[DSpace-CRIS] Nested / Basic Hierarchical Metadata (Frontend) by FrancescoMolinaro · Pull Request #5097 · DSpace/dspace-angular

FrancescoMolinaro · 2026-02-09T15:50:13Z

References

Fixes: DSpace/DSpace#12159
Require backend: DSpace/DSpace#11945

Description

This PR replace the standard group in submission with nested metdatata and UI forms.
The default group in submission will become a nested form and will be opened in a modal, to isolate the form and create connections between pairs of metadata.

Example of configuration:

<row>
                <relation-field>
                    <relationship-type>isAuthorOfPublication</relationship-type>
                    <search-configuration>person</search-configuration>
                    <repeatable>true</repeatable>
                    <label>Author</label>
                    <hint>Enter the author's name (Family name, Given names).</hint>
                    <linked-metadata-field>
                        <dc-schema>dc</dc-schema>
                        <dc-element>contributor</dc-element>
                        <dc-qualifier>author</dc-qualifier>
                        <input-type>group</input-type>
                    </linked-metadata-field>
                    <externalsources>orcid</externalsources>
                    <required></required>
                    <!-- You may choose to validate author names via a Regular Expression if it's appropriate for
                         your institution. The below regex requires a comma to be present in the author field.
                         However, this is disabled by default to support organizations as authors, etc. -->
                    <!--<regex>\w+(,)+\w+</regex>-->
                </relation-field>
            </row>

 <form name="publicationStep-dc-contributor-author">
          <row>
            <field>
              <dc-schema>dc</dc-schema>
              <dc-element>contributor</dc-element>
              <dc-qualifier>author</dc-qualifier>
              <label>Author</label>
              <input-type>onebox</input-type>
              <repeatable>false</repeatable>
              <required>You must enter at least the author.</required>
              <hint>Enter the names of the authors of this item in the form Lastname, Firstname [i.e. Smith, Josh or Smith, J].</hint>
            </field>
          </row>
          <row>
            <field>
              <dc-schema>oairecerif</dc-schema>
              <dc-element>author</dc-element>
              <dc-qualifier>affiliation</dc-qualifier>
              <label>Affiliation</label>
              <input-type>onebox</input-type>
              <repeatable>false</repeatable>
              <required />
              <hint>Enter the affiliation of the author as stated on the publication.</hint>
            </field>
          </row>
</form>

A new group type called inline-group has been added to mantain the groups inside the main form and not in a modal, follows and example of config:

Please note that the inline-group as a limitation: all the fields needs to be configured inside one tag.
If you want to achieve a display on multiple rows, it can be don through styling, adding for example to each field the style tag as follows: <style>col-12</style>
This is a known limitation and should be added to the documentation as such.


 <row>
              <field>
                <dc-schema>dc</dc-schema>
                <dc-element>contributor</dc-element>
                <dc-qualifier>editor</dc-qualifier>
                <label>Editor group</label>
                <input-type>inline-group</input-type>
                <repeatable>true</repeatable>
                <required />
                <hint>Add the editor of this publication</hint>
              </field>
</row>

<form name="publicationStep-dc-contributor-editor">
          <row>
            <field>
              <dc-schema>dc</dc-schema>
              <dc-element>contributor</dc-element>
              <dc-qualifier>editor</dc-qualifier>
              <label>Editor</label>
              <input-type>onebox</input-type>
              <repeatable>false</repeatable>
              <required>You must enter at least the author.</required>
              <hint>The editors of this publication.</hint>
            </field>
            <field>
              <dc-schema>oairecerif</dc-schema>
              <dc-element>editor</dc-element>
              <dc-qualifier>affiliation</dc-qualifier>
              <label>Affiliation</label>
              <input-type>onebox</input-type>
              <repeatable>false</repeatable>
              <required />
              <hint>Enter the affiliation of the editor as stated on the publication.</hint>
            </field>
          </row>
</form>

**Please note that is not possible to add repeatable fields inside the nested forms, this would result in errors in the UI breaking the form. This is a known limitation and should be added to the documentation as such.

