Mass import Item fields?

[Ludachris]

Hey Bob, I have an idea I'd like to try out for a test site - it involves adding roughly 85-100 field options as multi-select radio buttons. It's a list of race tracks across the US. I'm trying to give users a way to select which tracks they've driven their car on.

Would you have any suggestions on how to import fields into the db in order to avoid having to create them manually?

And, would you have any advice on how to organize the options by state? I suppose I can set the order manually when I add them. My thought was to add the state code to the id (like ca_laguna_seca) to at least have them organized that way.

If you have a better way of achieving this than the radio buttons, I'm open to ideas.

 

[Bob]

Would you have any suggestions on how to import fields into the db in order to avoid having to create them manually?

My suggestion is to NOT use custom fields for this and instead, extend Showcase to add functionality that allows Showcase Item owners the ability to "Add a Track" to their item (they can add as many tracks as they want to). When they add a track, a Track Tab would be added to their item. When you click on the Track Tab, it lists all the tracks they've added and when you click on an individual track, it will launch an overlay displaying data about the track and their experience at the track (maybe even historical data for each time they visited the track).

This also opens up being able to do things like have a Track Area within Showcase that lists all the Tracks and when clicking on a track, it will list all the members that have visited that track and their experience at the venue.

That is what I would do. I would avoid custom fields at ALL COSTS for this project. The Custom Fields system in XF is not designed to do stuff like this. Its more lower level quick display type thing (so you don't have to create an addon to have a field asking for the COLOR of an item).

 

[Ludachris]

Understood. Thanks Bob. I'll go that route.

 

[Bob]

Understood. Thanks Bob. I'll go that route.

Much less headache and you will thank me later