Custom Compound Fields in Drupal 8

Note: This, and other lab sessions, will not be recorded.

What's a Compound Field? Imagine a cake recipe. It consists of ingredients to bake this cake. Every single ingredient consists of multiple atomic values: amount, metric (tsp, tbsp, cup, gram, ml), a description, calories, etc. In a recipe, however, an ingredient is a single, cohesive field that consists of combined data values.

Especially in this new world of Media and Layout Builder in core, this session will explore how a custom compound field may be more useful than ever!

This session will give an overview of the Field API in Drupal 8, and show how to create custom compound fields (fields with multiple data values). These fields can initially be used in content types, and then further extended to be used in Form API forms. This session will also cover the basics of atomic design principles.

Alternatives to custom module development such as the Paragraphs module and Layout Builder in Core are frequently preferred. However in certain cases, a custom compound module may be in order. One aspect of this session will discuss when to use core or contrib options vs. creating a custom solution. It will also cover some other contrib options for handling complex fields.

This session is for:

• Developers tackling complex data models
• Developers who just can't seem to find that perfect contrib module to help build a custom content type
• People that just want to learn more about Field API
• How to handle strange and new Media types

It will cover:

• An introduction to Field API in Drupal 8
• How to approach different content models
• Layout Builder and Paragraphs module for building custom field bundles