Input type specific configuration, as the regex, should be added inside the nested form configuration, as they don't work on input types which represent nested forms. (not an actual control in the form) **

Note: A custom layout option will follow in a different PR, wich will allow to group those metadata also on Item page (CRIS Layout)

Note: For inline groups is possible to configure an additional button with the property showInlineGroupDuplicateButton , which if true, will display under the form a button to duplicate the whole section, metadata values included.

Instructions for Reviewers

List of changes:

Added new inline-group field.
Adapted group field logic to use modal.
Adpated parsing and templates.

To test this feature follow the config and try to use the form groups in a submission.

Checklist

This checklist provides a reminder of what we are going to look for when reviewing your PR. You do not need to complete this checklist prior creating your PR (draft PRs are always welcome).
However, reviewers may request that you complete any actions in this list if you have not done so. If you are unsure about an item in the checklist, don't hesitate to ask. We're here to help!

…g and status reset of form

MarieVerdonck · 2026-03-13T04:05:02Z

inline-group only renders first input & doesn't enforce required beyond name field

The inline-group config only renders the first input of the affiliated nested form.

Eg

        <form name="publicationStepGroup">
            <row>
                <field>
                    <dc-schema>dc</dc-schema>
                    <dc-element>contributor</dc-element>
                    <dc-qualifier>editor</dc-qualifier>
                    <repeatable>false</repeatable>
                    <label>Editor</label>
                    <input-type>inline-group</input-type>
                    <hint>The editors of this publication.</hint>
                    <required>You must enter at least the editor's name.</required>
                </field>
            </row>
        </form>
<form name="publicationStepGroup-dc-contributor-editor">
    <row>
        <field>
            <dc-schema>dc</dc-schema>
            <dc-element>contributor</dc-element>
            <dc-qualifier>editor</dc-qualifier>
            <repeatable>false</repeatable>
            <label>Editor name</label>
            <input-type>onebox</input-type>
            <hint>Enter the names of the editor.</hint>
            <required>You must enter at least the editor.</required>
        </field>
    </row>
    <row>
        <field>
            <dc-schema>oairecerif</dc-schema>
            <dc-element>editor</dc-element>
            <dc-qualifier>affiliation</dc-qualifier>
            <repeatable>false</repeatable>
            <label>Affiliation</label>
            <input-type>onebox</input-type>
            <hint>Enter the affiliation of the editor.</hint>
            <required>Enter the affiliation of the editor.</required>
        </field>
    </row>
</form>

If switch Editor name and Affiliation inputs, only affiliation is shown.

Even with both required, I can submit form with only the name filled in!

MarieVerdonck · 2026-03-13T04:13:00Z

Regex on nested form breaks input

Adding regex on the author name field breaks input, can't add new authors, even when following the regex rules.

No validation of regex rule is shown.

Eg

        <form name="publicationStepGroup">
            <row>
                <relation-field>
                    <relationship-type>isAuthorOfPublication</relationship-type>
                    <search-configuration>person</search-configuration>
                    <repeatable>true</repeatable>
                    <label>Author</label>
                    <hint>Enter the author's name.</hint>
                    <linked-metadata-field>
                        <dc-schema>dc</dc-schema>
                        <dc-element>contributor</dc-element>
                        <dc-qualifier>author</dc-qualifier>
                        <input-type>group</input-type>
                    </linked-metadata-field>
                    <required>Enter at least one author</required>
                </relation-field>
            </row>
        </form>

