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Type and Value

A Field Type must contain a Type class which contains the logic of the Field Type: validating data, transforming from various formats, describing the validators, etc. A Type class must implement Ibexa\Core\FieldType\FieldType ("Field Type interface"). All native Field Types also extend the Ibexa\Core\FieldType\FieldType abstract class that implements this interface and provides implementation facilities through a set of abstract methods of its own.

You should also provide a value object class for storing the custom Field value provided by the Field Type. The Value is used to represent an instance of the Field Type within a content item. Each Field presents its data using an instance of the Type's Value class. A Value class must implement the Ibexa\Contracts\Core\FieldType interface. It may also extend the Ibexa\Core\FieldType\Value abstract class. It is meant to be stateless and as lightweight as possible. This class must contain as little logic as possible, because the logic is handled by the Type class.

Type class

The Type class of a Field Type provides an implementation of the Ibexa\Contracts\Core\FieldType\FieldType interface.

Field Definition handling

A custom Field Type is used in a Field definition of a custom content type. You can additionally provide settings for the Field Type and a validator configuration. Since the public PHP API cannot know anything about these, their handling is delegated to the Field Type itself through the following methods:

getFieldTypeIdentifier()

Returns a unique identifier for the custom Field Type which is used to assign the type to a Field definition. By convention it should be prefixed by a unique vendor shortcut (e.g. ibexa for Ibexa DXP).

getSettingsSchema()

This method retrieves via public PHP API a schema for the Field Type settings. A typical setting would be e.g. default value. The settings structure defined by this schema is stored in the FieldDefinition. Since it is not possible to define a generic format for such a schema, the Field Type is free to return any serializable data structure from this method.

getValidatorConfigurationSchema()

In addition to normal settings, the Field Type should provide schema settings for its validation process. The schema describes what kind of validation can be performed by the Field Type and which settings the user can specify to these validation methods. For example, the ezstring type can validate minimum and maximum length of the string. It therefore provides a schema to indicate to the user that they might specify the corresponding restrictions, when creating a FieldDefinition with this type. The schema does not underlie any regulations, except for that it must be serializable.

validateFieldSettings()

The type is asked to validate the settings (provided by the user) before the public PHP API stores those settings for the Field Type in a FieldDefinition. As a result, the Field Type must return if the given settings comply to the schema defined by getSettingsSchema().

validateValidatorConfiguration()

As in validateFieldSettings(), this method verifies that the given validator configuration complies to the schema provided by getValidatorConfigurationSchema().

It is important to note that the schema definitions of the Field Type can be both of arbitrary and serializable format. It is highly recommended to use a simple hash structure.

Note

Since it is not possible to enforce a schema format, the code using a specific Field Type must basically know all Field Types it deals with.

This also applies to all user interfaces and the REST API, which therefore must provide extension points to register handling code for custom Field Type. These extensions are not defined yet.

Field Type name

The content item name is retrieved by the Ibexa\Core\FieldType\FieldType::getName method which must be implemented. To generate content item name or URL alias the Field Type name must be a part of a name schema or a URL schema.

Value handling

A Field Type needs to deal with the custom value format provided by it. In order for the public PHP API to work properly, it delegates working with such custom Field values to the corresponding Field Type. The Ibexa\Core\FieldType\FieldType interface therefore provides the following methods:

acceptValue()

This method is responsible for accepting and converting user input for the Field. It checks the input structure by accepting, building, and returning a different structure holding the data.

For example: a user provides an HTTP link as a string, acceptValue() converts the link to a URL Field Type value object. Unlike the FieldType\Value constructor, it is possible to make this method aware of multiple input types (object or primitive).

Note

acceptValue() asserts structural consistency of the value, but does not validate plausibility of the value.

getEmptyValue()

The Field Type can specify that the user may define a default value for the Field of the type through settings. If no default value is provided, the Field Type is asked for an "empty value" as the final fallback.

The value chain for filling a specific Field of the Field Type is as follows:

1. Is a value provided by the filling user?
2. If not, is a default value provided by theFieldDefinition?
3. If not, take the empty value provided by the FieldType.

validate()

In contrast to acceptValue() this method validates the plausibility of the given value. It is based on the Field Type settings and validator configuration and stored in the corresponding FieldDefinition.

