Kit Bundling - Manage Kits Within Kits

[williamjvest]

Problem Statement

I need to manage kits that contain other kits, where child kits can be rented individually OR as part of a parent kit bundle.

Real-World Use Case

• Light Kit (contains individual lights)
• Trailer Package (contains Light Kit + other equipment)

When the Trailer Package is rented, the Light Kit should automatically become unavailable for individual rental.

When the Light Kit is rented individually, the Trailer Package should become unavailable.

Current Limitation

Assets have a 1-to-1 relationship with kits, making it impossible to:

• Have a kit belong to multiple parent kits
• Automatically block availability of child kits when parent is booked
• Rent child kits independently or as part of a bundle

Proposed Solutions

There are several potential approaches:

1. One-to-Many Relationship: Child kits reference a parent kit
2. Nested Kits / Kit Hierarchy: Self-relation allowing kits to contain other kits (similar to Location hierarchy)
3. Package Category: New kit type specifically for bundling other kits

Key Requirements

• Child kits can be rented individually
• Child kits can be rented as part of parent kit
• Booking one prevents booking the other
• Follows existing patterns in Shelf.nu where possible

Questions

• Is this feature something that could be implemented?
• Which approach best fits Shelf.nu architecture?
• Are there existing patterns in the codebase we should follow?
• What are the implications for booking conflict detection?