So far we’ve seen that you can use entity_load and entity_view to display your entity. But what if you want more control over how your content gets rendered? In this lesson we’ll take a look at overriding the buildContent() method of our entity controller to spruce up the output a bit. We'll also overrid the save() method of the controller in order to populate the created_at and updated_at fields automatically when saving a video entity.
Note: In order to improve upon the security of the code in this lesson you'll want to make sure you're escaping all user input properly. The following code:
$build['embedcode'] = array(
'#type' => 'markup',
'#markup' => '<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/'. $entity->embedcode . '" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>',
);
Should be updated to use the check_url() function when outputting $entity->embedcode to ensure that user entered content is safe for use in the context of a URL.
$build['embedcode'] = array(
'#type' => 'markup',
'#markup' => '<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/'. check_url($entity->embedcode) . '" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>',
);
Update your hook_entity_info implementation to take advantage of the Admin UI provided by the Entity API and quickly provide users of your site access to all the Entity CRUD operations via the UI. The API gives us a really good head start but we still need to write some code in order to provide a useable form for administrators. The API doesn’t make any assumptions about things like validating input so we also need to take care of that ourselves.
This video adds a new permission that allows privileged users administer our new videoasset entities. If you're following along as a user other than user 1 you'll need to make sure you give yourself the proper permissions. In the video, I'm logged in as the user with the ID of 1 so I'm just granted the permissions automatically.
Note: If you're following along with the videos in sequence there's an error that needs correcting. At the end of the previous video code was added to videoentity_entity_info() that references a VideoEntityUIController class, however, the definition of that class was not added. Which, will cause a PHP error because the class is missing.
In order to correct this error, you'll want to add the following code to the bottom of your videoentity.module file. This just ensures that the class is defined so that there are no errors. If you're curious about what it does it's explained in the last part of the previous video.
/**
* Our custom controller for the admin ui.
*/
class VideoEntityUIController extends EntityDefaultUIController {}
In a later tutorial in this series, we'll customize the form for our video entity by adding more code to this class.
Note: At 14:10 on line 36 this line is added:
'#value' => isset($VideoAsset->id) ? t('Update video asset') : t('Save video
asset'),It should be:
'#value' => isset($video->id) ? t('Update video asset') : t('Save video
asset'),
This lesson introduces students to Entity classes and illustrates what each of the main Entity classes does, followed by a more in depth look at the CRUD operations provided by the base entity class, and finally demonstrates overriding the default Entity class with our own custom Entity object to define a defaultUrl() for our entities and a new implementation of hook_menu where we can view an entity.
Note: At the end of the this video code is added to hook_entity_info() that references a VideoEntityUIController class, however, the definition of that class is in our sample code, but was not shown being added here. And it is necessary to follow along with the videos. If you're following along you'll want to add the following code to the bottom of your videoasset.module file. If you're curious about what it does it's explained in the last part of this video.
/**
* Our custom controller for the admin ui.
*/
class VideoEntityUIController extends EntityDefaultUIController {}
Additional resources
This lesson demonstrates the bare minimum needed to create a custom entity type and to load an Entity from the database. We’ll look at implementing a minimum viable hook_entity_info, talk about the relationship between the Entity API and the Schema API and use entity_load to retrieve a single entity record from the database.
Note, although it would be considered best practices to name the entity with the name of the module, e.g. videoentity_video, we did not include the module name prefix here because it is tedious to type it all out and to say "videoentity_video" without confusing people.
In the next lesson we'll cover the various entity classes and how they work. However, if you just want to get straight to using your entity and doing things like $entity = entity_load(); you'll need to declare a controller for your new entity type. Simply add this 'controller class' => 'EntityAPIController' in hook_entity_info(). That will get you started, and well talk about what exactly that line does in the next lesson.
Note: the video doesn't mention the 'primary key' element in the schema array (although it is in the code). This bit is necessary for the schema to install properly and work with the Entity API so if you're following a long make sure you add that part as well.
