is it possible to have a view with a node and its comments, grouped by node?

here's an export of the view in question

$view = new view;
$view->name = 'test';
$view->description = 'test';
$view->tag = '';
$view->view_php = '';
$view->base_table = 'node';
$view->is_cacheable = FALSE;
$view->api_version = 2;
$view->disabled = FALSE; /* Edit this to true to make a default view disabled initially */
$handler = $view->new_display('default', 'Defaults', 'default');
$handler->override_option('fields', array(
  'nid' => array(
    'label' => '',
    'alter' => array(
      'alter_text' => 0,
      'text' => '',
      'make_link' => 0,
      'path' => '',
      'absolute' => 0,
      'link_class' => '',
      'alt' => '',
      'rel' => '',
      'prefix' => '',
      'suffix' => '',
      'target' => '',
      'help' => '',
      'trim' => 0,
      'max_length' => '',
      'word_boundary' => 1,
      'ellipsis' => 1,
      'html' => 0,
      'strip_tags' => 0,
    ),
    'empty' => '',
    'hide_empty' => 0,
    'empty_zero' => 0,
    'link_to_node' => 0,
    'exclude' => 0,
    'id' => 'nid',
    'table' => 'node',
    'field' => 'nid',
    'relationship' => 'none',
  ),
  'title' => array(
    'id' => 'title',
    'table' => 'node',
    'field' => 'title',
  ),
  'subject' => array(
    'label' => '',
    'alter' => array(
      'alter_text' => 0,
      'text' => '',
      'make_link' => 0,
      'path' => '',
      'link_class' => '',
      'alt' => '',
      'prefix' => '',
      'suffix' => '',
      'target' => '',
      'help' => '',
      'trim' => 0,
      'max_length' => '',
      'word_boundary' => 1,
      'ellipsis' => 1,
      'html' => 0,
      'strip_tags' => 0,
    ),
    'empty' => '',
    'hide_empty' => 0,
    'empty_zero' => 0,
    'link_to_comment' => 1,
    'exclude' => 0,
    'id' => 'subject',
    'table' => 'comments',
    'field' => 'subject',
    'relationship' => 'none',
  ),
));
$handler->override_option('filters', array(
  'status' => array(
    'operator' => '=',
    'value' => '1',
    'group' => '0',
    'exposed' => FALSE,
    'expose' => array(
      'operator' => FALSE,
      'label' => '',
    ),
    'id' => 'status',
    'table' => 'node',
    'field' => 'status',
    'relationship' => 'none',
  ),
));
$handler->override_option('access', array(
  'type' => 'none',
));
$handler->override_option('cache', array(
  'type' => 'none',
));
$handler->override_option('title', 'test');
$handler->override_option('use_pager', '0');
$handler->override_option('distinct', 0);
$handler->override_option('style_options', array(
  'grouping' => 'nid',
));
$handler->override_option('row_options', array(
  'inline' => array(
    'nid' => 'nid',
    'title' => 'title',
    'subject' => 'subject',
  ),
  'separator' => '',
  'hide_empty' => 0,
));
$handler = $view->new_display('page', 'Page', 'page_1');
$handler->override_option('path', 'views/test');
$handler->override_option('menu', array(
  'type' => 'none',
  'title' => '',
  'description' => '',
  'weight' => 0,
  'name' => 'navigation',
));
$handler->override_option('tab_options', array(
  'type' => 'none',
  'title' => '',
  'description' => '',
  'weight' => 0,
  'name' => 'navigation',
));

thanks for your quick response, and no problem. i wish i had a handle on what the grouping field is attempting to do - eventually it will bug me enough and i'll dig into the code :)

i was also considering:

-making a separate comment view with an nid argument, and then embedding that view at the end of each node row

-displaying the rows node style with comments showing and themeing. this is probably the easiest, but requires putting some logic into the template that i would rather have in a preprocess function. although i guess i could have a preprocess function even if i was using a node display...

aha!

so, without a grouping field, we always get a single instance of the style template, and all rows in the result set are in that single template.

but with a grouping field, we get multiple instances of the style template, with each row pertaining to the grouping field in the individual style template.

and since we can only group on the single field - nid in this case - it makes sense that node title appears in each row, resulting in the perception of duplicate nodes. if we could group on every node field together, or on the node object as a whole, i could get what i wanted with the grouping field.

if that's correct then i think i can write some better help for this setting.

it seems like the existing help for grouping is in the documentation for "How should this view be styled" (help/views/style) instead of in "Style options" where the grouping field setting exists (e.g. help/views/style-unformatted).

since each style has its own help entry for "Style options" it would be annoying to repeat the same information in each one.

maybe it would make sense to add more grouping documentation to help/views/style but add a note in each individual style's help to go up one level to learn more about the grouping field?

here's a patch that creates a new help file - style-grouping.html - with more verbose information on the grouping field as i understand it. style-grouping is a child of style.html, which also links explicitly to the new file.

it still bother's me that the closest help_icon to the grouping field (e.g. style-unformatted.html) doesn't mention the grouping field, and you kind of have to get lucky to find the grouping documentation in style.html.

however, i'd like to get some feedback from someone before i make links to style-grouping.html in all the other style-*.html help documents.

also, this is my first git patch, sorry in advance if it's borken in some way.

hmm. i intended to just have a link to the style-grouping page from the style page, maybe i messed up my commit?

not sure what's up with the quotes.

let me take another look and give it another try, i'll do some more testing this time on my end...

here's a new patch the fixes the issue with quotes in views.help.ini, i'm not sure what happened there - i must have done something stupid in my editor.

i don't think i see what you mean about adding the same information to both style.html and style-grouping.html. as i read both this patch, and the previous one, the discussion of grouping in style.html is shortened, and a link to style-grouping.html is added.

style-grouping.html contains a longer discussion of grouping.

if you are getting a different result in style.html when you apply the patch, something weird is going on! could you provide your before and after style.html if that's the case?

i followed the instructions here to create my patch