Hiding the previous instance in a Multi value field collection embedded widget

Question

I have a multi valued nested field collection with many field in it like checkboxes ,image etc.

Now when adding/editing a node looks clumsy when multiple values added for that field collection.

So I decided to hide the previous instance when add another is clicked , which i achieved by hacking and preprocessing the theme_field_multiple_value_form in the core field.form.inc by not passing the item to drupal_render(), but now what I get is empty draggable row that is not good.

So i managed that by just render a markup there which is not an issue now.

now the values entered to the field collection is not saved if it is hidden.

so what I'm technically asking is how to hide a field but still process it on saving the node.

OR may be is there any alternate ui for multi value nested field collection?

Note : I have tried hide(), #access & skipping from drupal_render.

Answer 1

I think the solution is within the theme layer. By extending the admin theme (i.e. creating a sub-theme) you could create the desired behaviour using CSS and JS.