        <form name="publicationStepGroup-dc-contributor-author">
            <row>
                <field>
                    <dc-schema>dc</dc-schema>
                    <dc-element>contributor</dc-element>
                    <dc-qualifier>author</dc-qualifier>
                    <repeatable>false</repeatable>
                    <label>Author</label>
                    <input-type>onebox</input-type>
                    <hint>Enter the names of the authors.</hint>
                    <required>You must enter at least the author.</required>
                    <regex>\w+(,)+\w+</regex>
                </field>
            </row>
            <row>
                <field>
                    <dc-schema>oairecerif</dc-schema>
                    <dc-element>author</dc-element>
                    <dc-qualifier>affiliation</dc-qualifier>
                    <repeatable>false</repeatable>
                    <label>Affiliation</label>
                    <input-type>onebox</input-type>
                    <hint>Enter the affiliation of the author.</hint>
                </field>
            </row>
        </form>

Regex on top relation-field breaks form/validation

Adding regex on the top relation-field input:

can still add author name, not following regex
if form saved/refreshed, nothing renders & error in console

Eg

        <form name="publicationStepGroup">
            <row>
                <relation-field>
                    <relationship-type>isAuthorOfPublication</relationship-type>
                    <search-configuration>person</search-configuration>
                    <repeatable>true</repeatable>
                    <label>Author</label>
                    <hint>Enter the author's name.</hint>
                    <linked-metadata-field>
                        <dc-schema>dc</dc-schema>
                        <dc-element>contributor</dc-element>
                        <dc-qualifier>author</dc-qualifier>
                        <input-type>group</input-type>
                    </linked-metadata-field>
                    <required>Enter at least one author</required>
                    <regex>\w+(,)+\w+</regex>
                </relation-field>
            </row>
        </form>

        <form name="publicationStepGroup-dc-contributor-author">
            <row>
                <field>
                    <dc-schema>dc</dc-schema>
                    <dc-element>contributor</dc-element>
                    <dc-qualifier>author</dc-qualifier>
                    <repeatable>false</repeatable>
                    <label>Author</label>
                    <input-type>onebox</input-type>
                    <hint>Enter the names of the authors.</hint>
                    <required>You must enter at least the author.</required>
                </field>
            </row>
            <row>
                <field>
                    <dc-schema>oairecerif</dc-schema>
                    <dc-element>author</dc-element>
                    <dc-qualifier>affiliation</dc-qualifier>
                    <repeatable>false</repeatable>
                    <label>Affiliation</label>
                    <input-type>onebox</input-type>
                    <hint>Enter the affiliation of the author.</hint>
                </field>
            </row>
        </form>

MarieVerdonck · 2026-03-13T04:16:29Z

Putting repeatable=true on nested fields breaks form

If making a nested input repeatable (eg affiliation of author) this breaks the form (can't add/edit new authors)

 ERROR TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'forEach')
    at dynamic-relation-group-modal.components.ts:231:22
    at Array.forEach (<anonymous>)
    at DsDynamicRelationGroupModalComponent.getMandatoryFieldModel (dynamic-relation-group-modal.components.ts:229:20)
    at DsDynamicRelationGroupModalComponent.getHeader (dynamic-relation-group-modal.components.ts:149:17)
    at DsDynamicRelationGroupModalComponent_Template (dynamic-relation-group-modal.component.html:3:29)

-> this happens because angular isn’t prepared to handle null values for these fields and there’s a general lack of null / undefined safety in DsDynamicRelationGroupModalComponent

Eg.

        <form name="publicationStepGroup">
            <row>
                <relation-field>
                    <relationship-type>isAuthorOfPublication</relationship-type>
                    <search-configuration>person</search-configuration>
                    <repeatable>true</repeatable>
                    <label>Author</label>
                    <hint>Enter the author's name.</hint>
                    <linked-metadata-field>
                        <dc-schema>dc</dc-schema>
                        <dc-element>contributor</dc-element>
                        <dc-qualifier>author</dc-qualifier>
                        <input-type>group</input-type>
                    </linked-metadata-field>
                    <required>Enter at least one author</required>
                </relation-field>
            </row>
        </form>

