The bumpy road of Drupal 7: entity reference vs. custom multifield Труднощі при проектуванні сутностей та шляхи їх вирішення.

1. Bumpy road of Drupal 7
How to build a fast contentHow to build a fast content
management applicationmanagement application

2. The forewordThe foreword
What is Drupal?What is Drupal?

4. Who Uses Drupal?Who Uses Drupal?
GovernmentGovernment
MediaMedia
RetailRetail
FinanceFinance
IndustryIndustry
EducationEducation
EntertainmentEntertainment

5. One of: MediaOne of: Media

6. ArchitectureArchitecture

7. Title of the articleTitle of the article
Title of the section #1
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Sed commodo feugiat ullamcorper.
Title of the section #2
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Title of the section #3 ...

8. DemoDemo

9. Title of the articleTitle of the article
Title of the section #1
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Title of the section #2
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Title of the section #3 ...

10. Edit "Title of the article"Edit "Title of the article"
Title of Section
Body of Section
Title of the section #1
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Title of Section
Body of Section
Title of the section #2

12. What solution is better?What solution is better?

13. Field CollectionField Collection
Entity APIEntity API (Required)(Required)

14. Entity ReferenceEntity Reference
Entity APIEntity API (Required)(Required)
Entity Construction Kit (ECK)Entity Construction Kit (ECK)
Inline Entity FormInline Entity Form

15. What aboutWhat about
performance?performance?

16. View Content (for Anonymous)View Content (for Anonymous)

17. Entity Reference fasterEntity Reference faster
than Field collectionthan Field collection
byby 25-59%25-59%

18. Possible problemsPossible problems
1. Edit Content (Form Loading)1. Edit Content (Form Loading)
2. Save & View Content2. Save & View Content

19. Possible problemsPossible problems
1. Edit Content (Form Loading)1. Edit Content (Form Loading)
2. Save & View Content2. Save & View Content
3. Revisioning3. Revisioning

20. How make it faster?How make it faster?

21. MultifieldMultifield
Provide a compound field solution for Drupal 7Provide a compound field solution for Drupal 7

22. View Content (for Anonymous)View Content (for Anonymous)

23. LimitationsLimitations
The sub-fields inside the multifield are limited to
one value
Cannot have a multifield inside another multifield
More issue related to advanced field types
Unholy things to Field and Entity APIs
of the Multifieldof the Multifield

24. KEEPKEEP
CALMCALM
ANDAND
WRITEWRITE
CODECODE

25. Custom fieldCustom field
Field APIField API

27. View Content (for Anonymous)View Content (for Anonymous)

28. Custom field fasterCustom field faster
than Entity Referencethan Entity Reference
byby 25%25%
and faster Field Collectionand faster Field Collection
byby 43-6543-65%%

29. Another ways toAnother ways to
optimizeoptimize
Optimize Database Queries: enable
Entity Cache, etc.
Minimize of the structure: remove unused (HTML)
elements
Divide the form: move out "hard" field(s)
from the form

30. Divide the formDivide the form

31. EditEdit "Title of the article""Title of the article"
Title
Body
References
Title of the some article
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Article 1
Article 2

32. Let's move References fieldLet's move References field
out of the formout of the form

34. 1. $form['field_name']['#access'] = FALSE;
StepsSteps

35. 1. Create custom field widget ("empty" widget to
hide form elements)
StepsSteps

37. 1. Create custom field widget ("empty" widget to hide
form elements)
2. Build custom form to edit field's values and display
(render) it on the Edit Node page
Create custom table and provide functionality
to save field's values into custom table
StepsSteps

38. StructureStructure
of the custom tableof the custom table
LegendLegend
form_build_id - Form Build ID of the Node Edit form
entity_id - Node ID
revision_id - Node Revision ID
user_id - User's ID who save value(s)
values - Value(s) of the field (serialized)
expired - Determine whether values are expired
form_build_id entity_id revision_id user_id values expired

39. 1. Create custom field widget ("empty" widget to hide
form elements)
2. Build custom form to edit field's values and display
(render) it on the Edit Node page
Create custom table and provide functionality
to save field's values into custom table
3. Provide validate (presave) function to set form values
(of the References field)
StepsSteps

41. ResourcesResources
https://www.drupal.org/project/entity
https://www.drupal.org/project/eck
https://www.drupal.org/project/field_collection
https://www.drupal.org/project/multifield
https://www.drupal.org/project/examples
https://www.drupal.org/node/707832

42. Thank you!Thank you!
Pavlo Shevchuk
Senior Software Engineer
http://drupal.org/u/pshevchuk