Object Entity API

Description

Object API is a series of classes and methods that allow to write object-oriented code in Drupal.

The core of Object API is a series of Wrappers for common entities (core and provided by common modules):

• nodes
• users
• taxonomies
• field collections (provided by field_collection)
• files (provided by file_entity)

These wrappers supply methods such as field getter, setters and printing and support getting by group (defined by field_group).
Wrappers for fields are also supplied:

• Text
• Numbers
• Lists
• Booleans
• Term references (from module entityreference)
• Locations (from module locations)
• Dates (timestamp, from module date)
• Entity references (from module entityreference)

Forms are another target of Object API wrappers.

When to use object API

The Object API wrappers have been proved useful in such contexts:

• Form personalization: (e.g. inside a hook_form_alter)
• Automatic hidden fields filling: (e.g. inside a hook_node_update)
• Custom templating (e.g. print templates)
• PHP code (e.g. PHP fields, actions, or views_php fields)
• Create object oriented API models (subclassing generic wrappers)

Examples

Construct a a wrapper for a node with known nid (1):

$myNode = new NodeWrapper($nid);

Print a field rendered with a particular bundle display configuration (1):

print $myNode->printField($field_name, "default");

Print a field rendered with a particular bundle display configuration (2):

print $myNode->getField($field_name)->toHTML("default");

Print a field's raw value:

print $myNode->getField($field_name)->getValue();

Print a field's raw label

print $myNode->getField($field_name)->getLabel();

Set a field's value (1):

print $myNode->setFieldValue($field_name, $new_value);
$myNode->save();

Set a field's value (2):

print $myNode->getField($field_name)->setValue($new_value);
$myNode->save();

Unpublish a node:

$myNode->unpublish();
$myNode->save();