Additional resources
In the next set of lessons we're going to be writing to the code to create our own custom entity type. The goal is to create a video entity that stores embed codes for YouTube videos and allows us to display the videos on our site. In this scenario we don't want all the overhead that comes with using the node system, like comments for example, so instead we're going to write our own custom entity for storing the data. We're going to take a look at the completed entity type that we're attempting to build and just walk through all the various components. We'll take a look at creating/updating, and deleting a video via the UI, and also the views integration and fieldability of our custom video entities.
This lesson will explore the use of EntityFieldQuery to retrieve lists of entities from Drupal without directly querying the database which can be problematic in a system where the underlying schema can change depending on configuration settings in the user interface. Again focusing on writing code that will work with any entity in Drupal and isn't hard coded to your particular setup.
Additional resources
Entities were introduced in Drupal 7 as a way of taking the things that people loved about nodes + CCK in Drupal 6 and applying them to other types of data like users, comments, and taxonomy terms. The Entity API in Drupal 7 provides a set of common functions and classes to make it easier for developers to create their own custom entity types or to work with existing ones in a generic way. The API in Drupal core however is still missing some really useful tools and is supplemented by the Entity module in Drupal contributed which we'll make heavy use of throughout the series.
In this series we'll learn about the interplay between Entities, Entity Types, Bundles, and Fields and how to write custom code to deal with each of these things. The Entity API demo site files that we use in this series are all located in the Lullabot GitHub, as well as in zip files attached to the respective video pages, under the Downloads tab.
This series covers:
- What entities are and how they fit into the Drupal ecosphere
- EntityFieldQuery
- Entity classes, what they do and how to override them
- Providing an admin UI for adding/editing and deleting entities from Drupal
- Making entities fieldable
- View modes
- Creating custom UI's for dealing with entities
- Describing entity properties to Drupal
- Views integration for entities
- Entity Metadata wrappers
- Making entities revisionable
And much much more. This series assumes that you're already familiar with the basic tenets of writing modules for Drupal and makes use of things like hook_menu() without spending time explaining them. If you're not familiar with Drupal module development, you might want to brush up by watching our Module Development for Drupal 7 first.
Additional resources
Entity API Demo site files on GitHub
Entity module at Drupal.org
This lesson takes a look at working with the already existing entities in Drupal such as users and nodes and demonstrates some best practices for working with them in your own custom module. We'll focus on writing code that will work with any entity type and isn't hard coded to work with just nodes or just entities.
Additional notes:
There is a typo in the video. Joe created the variable $types = 'comment'; in one spot and then used it as entity_load($type, ... which obviously wouldn't work because the later is missing an 's' on the end. The downloadable code for this video doesn't have the typo.
Additional resources
In this lesson Joe will explain what an entity is and provide a little bit of history about how they came into being. We’ll also learn about some of the differences between custom entities and nodes (which happen to be a type of entity) and when, and why you might want to choose to write your own custom entities instead of using the node system or a more traditional datastore.
In this Lullabot Module Monday lesson, we take a look at the Style Guide module. Comparing Drupal themes is tough: the screenshots they provide are often based on heavily tweaked sites with plenty of slider blocks, tweaked media attachments, and other just-so content. Figuring out the "basics" — how a given theme styles core HTML elements and recurring Drupal interface patterns — can be tough! Fortunately, the Style Guide module can help.
Additional resources
In this Lullabot Module Monday lesson we are introduced to the Publish Button module. It's a simple problem, but a serious one. You've put your content editors in front of Drupal for the first time, and they can understand the node form without any problems. They understand taxonomy terms, grok menus and node references… but they get nervous when it's time to save their work. "Will... will this be published as soon as I click 'save?'" Normally, there's no good way to make the distinction between saving and publishing a piece of content explicit. Site builders can set a content type to be unpublished by default, then give editors the broad "administer nodes" permission, but that's clumsy solution that forces editors to dig for what should be a simple action: publishing or unpublishing a post. That's where the Publish Button module comes in.
