View source for Custom fields type: Subfields

== The ''subfields'' Field ==
Provides a possibility to add several (repeatable) subfields to an item. The subfields are each rendered by themselves and the result will by default be shown as a comma-separated list (this can be changed, see further down).

=== The ''subfields'' Specific Options ===
* Repeatable, ''repeat'' (mandatory) Boolean, default true.

Whether the subfields should be repeatable, i.e. allowing multiple lines of values.
* subfields (mandatory)

A list of other custom field items that shall be used as subfields for this item.

Render values, ''render_values'' (mandatory) Boolean, default true. Whether the value of this subfield shall get rendered or not (see next chapter).

=== Disable Rendering for a Subfield ===
When creating a ''subfields'' instance and selecting, which other custom fields should be used as subfields, you are able to select whether you want Joomla! to render this subfields' value, when the value of the parent field is being rendered. '''Normally, this is what you want to do.''' That's why the default value is ''true''.

Turning this off will have consequences for subfield types for which the value, which is saved in the database, is not equal to the rendered string which is normally being used in the Frontend: E.g. the ''media'' type stores a path to a media file in the database, but normally renders as an ''<img>''-tag. Turning this option off would mean that the default rendering process of the subfield will now show the path the file instead of the ''<img>''-tag.

So, why does this option exist? Because rendering of multiple fields, maybe multiple hundreds of fields, costs performance, and rendering of many subfields of many items takes much performance and time. And this is not always what you want, nor what you need: You are able to switch this option off and create your own rendering procedure by creating a layout override for your subfields (see next chapter), so this will render the subfields exactly as you want it, and you can disable the Joomla! default rendering with it.