IFieldType

Type

Interface

Namespace

Craft

Extends

Craft\ISavableComponentType

Implemented by

Craft\AssetsFieldType, Craft\BaseElementFieldType, Craft\BaseFieldType, Craft\BaseOptionsFieldType, Craft\CategoriesFieldType, Craft\CheckboxesFieldType, Craft\ColorFieldType, Craft\DateFieldType, Craft\DropdownFieldType, Craft\EntriesFieldType, Craft\LightswitchFieldType, Craft\MatrixFieldType, Craft\MultiSelectFieldType, Craft\NumberFieldType, Craft\PlainTextFieldType, Craft\PositionSelectFieldType, Craft\RadioButtonsFieldType, Craft\RichTextFieldType, Craft\TableFieldType, Craft\TagsFieldType, Craft\UsersFieldType

Since

1.0

Interface IFieldType

See also http://craftcms.com

View source (opens new window)

Public Methods

Method	Description
defineContentAttribute()	Returns the field’s content attribute config.
getClassHandle()	Returns the component’s handle, ideally based on the class name.
getInputHtml()	Returns the field’s input HTML.
getName()	Returns the component’s name.
getSearchKeywords()	Returns the search keywords that should be associated with this field.
getSettings()	Returns the component’s settings model.
getSettingsHtml()	Returns the component’s settings HTML.
getStaticHtml()	Returns a static (non-editable) version of the field’s input HTML.
isSelectable()	Returns whether this component should be shown when the user is creating a component of this type.
modifyElementsQuery()	Modifies an element query.
onAfterDelete()	Performs any actions after a field is deleted.
onAfterElementSave()	Performs any additional actions after the element has been saved.
onAfterSave()	Performs any actions after a field is saved.
onBeforeDelete()	Performs any actions before a field is deleted.
onBeforeSave()	Performs any actions before a field is saved.
prepSettings()	Preps the settings before they’re saved to the database.
prepValue()	Prepares the field’s value for use.
prepValueFromPost()	Returns the input value as it should be stored in the database.
setElement()	Sets the element that the field type is associated with.
setSettings()	Sets the setting values.
validate()	Validates the field’s value.

defineContentAttribute()

Returns the field’s content attribute config. The attribute config returned by this method is used to define two things:

• This field’s attribute in {@link ContentModel::defineAttributes()}.
• This field’s column in the craft_content table.

The method can return a string (e.g. AttributeType::Number) or an array with additional settings (e.g. array(AttributeType::Number, 'min' => 0, 'max' => 100, 'decimals' => 2)) if the attribute type’s default settings defined by {@link ModelHelper::$attributeTypeDefaults} aren’t good enough.

If you return AttributeType::Mixed, your field type can work with array data, and it will automatically be JSON-encoded when getting saved to the database, and automatically JSON-decoded when getting fetched from the database. All your field type will ever see is the actual array.

If the field type is storing its data in its own table and doesn’t need a column in the craft_content table, this method should return false. You can then save your data manually from {@link onAfterElementSave}.

View source (opens new window)

Returns

mixed – The field’s content attribute config, or false if it’s storing data in its own table.

Signature

public abstract mixed defineContentAttribute ( )

getInputHtml()

Returns the field’s input HTML. An extremely simple implementation would be to directly return some HTML:

return '<textarea name="'.$name.'">'.$value.'</textarea>';

For more complex inputs, you might prefer to create a template, and render it via {@link TemplatesService::render()}. For example, the following code would render a template loacated at craft/plugins/myplugin/templates/_fieldinput.html, passing the $name and $value variables to it:

return craft()->templates->render('myplugin/_fieldinput', array(
    'name'  => $name,
    'value' => $value
));

If you need to tie any JavaScript code to your input, it’s important to know that any name= and id= attributes within the returned HTML will probably get {@link TemplatesService::namespaceInputs() namespaced}, however your JavaScript code will be left untouched.

For example, if getInputHtml() returns the following HTML:

<textarea id="foo" name="foo"></textarea>

<script type="text/javascript">
    var textarea = document.getElementById('foo');
</script>

…then it might actually look like this before getting output to the browser:

<textarea id="namespace-foo" name="namespace[foo]"></textarea>

<script type="text/javascript">
    var textarea = document.getElementById('foo');
</script>

As you can see, that JavaScript code will not be able to find the textarea, because the textarea’s id= attribute was changed from foo to namespace-foo.

Before you start adding namespace- to the beginning of your element ID selectors, keep in mind that the actual namespace is going to change depending on the context. Often they are randomly generated. So it’s not quite that simple.

Thankfully, {@link TemplatesService} provides a couple handy methods that can help you deal with this:

• {@link TemplatesService::namespaceInputId()} will give you the namespaced version of a given ID.
• {@link TemplatesService::namespaceInputName()} will give you the namespaced version of a given input name.
• {@link TemplatesService::formatInputId()} will format an input name to look more like an ID attribute value.

