I am about to rebuild one of my Drupal sites from the ground up to make use of some of the great new modules such as those contained in the CCK. However, I don't want to move ahead with the rebuild until I'm absolutely positive that I'm doing things in the most efficient way.
The site is a database of monologues for actors and up until now when adding a monologue the user had to enter the Play Title, Author, and a Brief Synopsis of the play. Additionally, they were asked to include a brief biography of the character that was being portrayed in that monologue. However, I feel that much of that could be automated by creating a node type for Plays that includes the Title, Author, and Synopsis. Furthermore, it could possibly include the character biographies however I am unsure how useful that would be.
What I would like to see happen is that the user is given a list of plays that are currently in the system. If the play their monologue is from is in the system they simply select and it and do not have to fill out the Title, Author, or Synopsis. However, if the play is not in the system they will then enter the information manually.
Are there any modules that could make this possible? The new node referencing in the CCK is a step towards this sort of thing but it doesn't offer the ability for other fields to be affected by a node reference. Or if it does I have yet to notice.