How to Organize Content Entity Forms in Drupal

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Originally posted over at WebWash:

Drupal provides a robust framework for creating and managing content. However, managing form fields in complex content entities can be challenging.

The Field Group, Inline Entity Form, and Conditional Fields modules offer practical tools for improving the user experience and streamlining the content creation process.

In the above live stream, we’ll use all three modules to organize and clean up fields on an “Event” content type.

Below are the show notes for the live stream.

Field Group: A Tool for Better Form Organization

The Field Group module is a tool for organizing form fields into logical groups.

By grouping related fields, you can improve the overall user experience and make it easier for content editors to find and manage the necessary information.

This module offers various options for customizing the appearance and behavior of field groups, such as creating collapsible sections and tabs, setting field labels, and controlling the order of fields within a group.

Getting Started

Start by downloading and installing Field Group.

composer require 'drupal/field_group:^3.6'        

Go to the Manage form display page and click on Add field group.

Tabs in Field Groups

If you want to organize fields into tabs, use the Tabs and Tab field group type.

Tabs field group is required to group the individual tabs, whereas, the Tab field group is used for the actual tab itself.

Details in Field Groups

If you need to group widgets in a collapsed element, use the Details field group.

Once configured, you should see a collapsible element.

Details Sidebar in Field Groups

Widgets can be added to the content form sidebar using the Details Sidebar field group.

This is an excellent way of organizing secondary fields into the sidebar.

Once configured you should see the widgets on the right-hand side.

Inline Entity Form: Simplifying the Creation of Referenced Entities

The Inline Entity Form module allows content editors to easily create referenced entities directly within the main content form, such as paragraphs or content. Eliminating the need to navigate to separate entity creation forms and simplifying the content creation process.

Getting Started

Start by downloading and installing Inline Entity Form.

composer require 'drupal/inline_entity_form:^3.0@RC'        

To configure the module, go to the “Manage form display” page and select “Inline entity form – Simple/Complex” in the entity reference field.

Inline entity form – Simple/Complex

The module ships two widgets; simple/complex.

The simple widget allows you to create a reference entity and edit the same one.

The complex widget, on the other hand, allows you to select existing entities, create and duplicate entities. My recommendation is to just use the complex widget.

Make sure you configure the widget to handle the functionality.

Conditional Fields: Adding Dynamic Logic to Forms

The Conditional Fields module lets you create more flexible forms by showing or hiding specific fields based on the values entered in other fields. This can be helpful for forms with varying requirements, such as showing or hiding fields based on a user’s role or a product’s category.

Getting Started

As of this writing and recording, the module doesn’t support Drupal 11. You’ll need to download a copy of the module using this branch (Drupal issue).

Click on Code and select an option from “Download source code”.

Add Conditional Logic to Widgets

Edit your content type and click on Manage Dependencies.

1. Select a target field (the field you want to change)

2. Select the control field (the field triggering the changes)

3. The field state, i.e., visible, invisible, etc…

4. Then select the target value state.

Once created you can change the conditional settings by clicking on edit.

Summary

Using the Field Group, Inline Entity Form, and Conditional Fields modules can improve the organization, efficiency, and user experience of your Drupal content forms.

These modules provide helpful tools for grouping fields, creating referenced entities, and adding dynamic logic.

By implementing these modules effectively, you can make your Drupal site’s workflow more efficient and productive.

Originally published at https://www.webwash.net.

Stay up-to-date with the latest Drupal tutorials from WebWash and scheduled live streams. ?? Join our newsletter: https://www.webwash.net/newsletter/