I want to make a carousel module. To me this means 2 DataObjects (Slide and Carousel) and a page type (CarouselPage) that will contain the Carousel.

A carousel will have a title to describe it (i.e. Pictures from Vacation) and any number of slides (I'm hoping to be able to select them from a ComplexTableField), while a slide will have a title (i.e. day 1 on the beach) and html code and/or an image.

In terms of relations, carousel:
static $has_many = array(
'MySlides' => 'Slide'
);

slide:

static $belongs_many_many = array(
'Carousels' => 'Carousel'
);

Would this be the best way to relate these two? Would it be smarter to just have a Carousel Page type and a Slides DataObject and skip the carousel DataObject? Do the slides really need a relation back to the Carousel? I'd like to hear from those more experienced.

Thanks!

I'm sure my relation is still not right because my HasManyComplexTableField does not have any checkboxes. Can someone please point me in the right direction?

class Carousel extends DataObject {
    
    static $db = array (
    'Title' => 'Varchar'
    );
 
    static $many_many = array(
        'MySlides' => 'Slide'
    );   

  
    function getCMSfields()  {
        $fields = parent::getCMSFields();
        
        $tablefield = new HasManyComplexTableField (
            $this,
            'MySlides',
            'Slide',
            array(
                'Title' => 'Title'
            ),
            'getCMSFields_forPopup'
           );
        $tablefield->setAddTitle( 'A Slide') ;
        $fields->addFieldToTab('Root.Main', $tablefield); 
       
        return $fields;
    }
  }

class Slide extends DataObject {
    static $db = array(
        'Title' => 'Varchar',
        'Code' => 'HTMLText'
    );
    
    static $belongs_many_many =array(
        'Carousels' => 'Carousel'
    );

Hi,
you have one Carousel with many Slides, so this is an 1:n relation.

To implement this relation in Silverstripe you have to:

In class Carousel:

static $has_many = array(
'MySlides' => 'Slide'
); 

and in class Slide:

static $has_one =array(
'Carousel' => 'Carousel'
);

I hope this will help ;)

Thank you for responding, wee-man

Doesn't the relation that you mentioned mean that you cannot use the same slide in more than 1 carousel?

jep - that's right.
In this case you can associate a slide to only one carousel.

If you want to use a slide in more than one carousel then you need a n:m relation.

For that you have to use

$many_many = array("MySlides" => "Slide"); //in class Carousel

$belongs_many_many = array("MyCarousels" => "Carousel"); //in Slide

I see these relationships working properly now. Thank you for your help, wee-man.

What I need to focus on next is changing this Carousel ModelAdmin portion of the CMS to be more user friendly for editing the different dataObjects.

Ideally, I would like to be able to select a tab on the left side (carousel or slide) and have a list similar to the site tree appear underneath. Then modify the objects on the right. Is ModelAdmin the right tool for this job, or would I be better off with a different approach?

I appreciate any advice or references that could be of help.