So here’s what a getInputHtml() method that includes field-targeting JavaScript code might look like:

public function getInputHtml($name, $value)
{
    // Come up with an ID value based on $name
    $id = craft()->templates->formatInputId($name);

    // Figure out what that ID is going to be namespaced into
    $namespacedId = craft()->templates->namespaceInputId($id);

    // Render and return the input template
    return craft()->templates->render('myplugin/_fieldinput', array(
        'name'         => $name,
        'id'           => $id,
        'namespacedId' => $namespacedId,
        'value'        => $value
    ));
}

And the _fieldinput.html template might look like this:

<textarea id="{{ id }}" name="{{ name }}">{{ value }}</textarea>

<script type="text/javascript">
    var textarea = document.getElementById('{{ namespacedId }}');
</script>

The same principles also apply if you’re including your JavaScript code with {@link TemplatesService::includeJs()}.

View source (opens new window)

Arguments

• $name (string (opens new window)) – The name that the field’s HTML inputs should have.
• $value (mixed) – The field’s value. This will either be the {@link prepValue() prepped value}, or the raw POST value in the event of a validation error, or if the user is editing an entry draft/version.

Returns

string (opens new window) – The input HTML.

Signature

public abstract string getInputHtml ( $name, $value )

getSearchKeywords()

Returns the search keywords that should be associated with this field. The keywords can be separated by commas and/or whitespace; it doesn’t really matter. {@link SearchService} will be able to find the individual keywords in whatever string is returned, and normalize them for you.

View source (opens new window)

Arguments

• $value (mixed) – The field’s value.

Returns

string (opens new window) – A string of search keywords.

Signature

public abstract string getSearchKeywords ( $value )

getStaticHtml()

Returns a static (non-editable) version of the field’s input HTML. This function is called to output field values when viewing entry drafts.

View source (opens new window)

Arguments

• $value (mixed)

Returns

string (opens new window)

Signature

public abstract string getStaticHtml ( $value )

modifyElementsQuery()

Modifies an element query. This method will be called whenever elements are being searched for that may have this field assigned to them.

If the method returns false, the query will be stopped before it ever gets a chance to execute.

View source (opens new window)

Arguments

• $query (Craft\DbCommand) – The database query currently being built to find the elements.
• $value (mixed) – The value that was set on this field’s corresponding {@link ElementCriteriaModel} param, if any.

Returns

null (opens new window), false (opens new window) – false in the event that the method is sure that no elements are going to be found.

Signature

public abstract null, false modifyElementsQuery ( Craft\DbCommand $query, $value )

onAfterDelete()

Performs any actions after a field is deleted.

View source (opens new window)

Returns

null (opens new window)

Signature

public abstract null onAfterDelete ( )

onAfterElementSave()

Performs any additional actions after the element has been saved. If your field type is storing data in its own table, this is the best place to do it. That’s because by the time this method has been called, you can be sure that the element will have an ID, even if it’s getting saved for the first time.

View source (opens new window)

Returns

null (opens new window)

Signature

public abstract null onAfterElementSave ( )

onAfterSave()

Performs any actions after a field is saved.

View source (opens new window)

Returns

null (opens new window)

Signature

public abstract null onAfterSave ( )

onBeforeDelete()

Performs any actions before a field is deleted.

View source (opens new window)

Returns

null (opens new window)

Signature

public abstract null onBeforeDelete ( )

onBeforeSave()

Performs any actions before a field is saved.

View source (opens new window)

Returns

null (opens new window)

Signature

public abstract null onBeforeSave ( )

prepValue()

Prepares the field’s value for use. This method is called when the field’s value is first acessed from the element. For example, the first time entry.myFieldHandle is called from a template, or right before {@link getFieldHtml()} is called. Whatever this method returns is what entry.myFieldHandle will likewise return, and what getFieldHandle()’s $value argument will be set to.

View source (opens new window)

Arguments

• $value (mixed) – The field’s stored value.

Returns

mixed – The prepped value.

Signature

public abstract mixed prepValue ( $value )

prepValueFromPost()

Returns the input value as it should be stored in the database. This method is called from {@link BaseElementModel::setContentFromPost()}, and is the only chance your plugin has to modify the POST data before it is saved to the craft_content table (assuming {@link defineContentAttribute()} doesn’t return false and the field actually has a column in the craft_content table).

View source (opens new window)

Arguments

• $value (mixed) – The value that was in the POST data for the field.

Returns

mixed – The value that should be stored in the database.

Signature

public abstract mixed prepValueFromPost ( $value )

setElement()

Sets the element that the field type is associated with.

View source (opens new window)

Arguments

• $element (Craft\BaseElementModel)

Returns

null (opens new window)

Signature

public abstract null setElement ( Craft\BaseElementModel $element )

validate()

Validates the field’s value. The $value passed into this method will be based on the value that {@link prepValueFromPost()} returned. It may have gone through additional modification when it was set on the {@link ContentModel} as well, depending on the attribute type {@link defineContentAttribute()} returns.

Some validation may already occur for this field without any help from this method. For example, if the field is required by the field layout, but doesn’t have any value, the {@link ContentModel} will take care of that. Also, if {@link defineContentAttribute()} defines any validation rules (e.g. min or max for Number attributes), those will also be applied automatically. So this method should only be used for custom validation rules that aren’t already provided for free.

View source (opens new window)

Arguments

• $value (mixed) – The field’s value.

Returns

true (opens new window), string (opens new window), array (opens new window) – true if everything checks out; otherwise a string for a single validation error, or an array of strings if there are multiple validation errors.

Signature

public abstract true, string, array validate ( $value )