Creating or updating entities on submissionfor Drupal 8 , 9 , 10 , and 11

Building on our discussion about saving form data using config.factory, this lesson focuses on a fundamental Drupal functionality: creating or updating entities upon form submission. Understanding how to manage entities dynamically is crucial for developing interactive and responsive Drupal applications.

Understanding Entities in Drupal

Entities are the primary way to manage data in Drupal. Every content type, user, file, or term in taxonomy is an entity. This system allows you to handle various types of data within a unified framework, making use of either built-in entity types or custom ones specific to your application’s needs.

Why Create or Update Entities?

• Dynamic Content Management: Easily manage and update content dynamically based on user interaction.
• Complex Workflows: Support advanced workflows by interacting with entities in a transactional manner during form submissions.
• Flexible Data Structures: Enhance and modify data structures without altering core logic.

Creating an Entity on Submission

Let’s consider an example where a form submission creates a new node (content) entity:

function mynode_form_submit(array &$form, \Drupal\Core\Form\FormStateInterface $form_state) {
  // Gather the form values
  $title = $form_state->getValue('title');
  $body = $form_state->getValue('body');

  // Create a new node entity of the 'article' content type
  $node = \Drupal\node\Entity\Node::create([
    'type' => 'article',
    'title' => $title,
    'body' => [
      'value' => $body,
      'format' => 'basic_html',
    ],
  ]);

  // Save the entity
  $node->save();

  \Drupal::messenger()->addMessage(t('The article titled "@title" has been created.', ['@title' => $title]));
}
    

This code does the following:

• Retrieves user inputs for the 'title' and 'body' fields.
• Creates a 'node' entity of type 'article', assigning submitted values to the corresponding fields.
• Saves the entity to the database and confirms with a success message.

Updating an Existing Entity

To update an existing entity, first load it, then modify its properties:

function mynode_form_submit(array &$form, \Drupal\Core\Form\FormStateInterface $form_state) {
  // Assume $nid contains the ID of the node to be updated
  $nid = 1; // For demonstration purposes, we'll use node ID 1
  $node = \Drupal\node\Entity\Node::load($nid);
  
  if ($node) {
    $node->setTitle($form_state->getValue('title'));
    $node->set('body', [
      'value' => $form_state->getValue('body'),
      'format' => 'basic_html',
    ]);
    $node->save();
    
    \Drupal::messenger()->addMessage(t('The article titled "@title" has been updated.', ['@title' => $node->getTitle()]));
  }
  else {
    \Drupal::messenger()->addMessage(t('Node not found.'));
  }
}
    

In this example, the code checks if the node exists, updates its properties, and saves the changes.

Best Practices

• Validation: Always validate and sanitize user input to avoid introducing errors or vulnerabilities into your system.
• Transactional Integrity: Consider using transactions for complex entity operations to maintain data integrity.
• Logging: Implement logging of entity changes, which can be invaluable for debugging and auditing purposes.

Conclusion

With the skill to create or update entities during form submissions, you can build more dynamic, engaging, and functional Drupal applications. This capability helps to automate content management tasks and implement user-driven workflows.

Coming Up: Saving Uploaded Files with file_save()

In the next lesson, we will discuss saving uploaded files using the file_save() function. This will cover how to effectively handle file uploads in your forms and ensure they are managed and stored correctly. Stay tuned for more insights!