Node Hierarchy and Panels - how to assign a parent

You aren't missing anything :) I don't remember exactly what it was but there is a conflict between the multi-step panel node creation and node hierarchy. I think it comes from the destination variable in the generated link for creating panels. Anyways, I was working with a custom theme when I first discovered it, so I just overwrote it using a theme override. If you are doing the same, you can use this in your template.php:

function phptemplate_nodehierarchy_new_child_links($node) {
  $out = "";
  $create_links = array();

  if (user_access('create child nodes') && (user_access('create child of any parent') || node_access('update', $node))) {
    foreach (nodehierarchy_get_allowed_child_types($node->type) as $key) {
      if (node_access('create', $key)) {
        $type_name = node_get_types('name', $key);
        $destination = drupal_get_destination() ."&parent=$node->nid";
        if ($key == 'panel') {
          $destination = "parent=$node->nid";
        } else {
          $key = str_replace('_', '-', $key);
          $destination = drupal_get_destination() ."&parent=$node->nid";
        }
        $title = t('Add a new %s.', array('%s' => $type_name));
        $create_links[] = l($type_name, "node/add/$key", array('query' => $destination, 'attributes' => array('title' => $title)));
      }
    }
    if ($create_links) {
      $out = '<div class="newchild">'. t("Create new child !s", array('!s' => implode(" | ", $create_links))) .'</div>';
    }
  }
  return $out;
}

If you want to incorporate it into the nodehierarchy module, you can use the attached patch. I didn't post this before because I wasn't sure if you could create panel nodes with different content types (a content type not named "panel") or if you had a content type named "panel" that wasn't actually panel nodes. It should probably be a bit more robust in checking things.

I think you already figured out your problem; if you want to hook panels in with Node Hierarchy, you will want to use Panel Nodes. Panel pages exist without a node, and therefore can't really operate with Node Hierarchy (at least, not without some serious work). However, just in case you are still running into problems with Panel Nodes, here are two things I can think of off the top of my head that might be screwing you up:

• When you enable the panel_nodes, it should automatically create a new content type called "Panel." You will need to enable Node Hierarchy on the content type at /admin/content/types/panel give it the proper allowed child node types. (it sounds like you've already done this).
• Panel nodes have a couple extra tabs "Panel layout" and "Panel content." However, the usual node settings should still be accessible within the "Edit" tab. With it properly hooked in with Node Hierarchy, you will be able to select a parent here.

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