EntityConvert

PHP Library built to be used with Drupal codebase/modules only. Parses and simplifies the passed Node/Taxonomy/User/File (drupal entities) fully loaded object into a Simple array of fields or an Object which can be used directly to build any view or REST response layer.

Usually we implement helper classes/methods to resolve the field values for a given entity instance, the idea behind this is always to reduce duplicate code and to provide a uniform interface to access the field values.

Every Drupal Entity instance also has a toArray() method associated with it, which returns all the field values as an array, which is also a good way to access all the values but the only limitation i found with using the toArray() method is all the values are returned as string hence loosing it original type and the way they are rendered. This library tries to return value as a single level and also accepts a parameter while parsing the Entity object so to maintain its original data types (useful when building REST API's).

use Drupal\node\Entity\Node;

$node = Node::load(1);
$node->toArray();

I decided to write this library to reduce the need to write additional helper classes/methods every time we introduce a new Entity type.

---

Install

Get from Packagist using Composer

1. From the root of your Drupal project run. Link to Packagist

composer require drupal-utils/entity-convert:0.0.1-alpha

Usage

Consider Entity type "Node" having associated the below default field types to it

• Boolean
• Integer, Decimal
• List Integer / Decimal / Text
• File / Images / Taxonomy / Content
• Timestamp / Date
• Link, Email

Drupal way

How field value is accessed normally in the code.

$node = Node::load(1);
$field_boolean_value = $node->get('field_boolean_value')->value;

// Accessing the values of BaseFields is easy.

$nid = $node->id();
$title = $node->getTitle();
$type = $node->getType();
$isPromoted = $node->isPromoted();

Accessing the value of fields associated with a Node entity

Boolean Field

$field_boolean_value = $node->get('field_bool_multi_value')->value;
var_dump($field_boolean_value);
string(1) "1"

DateTime Field

$field_datetime_multi_value = $node->get('field_datetime_multi_value')->value;
var_dump($field_datetime_multi_value);
string(19) "2022-08-31T00:31:28"

Date Field

$field_date_multi_value = $node->get('field_date_multi_value')->value;
var_dump($field_date_multi_value);
array(2) { [0]=> array(1) { ["value"]=> string(10) "2022-08-14" } [1]=> array(1) { ["value"]=> string(10) "2022-08-31" } }

Email Field

$field_email_multi_value = $node->get('field_email_multi_value')->value;
var_dump($field_email_multi_value);
array(2) { [0]=> array(1) { ["value"]=> string(24) "[email protected]" } [1]=> array(1) { ["value"]=> string(25) "[email protected]" } }

File Field

$field_file_multi_value = $node->get('field_file_multi_value')->value;
var_dump($field_file_multi_value);
array(1) { [0]=> array(3) { ["target_id"]=> string(1) "3" ["display"]=> string(1) "1" ["description"]=> string(8) "CSV File" } }

List Text Field

$field_listtext_multi_value = $node->get('field_listtext_multi_value')->getValue();
var_dump($field_listtext_multi_value);
array(2) { [0]=> array(1) { ["value"]=> string(5) "apple" } [1]=> array(1) { ["value"]=> string(4) "ball" } } 

Using the library

use Drupal\node\Entity\Node;
// Include the library.
use DrupalUtils\EntityConvert\EntityConvert;
 
// Load instance of node
$node = Node::load(1);
 
// Creating a new Instance.
$entityConvert = new EntityConvert();
 
// Pass on the Node object to get the parsed value as array.
$parsedNode = $entityConvert->toArray($node, false);

Get response as array of field => values

// Pass on the Node object to get the parsed value as array.
$parsedNode = $entityConvert->toArray($node, false);

var_dump($parsedNode);

