If you have ever built a content-heavy Umbraco site, you know the scenario.
An editor opens a page. They need to select related content. But the options shown do not reflect the section they are working in. Suddenly, you are duplicating document types or introducing conditional logic just to keep things manageable.
It slows editors down. It increases the risk of incorrect selections. And it adds unnecessary complexity to your content management system, especially in larger website development projects where structure needs to scale cleanly.
That is exactly why we built Koola Parent Drop Down, a smarter Umbraco property editor designed to adapt to your content structure rather than forcing workarounds.
Why flexible content structures matter in Umbraco development
Modern Umbraco builds are rarely flat. They are layered, structured and often multi-brand or multi-region.
In practice, that usually means:
• Product catalogues separated by brand or category
• Region-specific service hierarchies
• Reusable document types across multiple sections
• Structured content trees that drive front-end logic and support technical SEO performance
The tension is familiar. Editors need context-aware options. Developers need clean, reusable architecture.
A well-designed Umbraco property editor should support both without introducing duplication.
Koola Parent Drop Down was built with that exact balance in mind.
How this Umbraco property editor works
At its core, this custom property editor reads a configured picker value from the parent content item. For example:
• category
• vehicleBrandRoot
• any custom rootPickerAlias
It then resolves the selected root node and loads its children as selectable options.
In practical terms, the available selections are dynamically driven by where the editor is working in the content tree.
The component supports:
• Checkbox for multi-select
• Radio for single-select
• Dropdown for single-select
You can also define an optional displayPropertyAlias, such as altTitle. This allows labels shown in the Umbraco backoffice to be pulled from a custom property instead of defaulting to the node name.
The result is a cleaner, more intuitive editing experience without additional document type duplication.
A real-world use case
Consider a website that manages multiple car brands.
Each brand has its own model folder in the content tree. A parent node sets a property, such as vehicleBrandRoot, to the correct model container.
Child pages then use the same allowedModels property editor.
Editors now only see models under the selected brand root. There is no manual filtering, no duplicated data types, and no need to maintain separate configurations per brand.
One document type. Multiple contexts. Clean architecture.
That is scalable Umbraco development in action.
Built for real production environments
This is not a theoretical package. It was developed to solve a recurring architectural problem on live projects.
The component includes:
• Optional ignoreMissingParent mode for non-required contexts
• Safe handling of missing or deleted content
• Value converter behaviour that returns either a single item or multiple items based on selection
• Alignment with Umbraco 17
Selected values are stored as a CSV of GUID keys, ensuring predictable data persistence and compatibility with Umbraco conventions.
Data type settings include:
• rootPickerAlias, which is required
• displayPropertyAlias, which is optional
• selectionMode with checkbox, radio or dropdown
• ignoreMissingParent set to true or false
It is deliberately simple, predictable and designed for long-term maintainability.
Who this Umbraco package is ideal for
This Umbraco package works particularly well for:
• Product catalogues
• Section-based service filtering
• Region-specific or category-driven content selection
• Multi-brand or multi-category builds
• Any project where selectable options should be controlled by content structure
If you are building structured, scalable solutions in Umbraco, this addresses a common pain point cleanly.
Where to get the package
GitHub source code:
https://github.com/Koola-Digital/Koola.ParentDropDown
NuGet package:
https://www.nuget.org/packages/Koola.ParentDropDown
Why we released it publicly
At Koola Digital, we do not just build websites. We invest in the ecosystems we work in.
When we develop something that genuinely improves both developer workflows and the Umbraco backoffice experience, we believe it should benefit the wider community.
Nearly 30 downloads on day one reinforced what we had already experienced on projects. This is a recurring challenge.
If you are building complex Umbraco sites, you should not have to solve the same structural problem repeatedly.
Need support with your next Umbraco build?
Whether you are launching a new platform or refining an existing content management system, structure matters.
We design and build scalable Umbraco websites that are robust, maintainable and genuinely easy for teams to manage as part of our broader digital services.
Explore our services and talk to our team to see how we can support your next build.
Let’s build something that works.
About the author
Bradley Kronson