Serialization

When REST API is used, conversion needs to be done for Field Type values, settings and validator configurations. These are converted to and from a simple hash format that can be encoded in REST payload. As conversion needs to be done both when transmitting and receiving data through REST, Field Type implements the following pairs of methods:

Method	Description
toHash()	Converts Field Type Value into a simple hash format.
fromHash()	Converts the other way around.
fieldSettingsToHash()	Converts Field Type settings to a simple hash format.
fieldSettingsFromHash()	Converts the other way around.
validatorConfigurationToHash()	Converts Field Type validator configuration to a simple hash format.
validatorConfigurationFromHash()	Converts the other way around.

Simple hash values

A simple hash value always means an array of scalar values and/or nested arrays of scalar values. To avoid issues with format conversion, don't use objects inside the simple hash values.

Registration

The Field Type must be registered in config/services.yml:

services:
    Ibexa\FieldTypeMatrix\FieldType\Type:
        parent: Ibexa\Core\FieldType\FieldType
        tags:
            - {name: ibexa.field_type, alias: ezmatrix}

parent

As described in the Symfony service container documentation, the parent config key indicates that you want your service to inherit from the parent's dependencies, including constructor arguments and method calls. This helps avoiding repetition in your Field Type configuration and keeps consistency between all Field Types. If you need to inject other services into your Type class, skip using the parent config key.

tags

Like most API components, Field Types use the Symfony service tag mechanism.

A service can be assigned one or several tags, with specific parameters. When the service container is compiled into a PHP file, tags are read by CompilerPass implementations that add extra handling for tagged services. Each service tagged as ibexa.field_type is added to a registry using the alias key as its unique fieldTypeIdentifier e.g. ezstring. Each Field Type must also inherit from the abstract ibexa.field_type service. This ensures that the initialization steps shared by all Field Types are executed.

Tip

The configuration of built-in Field Types is located in core/src/lib/Resources/settings/fieldtypes.yml.

Indexing

To make the search engine aware of the data stored in a Field Type, register it as indexable

Field Type settings

It is recommended to use a simple associative array format for the settings schema returned by Ibexa\Contracts\Core\FieldType\FieldType::getSettingsSchema(), which follows these rules:

• The key of the associative array identifies a setting (e.g. default)
• Its value is an associative array describing the setting using:
  • type to identify the setting type (e.g. int or string)
  • default containing the default setting value

An example schema could look like this:

[
    'backupData' => [
        'type' => 'bool',
        'default' => false
    ],
    'defaultValue' => [
        'type' => 'string',
        'default' => 'Default Value'
    ]
];

The settings are mapped into Symfony forms via the FormMapper.

Note

You can store Field Type settings internally, or, when the schema becomes too complex, move them to external storage.

Extensibility points

Some Field Types require additional processing, for example a Field Type storing a binary file, or one having more complex settings or validator configuration. For this purpose specific implementations of an abstract class Ibexa\Contracts\Rest\FieldTypeProcessor are used.

This class provides the following methods:

Method	Description
preProcessValueHash()	Performs manipulations on a received value hash, so that it conforms to the format expected by the fromHash() method described above.
postProcessValueHash()	Performs manipulations on a outgoing value hash, previously generated by the toHash() method described above.
preProcessFieldSettingsHash()	Performs manipulations on a received settings hash, so that it conforms to the format expected by the fieldSettingsFromHash() method described above.
postProcessFieldSettingsHash()	Performs manipulations on a outgoing settings hash, previously generated by the fieldSettingsToHash() method described above.
preProcessValidatorConfigurationHash()	Performs manipulations on a received validator configuration hash, so that it conforms to the format expected by the validatorConfigurationFromHash() method described above.
postProcessValidatorConfigurationHash()	Performs manipulations on a outgoing validator configuration hash, previously generated by the validatorConfigurationToHash() method described above.

Base implementations of these methods simply return the given hash, so you can implement only the methods your Field Type requires. Some built-in Field Types already implement processors and you are encouraged to take a look at them.