        <form name="publicationStepGroup-dc-contributor-author">
            <row>
                <field>
                    <dc-schema>dc</dc-schema>
                    <dc-element>contributor</dc-element>
                    <dc-qualifier>author</dc-qualifier>
                    <repeatable>false</repeatable>
                    <label>Author</label>
                    <input-type>onebox</input-type>
                    <hint>Enter the names of the authors.</hint>
                    <required>You must enter at least the author.</required>
                </field>
            </row>
            <row>
                <field>
                    <dc-schema>oairecerif</dc-schema>
                    <dc-element>author</dc-element>
                    <dc-qualifier>affiliation</dc-qualifier>
                    <repeatable>true</repeatable>
                    <label>Affiliation</label>
                    <input-type>onebox</input-type>
                    <hint>Enter the affiliation of the author.</hint>
                </field>
            </row>
        </form>

Idem if adding repeatable = true on first (only visible) nested field of input-group input

Eg

        <form name="publicationStepGroup">
            <row>
                <field>
                    <dc-schema>dc</dc-schema>
                    <dc-element>contributor</dc-element>
                    <dc-qualifier>author</dc-qualifier>
                    <repeatable>false</repeatable>
                    <label>Author</label>
                    <input-type>inline-group</input-type>
                    <hint>The authors of this publication.</hint>
                    <required>You must enter at least the author's name.</required>
                </field>
            </row>
        </form>

        <form name="publicationStepGroup-dc-contributor-author">
            <row>
                <field>
                    <dc-schema>dc</dc-schema>
                    <dc-element>contributor</dc-element>
                    <dc-qualifier>author</dc-qualifier>
                    <repeatable>true</repeatable>
                    <label>Author</label>
                    <input-type>onebox</input-type>
                    <hint>Enter the names of the authors.</hint>
                    <required>You must enter at least the author.</required>
                </field>
            </row>
            <row>
                <field>
                    <dc-schema>oairecerif</dc-schema>
                    <dc-element>author</dc-element>
                    <dc-qualifier>affiliation</dc-qualifier>
                    <repeatable>true</repeatable>
                    <label>Affiliation</label>
                    <input-type>onebox</input-type>
                    <hint>Enter the affiliation of the author.</hint>
                </field>
            </row>
        </form>

github-actions · 2026-03-13T17:36:22Z

Hi @FrancescoMolinaro,
Conflicts have been detected against the base branch.
Please resolve these conflicts as soon as you can. Thanks!

FrancescoMolinaro · 2026-03-17T11:20:51Z

Hi @MarieVerdonck, many thanks for the feedback, much appreciated.

Regarding the issue you reported with the repeatable fields, I have found out by checking the history of development on the CRIS code base, that the repeatable fields are not supported inside the nested forms.
I have update the description on the task, this information should be documented as a limitation of the feature in the documentation.

For the inline-group configuration there is an additional limitation, the form fields must be all inside a single row, if you want to achieve a layout on multiple rows, it can be done via the style attribute, I have updated the description accordingly.
Having the config inside a single row should also fix the issue whith the validation on multiple fields, e.g. multiple required fields should be validated separately.

About the regex issue instead I am not able to reproduce the problem with your configuration at #5097 (comment) (regex on single field inside nested form).
I have used the same config and I see the the validation of the regex without being able to add the field, if it is not matching the regex:

regex.webm

Might I please ask you to try again? It could be possible that the problem has been mitigated after aligning the PR with the latest changes from main.

The second configuration instead is not possible, adding a regex on the top level metadata breaks the UI because is not an actual input, instead the regex should be configured on the fields inside the nested form.
I have updated the description accordingly.

tdonohue

@FrancescoMolinaro : Thanks for this PR. I reviewed this and tested it with the backend PR. Overall, the feature works well, and I haven't found any obvious bugs. I did however find some minor things to cleanup in the code (especially some disabled tests -- see inline below).

