Deleting tabs

[MagnusB]

So, I discovered custom fields, which seems to serve me much better than multiple tabs, I think. But if I just remove tabs, will the content in those tabs be deleted as well? Or will they just stay as orphaned? Will first have to go through my items and move the tabs first.

 

[Bob]

If you remove the Tab Name, that will orphan any existing content. However, if you decide to then at some point active that tab again, the orphan content will display. If you are comfortable with your SQL statements and using phpmyadmin, you can quickly remove content from tabs tho

 

[MagnusB]

I did the hard way and manually edited every item in the showcase. Not that it was that many, but at least I got instant testing of my new setup

 

[Bob]

Its one of those things that I COULD have the data removed, but then someone would accidentally remove a tab name and POOF, all their content is gone. So I chose to orphan it instead as its much easier to walk a person through manual removal than it is to inform them that they will have to recover their lost data from the most recent backup.

 

[MagnusB]

It kinda makes sense the way it set up. Maybe a clean orphans tool for OCD people? If I delete the content of each individual "tab", is the db entry delete as well or just emptied?

 

[Bob]

I should not have used the word "Orphaned" as people will miss read that as a complete record being orphaned and that is not the case. Tabs data for an item is stored in fields within the ITEM record.

When you edit an item and remove content from a tab on that item, you are simply clearing the data from a FIELD in the item record. These are the fields in the ITEMS table that store the tabs data:

• message
• message_t2
• message_t3
• message_t4
• message_t5

message is for the First (required) tab. message_t2 through message_t5 store the data for tabs 2-5. This is for EACH record (each item is a record). The reason I use the word message is that is a CORE XF standard for WYSIWYG fields.

Anyway, this is as designed. Tabs are not added or deleted. There are 5 tabs per item whether they are used or not. You are able to give them a NAME (which activates the tab on the Item Edit Form). When a Tab is active, its content can be manged). When a tab is deactivated (by removing its name) any content in that tabs field remains, but is not accessible via the Item Edit, nor is it available to display. If you reactivate a Tab for a category that was previously used, any item within that category that had entered data will now be accessible again via the Item edit and will display (until removed). This (as stated prior) is done on purpose to prevent data loss.

 

[MagnusB]

Ahh, ok, then I think I am all set. Thank you