feat: allow multiple values on relation columns by he-is-talha · Pull Request #2979 · nextcloud/tables

he-is-talha · 2026-09-06T21:40:44Z

Summary

Add a Select multiple items option on relation columns (customSettings.allowMultiple)
Store relation values as one cell row per related id (same pattern as usergroup)
Update create/edit UI, cell display, validation, import parsing, and analytics formatting for single and multi relations

Closes #2952

🖼️ Screenshots

Notes

API cell values for relation columns are now always int[] (legacy scalars are still accepted and normalized)
No DB migration; existing single-value cells continue to work

🤖 AI (if applicable)

The content of this PR was partly using AI

… Updated related components and services to handle multiple relation values, including UI adjustments for selection and display. Added tests to verify correct formatting of multiple relation values in analytics. Signed-off-by: Talha Bin Yousaf <talhayousaf4420@gmail.com>

samin-z · 2026-09-09T09:50:08Z

@he-is-talha please clean you second commit message before merging.

Keep only the first related id per row when switching to single-select, fix multi filters / API scalar shape, and soften CSV import parsing. Signed-off-by: Talha Bin Yousaf <talhayousaf4420@gmail.com>

he-is-talha · 2026-09-09T10:45:10Z

@samin-z Cleaned the second commit message and force-pushed.

samin-z · 2026-09-09T12:09:43Z

few points:

for multiple item when column is edited and it is switched to single item, table still shows multiple items until page is refreshed and then the correct value is shown.
editing multiple items and switching to single item, it shows no warning that existing data might be loss so maybe a nice addition to let users know, or show a warning underneath this option in regard to how toggling this will effect.
when the column is mandatory, clearing the relation still save with no error, it's better to make sure empty values are rejected both in the UI and on the API. same point for multi-selection, empty array shouldnt count as a valid value. Inline cell edit should also refuse to clear a mandatory relation. though i think this is pre-existing issue as if we have columns which rows which are empty and then the column is updated to mandatory but existing empty rows columns are still as they are.

for point 4 lets fix it for now for this case though.

Reload truncated values after switching multi→single, warn about data loss, reject empty mandatory relations in UI/API, and block enabling mandatory when some rows still have no related value. Signed-off-by: Talha Bin Yousaf <talhayousaf4420@gmail.com>

he-is-talha · 2026-09-09T23:32:37Z

Implemented: Multi → single updates without refresh
Warning when turning off multi:

3. Mandatory rejects empty

4. Enabling mandatory with empty rows blocked

he-is-talha · 2026-09-09T23:33:19Z

@samin-z Ready for the review again

Aveyron-RetD · 2026-09-11T13:50:24Z

Maybe @Koc would be a good reviewer

blizzz

Thanks for the contriubtion!

If it is correct, that the PR is also AI assisted, please add the "Assisted-by: $AGENT_NAME:$MODEL_VERSION" trailer to each commit where it applies to.

blizzz · 2026-09-11T17:32:55Z

 	<div style="width: 100%">
 		<div class="row space-T">
-			<div class="fix-col-4 title">
+			<div class="form-col-4 title">


The rename does not rename the styling. Intentional? Why is the rename necessary in first place?

Reverted — the rename wasn’t needed.

blizzz · 2026-09-11T17:36:24Z

+			} elseif (str_contains($value, ',')) {
+				$value = array_map(trim(...), explode(',', $value));


i.e. labels would not be able to contains , I am not aware that such a restriction is in place anyhwere?

Good catch. Names with commas are kept as one label now; we only split when the full name doesn’t match.

blizzz · 2026-09-11T17:39:20Z

+		}
+
+		if (is_string($value)) {
+			$decoded = json_decode($value, true);


when this is not a json string, integer values would turn into a string, and then may not survive the check in resolveRelationId()

Fixed — number IDs are handled correctly now.

blizzz · 2026-09-11T17:47:04Z

+			try {
+				$column = $this->columnMapper->find($columnId);
+				if ($column->getType() === Column::TYPE_RELATION
+					&& !(bool)($column->getCustomSettingsArray()[Column::RELATION_ALLOW_MULTIPLE] ?? false)


this bleeds customSettings into Row2Mapper which it should not know about.