One other thing I did want to ask is whether the UI display for the inline-group is the same in this PR as in DSpace-CRIS? I find the display to be a bit odd looking because there's so much vertical space used for each "inline group" of fields. For example, here's what I'm seeing with the "Editor" field configured as an inline-group:

Things that look odd to me include:

The drag & drop icon is appearing above the field. When this icon doesn't exist, it's empty space, so the field is always very tall.
The delete button appears below the field, again using vertical space.
I find the "Duplicate" and "+Add more" buttons to be a bit duplicative. I did finally figure out though that they have different behavior. I just find it odd to have both.

Overall, I expected this inline-group field to look a bit more like the existing series field (used for "Series/Report") where there delete button appears to the right of the fields & the drag & drop icon appears to the left of the fields.

In any case, this display issue is minor and we could move it to a follow-up ticket. I just wanted to ask if this is the expected display or if it appears differently in DSpace-CRIS.

Overall, I'm nearly a +1 (once my inline comments are addressed/answered). This all looks good to me. I do agree though that these new field types require more detailed documentation, especially since there's some invalid configurations that are possible (as pointed out by @MarieVerdonck in the above comments)

tdonohue · 2026-03-24T22:10:02Z

@MarieVerdonck : As we are nearing the deadline for 10.0 new features, I'd appreciate it if you can give this a followup review and explicitly note whether you are "+1" this being added to 10.0. It sounds like your prior feedback has either been fixed or will be documented as an "invalid configuration". I'll flag this PR as requiring docs now.

…oup style issue, fix group modal tests

FrancescoMolinaro · 2026-03-25T15:33:01Z

Hi @tdonohue, many thanks for the review, I have updated the code adding comments and documentation where needed and adapting the group layout as you suggested.
For the duplicate button i have added a new configuration property to make it optional, showInlineGroupDuplicateButton, by default is false and the button won't be displayed.
I have also cleaned the group modal test suite, removing the tests that weren't necessary as they were part of a feature not yet included in the code,.
Hopefully this PR is now in a cleaner state, thanks again for the feedback.

tdonohue

👍 Thanks @FrancescoMolinaro ! All my prior review feedback has been addressed. I've also verified the new display for inline-group looks much better (& more compact):

I also tested that setting form > showInlineGroupDuplicateButton: true will add the Duplicate buttons back into the display.

So, this looks good to me. Thanks again for the hard work on this PR!

(Obviously this still will require documentation to be added to the DSDOC10x space for this feature.)

tdonohue · 2026-03-25T16:15:53Z

@MarieVerdonck : If you could give this PR another look, I think all your feedback has been addressed. It also looks good to me now and I've officially given it a 👍

I'd like to merge this quickly as several other merger-related PRs build off this one (so it will make it easier to code review those others PRs). So, I plan to merge this tomorrow unless I hear from you sooner.

MarieVerdonck

Functionality seems to work as expected with adjustments to config & avoiding the repeatable/regex which is not allowed, added in REST review suggestion to do fail-fast parsing of submission forms config so can't build with invalid submission form config, but is not blocking issue.

Also tested showInlineGroupDuplicateButton => copies even authority controlled md, though I'm unsure what use case this functionality has, so user doesn't have to retype e.g. affiliation?

tdonohue · 2026-03-26T22:20:34Z

Thanks again @FrancescoMolinaro ! Merging as this is at +2. Reminder that this has the "needs documentation" label until docs are added to https://wiki.lyrasis.org/display/DSDOC10x.

