collection or global (array field vs collection?)

[unonweb]

Hey,

talking about sub-pages: If you need to combine page-wide data (eg meta description, featured image) with repeating content like posts - what's your approach?

a) collection + global: Use a collection for the repeating content (posts) and a global for the page-wide content
b) global + array field: Use a global that mimics the page structure including an array for the repeating content

My thoughts:

a) probably offers better performance in the admin UI, offers the list view which is more suitable for large arrays of data
b) offers a clearer UI for the customer (all page data is found in one place, furthermore in the order how it's shown in the frontend)

[unonweb]

I've found another disadvantage of b):

• no timestamps (no createdAt and updatedAt properties)

[JarrodMFlesch]

Maybe I am misunderstanding your question - but what we normally do is create a group of meta fields and add them to a collection, and on every collection the meta data is unique so it needs to be filled out on a per document basis.

We have built a plugin for managing meta data as well and you can read more about it here.

Let me know if I am missing something!

[unonweb]

Thank you for your reply.

[...] create a group of meta fields and add them to a collection [...] on every collection the meta data is unique so it needs to be filled out on a per document basis.

Well, I don't want one document to be rendered as one page.
I want all - let's say - blog posts on one page, all publications on one page,...
For these pages I need meta data, a featured image, headings.

Before I had it organized using a collection (containg posts) plus a global (containg the page wide data).
Now I organize it putting everything in a global using an array for the blog posts.
It works fine but I was wondering how other people do it and what the advantages and disadvantages of either approach are.

[JarrodMFlesch]

Couldn't you make a pages collection, create a page, select (relationship field) the docs from the other collection, then set metadata on the page?

We normally create pages with blocks and make a block for what you are describing. You could create a block that lets you pick specific docs from other collections (using a relationship field). You could also adjust how your block works and allow for users to check a check box i.e. "latest", and then you could use a before read to populate the field dynamically.

This is the approach I would recommend, storing meta inside a global feels odd, personally.

[unonweb]

Thank you Jarrod, you've corrected my way of using Payload at the right time.