A child collection is a container for a given data model that is tied to a parent collection data model. It shares all of the Collections config builder API except child collections cannot contain further child collections.

Defining a child collection

You define a child collection by calling one of the AddChildCollection methods on a given collection config builder instance.

AddChildCollection<TChildEntityType>(Lambda idFieldExpression, Lambda fkFieldExpression, string nameSingular, string namePlural, string description, Lambda childCollectionConfig = null) : ChildCollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Adds a child collection to the current collection with the given names and description and default icons. A property accessor expression is required for both the entity ID field and FK (Foreign Key) field of the entity.

// Example
collectionConfig.AddChildCollection<Child>(c => c.Id, c => c.ParentId, "Child", "Children", "A collection of children", childCollectionConfig => {
    ...
});

AddChildCollection<TChildEntityType>(Lambda idFieldExpression, Lambda fkFieldExpression, string nameSingular, string namePlural, string description, string iconSingular, string iconPlural, Lambda childCollectionConfig = null) : ChildCollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Adds a child collection to the current collection with the given names, description and icons. A property accessor expression is required for both the entity ID field and FK (Foreign Key) field of the entity.

// Example
collectionConfig.AddChildCollection<Child>(c => c.Id, c => c.ParentId, "Child", "Children", "A collection of children", "icon-umb-users", "icon-umb-users", childCollectionConfig => {
    ...
});

Configuring a child collection

Child collections share the same API as the Collection config builder API, except child collections cannot contain further child collections. For more information check the core collections documentation.

Retrieving child collections in one-to-many relationships with UI Builder, can be achieved with the support of child repositories. One-to-many relations are where one parent entity of a collection is associated with multiple entities from another.

Models Representation

The models would look like this:

Child Repositories

You can create child repository instances via the IRepositoryFactory and use them to retrieve information from the child collection.

A child collection group is a container for other child collections. Its purpose is mainly to provide a logical grouping of multiple child collections to help with organization and an improved user experience.

Defining a child collection group

You can define a child collection group by calling one of the AddChildCollectionGroup methods on a given collection config builder instance.

AddChildCollectionGroup(string name, Lambda childCollectionGroupConfig = null) : ChildCollectionGroupConfigBuilder

Adds a child collection group to the current collection with the given name and default icon.

AddChildCollectionGroup(string name, string icon, Lambda childCollectionGroupConfig = null) : ChildCollectionGroupConfigBuilder

Adds a child collection group to the current collection with the given name and icon.