GraziaQuercia · 2026-04-09T11:10:03Z

documentation ready https://wiki.lyrasis.org/display/DSDOC10x/Nested+metadata+in+DSpace+items

FrancescoMolinaro added 9 commits February 5, 2026 09:02

[DURACOM-444] add group component

25a5bc0

[DURACOM-444] add modal for relation groups

b8bdf47

[DURACOM-444] add inline parser

4f6242a

[DURACOM-444] adapt inline-group parser, style, improve error handlin…

c32a477

…g and status reset of form

[DURACOM-444] disable test console capturing

cab395e

[DURACOM-444] fix authority setup

ec6efd7

[DURACOM-444] fix authority in group, fix row style

bee3fd9

Merge remote-tracking branch 'gitHub/main' into task/main/DURACOM-444

7501939

[DURACOM-444] adapt tests for group component

a51e5c2

github-actions Bot assigned FrancescoMolinaro Feb 9, 2026

FrancescoMolinaro changed the title ~~Task/main/duracom 444~~ [DSpace-CRIS] porting of Nested / Basic Hierarchical Metadata and related UI components Feb 19, 2026

AdamF42 mentioned this pull request Feb 19, 2026

[DSpace-CRIS] Nested / Basic Hierarchical Metadata (Backend) DSpace/DSpace#11945

Merged

10 tasks

FrancescoMolinaro marked this pull request as ready for review February 19, 2026 14:04

FrancescoMolinaro added 2 commits February 19, 2026 15:05

Merge remote-tracking branch 'gitHub/main' into task/main/DURACOM-444

af6a268

Merge branch 'task/main/DURACOM-426' into task/main/DURACOM-444

75ef143

tdonohue added DSpace-CRIS merger This ticket/PR relates to the merger of DSpace-CRIS into DSpace. component: configurable entities related to configurable entities new feature high priority labels Feb 19, 2026

tdonohue added this to DSpace 10.0 Release Feb 19, 2026

tdonohue moved this to 🙋 Needs Reviewers Assigned in DSpace 10.0 Release Feb 19, 2026

FrancescoMolinaro mentioned this pull request Feb 20, 2026

[DSpace-CRIS] Porting of authority framework functionalities (Frontend) #4956

Merged

12 tasks

artlowel requested a review from KevinVdV March 12, 2026 16:59

github-actions Bot added the merge conflict label Mar 13, 2026

tdonohue changed the title ~~[DSpace-CRIS] porting of Nested / Basic Hierarchical Metadata and related UI components~~ [DSpace-CRIS] Nested / Basic Hierarchical Metadata (Frontend) Mar 13, 2026

Merge remote-tracking branch 'gitHub/main' into task/main/DURACOM-444

4b7ce8e

github-actions Bot removed the merge conflict label Mar 16, 2026

lgeggleston moved this from 🙋 Needs Reviewers Assigned to 👀 Under Review in DSpace 10.0 Release Mar 19, 2026

tdonohue requested changes Mar 24, 2026

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tdonohue added the needs documentation PR is missing documentation. All new features and config changes require documentation. label Mar 24, 2026

[DURACOM-444] make duplicate optional, add comments, refactor, fix gr…

e22f807

…oup style issue, fix group modal tests

tdonohue approved these changes Mar 25, 2026

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github-project-automation Bot moved this from 👀 Under Review to 👍 Reviewer Approved in DSpace 10.0 Release Mar 25, 2026

MarieVerdonck approved these changes Mar 26, 2026

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Comment thread src/app/shared/form/builder/ds-dynamic-form-ui/ds-dynamic-form-control-container.component.html Outdated

Comment thread src/app/shared/form/builder/ds-dynamic-form-ui/ds-dynamic-form-control-container.component.html Outdated

[DURACOM-444] add helper functions, refactor

a3005a7

tdonohue added this to the 10.0 milestone Mar 26, 2026

tdonohue merged commit f8b8ac0 into DSpace:main Mar 26, 2026
18 of 19 checks passed

github-project-automation Bot moved this from 👍 Reviewer Approved to ✅ Done in DSpace 10.0 Release Mar 26, 2026

tdonohue removed the needs documentation PR is missing documentation. All new features and config changes require documentation. label Apr 9, 2026

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