Agreed. Moved that logic out of Row2Mapper.

blizzz · 2026-09-11T17:48:52Z

+			} catch (DoesNotExistException) {
+				// Column may have been deleted; keep aggregated value as-is
+			}


this column was already fetched in line 776, hence the check is not necessary know (but does not hurt). What would be better is to use the object that was already fetched.

Done — we reuse the column we already loaded.

blizzz · 2026-09-11T18:06:36Z

+			$this->normalizeToIds($value, $column, throwOnInvalid: true);
+			return true;
+		} catch (BadRequestError) {
+			return $this->normalizeToIds($value, $column, throwOnInvalid: false) !== [];


this probably does not need to be called a second time and can be solved differently.

Simplified — only one pass now.

blizzz · 2026-09-11T18:08:11Z

+			if (is_array($value)) {
+				return count($value) > 0;
+			}
+			return $value !== null && $value !== '';


this check was already run in line 503

Removed the extra check.

blizzz · 2026-09-11T18:10:34Z

+			if (this.isMandatory && newValue.length === 0) {
+				showError(t('tables', 'This column is mandatory and cannot be empty.'))
+				this.cancelEdit()
+				this.localLoading = false


it is already false (line 168)

Removed the redundant line.

blizzz · 2026-09-11T18:12:52Z

-		const cellLabel = this.getLabel(cell.value)?.toLowerCase()
+		const rawFilter = filter.magicValuesEnriched ? filter.magicValuesEnriched : filter.value
+		const filterValue = String(rawFilter ?? '').toLowerCase()
+		const ids = this.normalizeIds(cell?.value ?? cell)


Suggested change

const ids = this.normalizeIds(cell?.value ?? cell)

const ids = this.normalizeIds(cell?.value)

should be just this?

Applied, thanks.

blizzz · 2026-09-11T18:16:57Z

 						$qb->expr()->eq($alias . '.column_id', $qb->createNamedParameter($sortData['columnId']))
 					)
 				);
 				$qb->addOrderBy($qb->func()->max($alias . '.value'), $sortData['mode']);


fyi, sorting would be by label id not display value.

Thanks for the note — left as-is for now.

…iple-values

Move single-value unwrapping into the relation cell mapper, harden label/id parsing, dedupe exclusion filters, and apply the other requested cleanups from code review. Signed-off-by: Talha Bin Yousaf <talhayousaf4420@gmail.com> Assisted-by: Cursor:Composer

he-is-talha · 2026-09-12T20:26:49Z

@blizzz Thanks for the review! Addressed the inline comments. Also added the Assisted-by trailer on the follow-up commit.

he-is-talha requested review from blizzz and enjeck as code owners September 6, 2026 21:40

he-is-talha mentioned this pull request Sep 6, 2026

feat: add relation column type (multiple) #2952

Open

samin-z self-requested a review September 8, 2026 08:16

fix: truncate multi relation values when allowMultiple is disabled

888a5f9

Keep only the first related id per row when switching to single-select, fix multi filters / API scalar shape, and soften CSV import parsing. Signed-off-by: Talha Bin Yousaf <talhayousaf4420@gmail.com>

he-is-talha force-pushed the feat/2952/relation-multiple-values branch from 9b6cdef to 888a5f9 Compare September 9, 2026 10:40

Merge branch 'nextcloud:main' into feat/2952/relation-multiple-values

f158005

blizzz requested changes Sep 11, 2026

View reviewed changes

he-is-talha added 2 commits September 13, 2026 01:16

Merge remote-tracking branch 'fork/main' into feat/2952/relation-mult…

88ff43a

…iple-values

		} elseif (str_contains($value, ',')) {
		$value = array_map(trim(...), explode(',', $value));

	const ids = this.normalizeIds(cell?.value ?? cell)
	const ids = this.normalizeIds(cell?.value)

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he-is-talha commented Sep 6, 2026

Summary

🖼️ Screenshots

Notes

🤖 AI (if applicable)

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samin-z commented Sep 9, 2026

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he-is-talha commented Sep 9, 2026

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samin-z commented Sep 9, 2026

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he-is-talha commented Sep 9, 2026

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he-is-talha commented Sep 9, 2026

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Aveyron-RetD commented Sep 11, 2026

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he-is-talha commented Sep 12, 2026

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