Information Blocks - is a module that permits making catalogs and managing different types (blocks) of homogeneous information. Different types of transient content may be posted using information blocks: goods catalogs, news blocks, reference books, etc.
Information blocks is a key point of Bitrix Framework. Almost everything that is being done in the system is more or less connected with this module, even if it is not displayed directly.
Information blocks constitute the next level of abstraction over DBMS regular tables; it is a kind of "database within a database"; That is why all of the rules used during database design partially apply to information blocks.
Infoblocks is an entity creating 4 tables in the database’s physical structure. These 4 tables remain unchanged during changes of data structure – object types, object instances, object properties, and object property values.
This approach has the following advantages:
- Convenient control over the structure data from the data application,
- Versatility of methods,
- Common data structure for any project,
- Possibility to change data types for fields many times without eliminating data themselves.
Disadvantages:
- Higher performance requirements,
- Nontransparent direct data access.
Specifics of the Arrangement of Elements by Sections
Arrangement of the elements of infoblocks by sections may greatly facilitate the navigation around an infoblock in the administrative interface. Faceted arrangement makes navigation even more convenient.
In addition, an infoblock with sections already contains a description of how it should be displayed to the user. I.e. it is sufficient to bypass it using the very common tree-avoidance algorithm in order to display it in the most convenient form.
The work specifics consist in a certain inconvenience when it comes to working precisely with sections, one by one. Thus, for example, if in addition to the Articles infoblock there is a Books infoblock, it is highly possible that its elements will also require classification by publication date and by subjects. In this case, you will have to create the same section structure once again. Furthermore, it will not be very easy to show, for example, the list of all of the materials (articles and books) on the same subjects by arranging them by publishing date. Moreover, it will be difficult to display the common index of subjects in the website menu.
In this case, a separate infoblock Subjects should be formed adding a reference type property Subject to the Books and Articles infoblocks, and a Publication Date property of the Date type. Then, it will be easier to navigate in the administrative interface using these property filters.