Additional resources
In this Lullabot Module Monday article, we learn about the Mass Password Reset module. It's a question we all ask ourselves: What would I do if my site or server was compromised? Security professionals have loads of checklists to follow, and experienced server administrators drill for those moments. As we saw when Twitter.com was compromised by hackers, "Reset everyone's passwords, right away!" is almost always one of the important steps. If you run a Drupal site, that particular step can be frustrating. Resetting user passwords one by one is incredibly time consuming, and there's no way to do it for everyone in one fell swoop. At least, there wasn't until the release of the Mass Password Reset module.
Additional resources
In this Lullabot Module Monday lesson we take a look at the Backup and Migrate module. Few things are more terrifying than the realization that a server hiccup has wiped out a web site, or a hasty change deployed to the live site has nuked important content. Fortunately, there's a module that can help. Backup and Migrate offers site builders a host of options for manually and automatically backing up their sites' databases, and integrates with third-party backup services, to boot!
Additional resources
In this Lullabot Module Monday lesson we look at the Word Link module. It's a simple problem, but a tricky one: How can you ensure that special words and phrases, like your company's name or certain trademarks, are always linked to an appropriate web site when they're used in the text of an article? The easy answer is Word Link module: it lets you set up a custom glossary of terms that should be turned into links whenever the appear in text.
Additional resources
In this Lullabot Module Monday lesson we walk through the useful Menu Position module. It's a word that can strike fear into the heart of the bravest site builder: Breadcrumbs. Manage them well, and you'll give visitors a helpful visual indicator of where they're at in your site. Miss a detail, and the weird inconsistencies will be more confusing than no breadcrumbs at all. The challenges stem from Drupal's "flat hierarchy" -- by default, almost all pages (including every node you create) live just beneath the home page itself in an undifferentiated pool of content. All of the visual cues it sends to visitors (breadcrumb trails, highlighted parent items in the navigation menus, and so on) start with that assumption until you override them. That's where the Menu Position module helps out. It lets you set up simple rules that tell Drupal where each node type should go in the site's hierarchy, then handles all of the frustrating details automatically.
Additional resources
The Entity Views Attachment (EVA) module extends the Views module to allow you to attach a view to any entities on your site. Views on its own will let you create a page for your view, with its own URL, and it also lets you attach multiple views to the same Views page, but it doesn't let you do something like attach a view to a node, or a user. This lesson walks through a simple example of creating a basic view listing published articles on a site, and then using EVA to attach that view to user profiles, and making sure that we only list the published articles for that user, using a contextual filter.
Additional resources
The Views Bulk Operations (VBO) module is a great extension for the Views module, which allows you to add bulk operation checkboxes and actions to any view. You often see bulk operations on various Drupal core administration pages, like the content administration screen, which lets you select multiple pieces of content, and then perform an action, like publishing or deleting, on all items at the same time. VBO lets you add this to your administrative screens, which allows you to create very customized reports that also have time-saving actions available to them as well.
Additional resources
Deploying Your Code
FreeIn this lesson we will take the code we have committed to our remote repository and manually push it to our production server. We will cover how to setup deployments on beanstalkapp.com and the some of the advantages of using a tool like this.
A question we are commonly asked is: how did your production environment recognize the new feature?
Answer: Reverting a feature reverts it back to what is in code. So by updating the code it always looks to the code so there is no need to revert it. You usually revert a feature if you have made changes that are stored in the database and you need it to look back to the code as your database changes are not what you wanted or are wrong. If the changes you made in the database are what you want, then you update/recreate the feature.
In this lesson, we will cover the basics of getting code into version control using the Mac app "Tower" and then making the first commit and pushing it to the remote repository we will setup on beanstalkapp.com.