Drupal 8 Entity API: DrupalCon Austin Session Notes

Wayne Eaker
Module Developers
Drupal 8 Entity API: DrupalCon Austin Session Notes
  • Drupal 7 Entities were a side effect of breaking fields out from nodes.
  • In Drupal 8, everything is an entity. Not just content, but configuration
  • ContentEntityInterface and ConfigEntityInterface are two different types
  • \Drupal::entityManager(); $entity = $manager->getStorage('comment')->load($id);
  • Comment::load($id); //shortcut
  • No more LANGUAGE_NONE. $entity->subject->value;
  • $term_id = $entity->field_tags[2]->target_id;
  • $entity->hasField($field_name);
  • Methods for common fields like $node->getAuthor()
  • Translation: $entity->getTranslation('de');
  • $manager->getTranslationFromContext($entity);
  • $entity->getFieldDefinition($field_name);
  • $entity_manager->getFieldDefinitions('node', 'article');

Fields

  • Base Fields (node title, node id, user name, user roles, etc.)
  • Bundle Fields (node body, node tags, user tags, all configurable fields)
  • Configurable Fields: show in UI, managed by configuration system
  • Field Storage Definitions: $manager->getFieldStorageDefinitions('node'); // what used to be in field_config
  • Module provided fields: hook_entity_base_field_info();
  • Computed fields: allows you compute when it's accessed: $node->body->processed
  • Computed fields for entity references: $node->uid->entity->label();
  • new UUID field on all content entity types (no UI)
  • Language field
  • Path field

Config entity

  • No fields
  • $view->name is a string vs $node->title is an object
  • Typed Data API: can get useful formats for fields

Providing New Content Entity Type

  • Use a class with an annotation
  • Can define base field definitions in public static function baseFieldDefinitions()
  • Widgets and formatters can be used with base fields.
  • Field definitions generate the entity tables automatically!! No requirement for hook_schema()
  • preSave() / postSave hook type functions in EntityInterface
  • ViewBuilder will display all fields using formatters
  • FormBuilder will build your entity form.
  • Extend EntityAccessController for access control
  • Entity lists (mainly for config entities) like node_get_types()

Entity Validation API

  • Decoupled from form validation so it works with REST
  • makes use of Symfony Validator compoent
  • based on Constraint plugins
  • $violations = $entity->validate();

Entity Query

  • \Drupal::entityQuery('block')->condition()->execute();
  • No more propertyCondition/fieldCondition. Just condition();
  • Works independently of the storage.
  • Has language support, relationship support, aggregation support