Block/Dynamic Block use scenario
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Hi, I'm not sure what the best course of action is for the situation we are in, and I thought it might be worth asking you guys to brainstorm some ideas.
We have a range of standard house types that we use repeatedly across multiple sites in different configurations and scenarios. At present we have a library of blocks for these house types to use in site layouts. However, this means that we have an almost infinitely increasing number of blocks to maintain and update when the range changes. For example, house type A might occur as a semi-detached house connected to type B, C or D, each scenario requiring a different roof plan. Types B, C and D could then be in different positions relative to Type A, so the variety of roof plans is pretty infinite, and we're only dealing with Type A so far!
At present we have a standard block for the most common configuration, but have within it two nested blocks, one containing information which doesn't change, and the other containing the roof plan and other elements which may need to be amended. Users can then explode selectively if they need to produce something non-standard.
This works fine, but now other parts of the company would like us to embed further attributes into the blocks and use some form of database access to pull information out of the block and produce client facing clickable maps of sites. I'm not entirely certain how this will be done at present, but the implication is that a single block for each house is required, with all the attributes in the top level block. This makes changes to types on an individual basis difficult (not every instance of a house type will be subject to the same changes), and I need to avoid others using the blocks from having to explode them, as this will inevitably cause the database extraction to fail.
I've considered dynamic blocks, but this seems like a rather complicated way to go, and doesn't (as far as I know - my experience with dynamic blocks is limited) deal with all of our issues.
What I feel like I need is something like a group with a block in it, so that users can amend the contents of the group, while leaving the block and its attributes intact. I'll play with this solution, but if anyone else has any smart ideas, I'd be grateful to hear them!