^ array:42 [▼
  "nid" => 1
  "uuid" => "8270a03c-a95f-4033-84a7-361597b581a9"
  "vid" => 39
  "langcode" => "en"
  "type" => 0
  "revision_timestamp" => 1660994564
  "revision_uid" => 1
  "revision_log" => null
  "status" => true
  "uid" => 1
  "title" => "Car 1"
  "created" => 1659367826
  "changed" => 1660994564
  "promote" => true
  "sticky" => true
  "default_langcode" => true
  "revision_default" => true
  "revision_translation_affected" => true
  "path" => array:3 [▶]
  "field_bool_multi_value" => array:1 [▼
    0 => true
  ]
  "field_comments_single_value" => array:1 [▶]
  "field_content_multi_value" => array:1 [▶]
  "field_datetime_multi_value" => array:1 [▼
    0 => "2022-08-31T00:31:28"
  ]
  "field_date_multi_value" => array:2 [▼
    0 => "2022-08-14"
    1 => "2022-08-31"
  ]
  "field_email_multi_value" => array:2 [▼
    0 => "[email protected]"
    1 => "[email protected]"
  ]
  "field_file_multi_value" => array:1 [▼
    0 => array:11 [▼
      "fid" => "3"
      "uuid" => "6eb73b6e-be50-449e-a57d-bccf9d6b0bc0"
      "langcode" => "en"
      "uid" => "1"
      "filename" => "testing.csv"
      "uri" => "public://2022-08/testing.csv"
      "filemime" => "text/csv"
      "filesize" => "96"
      "status" => "1"
      "created" => "1660992978"
      "changed" => "1660993028"
    ]
  ]
  "field_image_multi_value" => array:1 [▶]
  "field_link_multi_value" => array:1 [▼
    0 => array:3 [▶]
  ]
  "field_listint_multi_value" => array:1 [▶]
  "field_listtext_multi_value" => array:2 [▶]
  "field_list_multi_value" => array:1 [▶]
  "field_numberfloat_multi_value" => array:1 [▶]
  "field_numberint_multi_value" => array:1 [▶]
  "field_textflws_multi_value" => array:1 [▶]
]

Get response as an object

If the response is an object, all available fields/values can be accessed as a property.

// Pass on the Node object to get the parsed value as array.
$parsedNode = $entityConvert->toObject($node, true);

var_dump($parsedNode->nid);
int(1)

var_dump($parsedNode->title);
string(5) "Car 1"

var_dump($parsedNode->field_file_multi_value);
array(1) { [0]=> array(11) { ["fid"]=> string(1) "3" ["uuid"]=> string(36) "6eb73b6e-be50-449e-a57d-bccf9d6b0bc0" ["langcode"]=> string(2) "en" ["uid"]=> string(1) "1" ["filename"]=> string(40) "testing.csv" ["uri"]=> string(57) "public://2022-08/testing.csv" ["filemime"]=> string(8) "text/csv" ["filesize"]=> string(2) "96" ["status"]=> string(1) "1" ["created"]=> string(10) "1660992978" ["changed"]=> string(10) "1660993028" } } 

API

The methods toArray/toObject (instance, strict_type) accepts 2 arguments.

- instance = Loaded instance object of the type Node/User/Taxonomy/File.
- strict_type = Boolean: Returned response has all data types preserved.

When we get value from field attached to an Entity, drupal will usually return all values as string. Sending second parameter as true, the library will typecast all the value to correct data type.

Reference

Method	Parameters	Comment
toArray	$instance	Object of type Node/User/Taxonomy or File
	$strict_type = false	Boolean flag representing whether value to be type casted
toObject	$instance	Object of type Node/User/Taxonomy or File
	$strict_type = false	Boolean flag representing whether value to be type casted

use DrupalUtils\EntityConvert\EntityConvert;

$entityConvert = new EntityConvert();
// $instance == Node/User/Taxonomy/File.
$entityConvert->toArray($instance, true);
$entityConvert->toObject($instance, false);

// The toArray method accepts 2 arguments.

/**
 * Parse the given entity instance and return array.
 *
 * @param Object $instance
 *   The Entity instance to parse.
 * @param Boolean $strict_type
 *   Flag indicating variable types should be preserved.
 *
 * @return array
 */
function toArray($instance, $strict_type = false);

// The toObject method accepts 2 arguments.

/**
 * Parse the given entity instance and return object.
 *
 * @param Object $instance
 *   The Entity instance to parse.
 * @param Boolean $strict_type
 *   Flag indicating variable types should be preserved.
 *
 * @return EntityInterface
 */
function toObject($instance = null, $strict_type = false)