<p>You're right, this can only be accomplished with a Matrix field.</p>

<p>That said, you could probably accomplish what you need via a <strong>custom field type</strong>. You'd need to create a custom plugin (obviously), but you could probably build something that simply stores an <em>array of asset IDs</em>:</p>

<pre><code>[12,33,42,10,10,10]
</code></pre>

<p>I won't diver deeper into what the mechanics of that plugin &amp; field type should be... that's a bit beyond the scope of this question.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-12T17:00:52.137Z
2017-07-12T17:00:52.137Z
Lindsey D
<p>My customer wants a videoplaylist for users.</p>

<p>Idealy I'd like to have a assets relation field for the playlist and relate all the videos in said playlist.</p>

<p>The problem is if a user wants the same video several times in the playlist. 
( like in a loop ).</p>

<p>As far as I know it's only possible to relate an entry/asset once in the same relation field.</p>

<p>The solution for me would be to add a matrix-block for each video in the playlist, but since there are thousands of playlists the db grows way more than expected.</p>

<p>Without matrix field: around 30MB
With matrix blocks: around 200MB.</p>

<p>The site slowed down quite a bit and the searchindex table grew to about 80MB.</p>

<p>Is there another way to implement this or a ideally a way to relate an entry several time in one field?</p>

<relations><performance>
Can I set the same relation in a field multiple times?
# Can I set the same relation in a field multiple times?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-07-12)

My customer wants a videoplaylist for users.

Idealy I'd like to have a assets relation field for the playlist and relate all the videos in said playlist.

The problem is if a user wants the same video several times in the playlist.
( like in a loop ).

As far as I know it's only possible to relate an entry/asset once in the same relation field.

The solution for me would be to add a matrix-block for each video in the playlist, but since there are thousands of playlists the db grows way more than expected.

Without matrix field: around 30MB
With matrix blocks: around 200MB.

The site slowed down quite a bit and the searchindex table grew to about 80MB.

Is there another way to implement this or a ideally a way to relate an entry several time in one field?

**Tags:** relations, performance


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2017-07-12. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

You're right, this can only be accomplished with a Matrix field.
That said, you could probably accomplish what you need via a custom field type. You'd need to create a custom plugin (obviously), but you could probably build something that simply stores an array of asset IDs:
[12,33,42,10,10,10]

I won't diver deeper into what the mechanics of that plugin & field type should be... that's a bit beyond the scope of this question.


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