Yeah if I were to rebuild the handpicked rule I would use a regular array 
property but instead of pointing to several content types it would point to 
a single custom type.  This new type would have two properties, 1. the 
actual content type you want to display (dmHTML, dmNews, etc) and 2. the 
webskin to use to display it.  This type would serve as an intermediate and 
would handle loading the actual content object and displaying it using the 
proper webskin.

So you would have an extra content type in there instead of an extended 
array.  Functionally it would be the same, it would just be slightly more 
complicated because you have the extra content type.  but, when you think 
about it, it is the similar as the hand picked rule using an extended 
array...

An extended array is simply a "regular" array with extra properties.  You 
get these extra properties by creating a type with a proper name that 
extends the "ArrayTable" component of core.  So, if you have a property 
called "aObjectIDs" in a custom type called "dmWidgets" then you could 
create that as an extended array by creating a content type called 
"dmWidgets_aObjectIDs" that extends 
"farcry.core.packages.types.arrayTable".  So now instead of just having an 
array of other items and the "seq" value, you can add as many other 
properties as you like.  So, in this example the "webskin" value is stored 
for each item in the hand picked rule.  Without an extended array (or the 
alternate solution I propose above) you can't store item specific 
properties.  If the "webskin" property was just part of the rule it would 
apply to ALL the items instead of having the ability to have a webskin 
specific to each item.

Great feature, just is not used a lot so it tends to break when upgrades 
happen.  I recently rewrote a bunch of code that was using extended arrays 
to use the alternate "intermediate content type" method above to avoid 
these issues on the future.  I doubt I would use an extended array again.

On Tuesday, April 16, 2013 1:06:15 PM UTC-4, Might Aswell wrote:
>
> Hi Sean,
>
> bummer.. My content managers love the handpicked rule as its so easy to 
> build out a page of multiple related types and sort them as they see fit.. 
> switching to a content type based rule certainly limits that capability. 
> And as you mention it looks like these types of rules can get in trouble, 
> as I notice that a few of my other "picker" rules (that I based off the 
> original handpicked rule) no longer work. :(
>
> That said.. I am a little foggy on "extended" arrays vs just an array..
>
> Is there a safe way to build a rule that allows a user to "select" the 
> object they want and the associated webskin?
>
> I see the farcrycms plugin "Image Gallery" rule uses an array "aImages" 
> but I don't see anyway to add a web skin selection? Am i stuck with 
> one defined webskin for all selected objects?
>
> Unfortunately the documentation for rules is... sparse (except for a quick 
> overview post, I think from you)..
>
> Chris
>

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