’t lazily loaded like they are for a regular many-many, they have to be accessed via the DataObject::getJoin() method.

One approach for fixing this would be for us to say that when configuring editable columns, the array key has to be Join.FieldName instead of just FieldName (e.g. 'Join.Ranking' => 'Ranking' in the example above). That will load the correct value, but it breaks the auto-scaffolding of the field again (which the original PR fixed). It can then be fixed again with:

index e42be98..0dfbc58 100644
--- a/src/GridFieldEditableColumns.php
+++ b/src/GridFieldEditableColumns.php
@@ -252,10 +252,15 @@ class GridFieldEditableColumns extends GridFieldDataColumns implements
             }

             if (!$field && ($list instanceof ManyManyList || $list instanceof ManyManyThroughList)) {
-                $extra = $list->getExtraFields();
+                $colName = $col;
+                if ($list instanceof ManyManyThroughList) {
+                    // ManyManyThroughList join records need to be referenced with Join. prefix
+                    $colName = preg_replace('/^join\./i', '', $colName);
+                }

-                if ($extra && array_key_exists($col, $extra ?? [])) {
-                    $field = Injector::inst()->create($extra[$col], $col)->scaffoldFormField();
+                $extra = $list->getExtraFields();
+                if ($extra && array_key_exists($colName, $extra ?? [])) {
+                    $field = Injector::inst()->create($extra[$colName], $col)->scaffoldFormField();
                 }
             }

Do you think that’s a good approach @GuySartorelli?

[GuySartorelli]

Hmm. This was working for me locally but maybe I did something weird. I don't have time to look at this right now in any depth but we ideally shouldn't need to prefix the extrafield with the join name, as this would introduce a third syntax for handling many_many extrafields in gridfield (the main one being no prefix, and the second one being this weird nonsense).

I'll reopen for now in any case since you're reporting that it's not resolved.

[rasstislav]

Hi @GuySartorelli. Anything new in this issue?

Thanks

[GuySartorelli]

Nothing new, no. If there's something new there will be comments or a new PR :p

This is an open issue, but that doesn't mean it's something that is being actively looked into. If you'd like to submit a pull request resolving the problem I'll gladly review it.

In the meantime, this is in our backlog along with the other 42 issues on this repository, and all of the issues in the other core and supported modules. Hopefully that puts into perspective why this hasn't had any action since my last comment.