Hi,

I ran into a problem when embedding a SEBLOD List & Search inside a Content Form on Joomla 5.

The same SEBLOD List & Search works correctly when opened directly through a menu item/page. However, when I embed it inside a Content Form using a SEBLOD List field, the list initially returns no visible results.

After tracing the SEBLOD PHP execution path, I found two separate issues.

Environment / scenario

• Joomla 5
• SEBLOD 3.x
• A List & Search embedded in a Content Form using the SEBLOD cck_list field
• The search should restrict the results to a specific SEBLOD content type

The embedded list follows this path:

plugins/cck_field/cck_list/cck_list.php

→ _render()

→ libraries/cck/base/list/list_inc.php

→ CCK_List::getList()

→ Joomla onContentSearch

→ plugins/search/cck/cck.php

→ list rendering

Issue 1: the CCK search value gets lost

The cck search field has a configured live_value containing the required SEBLOD content type and uses an exact match.

But inside the embedded list, $lives['cck'] exists with an empty value.

In list_inc.php, the presence of this empty live value takes precedence over the field's configured live_value.

As a result, after onCCK_FieldPrepareSearch, I had essentially:

$field->value = ""
$field->live_value = "<configured content type>"

The generated SQL therefore did not contain a CCK restriction. Instead of only the expected matching records, SEBLOD selected all Joomla article-based SEBLOD records — more than 21,000 records in my case.

For testing, I added this directly after onCCK_FieldPrepareSearch in:

libraries/cck/base/list/list_inc.php

if (
    $field->name == 'cck'
    && $field->value === ''
    && $field->live_value !== ''
) {
    $field->value = $field->live_value;
}

After this change, the generated SQL correctly contained a restriction on t0.cck, and the query returned only the expected records.

Issue 2: CCK_List::getList() assumes the SEBLOD search result is $data[0]

There was another problem in:

libraries/cck/base/list/list.php

CCK_List::getList() calls:

$data = $app->triggerEvent(
    'onContentSearch',
    array(
        '',
        '',
        $ordering,
        $areas['active'],
        $fields,
        $fields_order,
        $config,
        $current,
        $options,
        $user
    )
);

The original SEBLOD code then assumes:

if (isset($data[0])) {
    $config = $data[0]['config'];
    $list   = $data[0]['results'];
} else {
    $list = array();
}

On my Joomla 5 installation, however, triggerEvent() returned five plugin results:

$data[0] = []
$data[1] = []
$data[2] = []
$data[3] = []
$data[4] = [
    'config'  => ...,
    'query'   => ...,
    'results' => [...]
]

The SEBLOD onContentSearch() plugin itself was working correctly. Immediately before return $data; in plugins/search/cck/cck.php, I confirmed that results contained the expected records.

The problem was simply that the SEBLOD result was at index 4, not index 0.

I replaced the original code with:

$list = array();

foreach ((array) $data as $result) {
    if (
        is_array($result)
        && array_key_exists('config', $result)
        && array_key_exists('results', $result)
    ) {
        $config = $result['config'];
        $list   = $result['results'];
        break;
    }
}

After this change, CCK_List::getList() correctly returned the expected results.

Memory error was a consequence, not the root cause

During debugging I also got:

Allowed memory size of 268435456 bytes exhausted

in:

libraries/cck/base/list/list_inc_list_items.php

around:

$item->positions_m = $positions_p;

Initially this looked like a rendering or $positions_p problem.

It was not.

Without the CCK restriction, SEBLOD was trying to render 21,825 records. With the CCK value restored, only the expected records were passed to list_inc_list_items.php, and memory usage remained normal.

For comparison:

without CCK filter:
items: 21825
memory before rendering: ~28 MB
memory during first item: ~174 MB
→ eventually 256 MB exhausted

with CCK filter:
items: 6
memory before rendering: ~14 MB
memory during first item: ~14 MB
→ no memory error

Result

With both changes in place:

• the embedded List & Search receives the correct CCK filter;
• SQL returns the expected records;
• CCK_List::getList() receives the correct Joomla search-plugin result;
• the memory error disappears;
• and the list is displayed correctly inside the Content Form.

These are currently local core modifications, so obviously they may be overwritten by a SEBLOD update.

The second issue in particular looks like a Joomla 5 compatibility problem: CCK_List::getList() assumes that the relevant onContentSearch result is always $data[0], but Joomla can return results from multiple search plugins and the SEBLOD result is not necessarily the first entry.

For the first issue, I am not yet sure whether restoring live_value in list_inc.php is the correct general solution or whether the empty value should be prevented earlier in the embedded cck_list field processing.

Has anyone else seen these two issues with embedded SEBLOD lists on Joomla 5?

I would also be interested to know what the preferred upstream fix would be, especially for the triggerEvent() result handling.