Posted by toda97 on Fri, Aug 08, 2025 - 12:36pm

I am developing a two-tier business directory for a specific industry using Backdrop CMS, inspired by Tim Erickson's excellent tutorial on creating a farmers' market directory website. While the tutorial provides a solid foundation, I need guidance on adapting it to list potentially hundreds of certification bodies, each with detailed information, and the manufacturers certified by these bodies. I want to create a directory where certification bodies (parents) and manufacturers (children) are displayed separately but are linked through a parent-child relationship. How can I set up this directory in Backdrop CMS to establish and display this relationship, ensuring both entities are manageable and scalable?

Thank you for willing to help.

Regards

Accepted answer

Assuming you record different information for certifiers and manufacturers it would make sense to use separate content types.

Most helpful answers

A couple of side notes here:

A couple of side notes here:

  1. Different content types will allow you to attach different fields to each of them, which would make sense if you have two different "entities" like manufacturers and certifiers. You can set entity reference fields in both content types referencing each other, with unlimited cardinality (assuming that a single certifier can certify several manufacturers). You can also use the module corresponding entity reference (cer) to automatically create a corresponding reference in the manufacturer to the certifier when you add a reference from the certifier to the manufacturer
  2. Keep in mind that content in Backdrop is open to anyone to view, even people who are not logged in to the site. So, if you want to keep any of these content types private, you may need to use the Content Access module

Comments

Fri, Aug 08, 2025 - 12:56pm by yorkshirepudding

Entity Reference fields are part of core, but the module is not enabled by default and this will enable you to create the linkages.  You can set the entities you can choose using a view to get more control over what can be linked to what.

Fri, Aug 08, 2025 - 1:13pm by toda97

Thank you. So,So, they will work as two separate content types where both the parent and child different content? Thank you again.

Fri, Aug 08, 2025 - 1:17pm by yorkshirepudding

Assuming you record different information for certifiers and manufacturers it would make sense to use separate content types.

Fri, Aug 08, 2025 - 1:20pm by toda97

I greatly appreciate your time and efforts to clarify these issues.

Fri, Aug 08, 2025 - 1:25pm by argiepiano

A couple of side notes here:

  1. Different content types will allow you to attach different fields to each of them, which would make sense if you have two different "entities" like manufacturers and certifiers. You can set entity reference fields in both content types referencing each other, with unlimited cardinality (assuming that a single certifier can certify several manufacturers). You can also use the module corresponding entity reference (cer) to automatically create a corresponding reference in the manufacturer to the certifier when you add a reference from the certifier to the manufacturer
  2. Keep in mind that content in Backdrop is open to anyone to view, even people who are not logged in to the site. So, if you want to keep any of these content types private, you may need to use the Content Access module

Fri, Aug 08, 2025 - 2:02pm by toda97

Thank you. It is an excellent addition to what was explained by Yorkshirepudding