How can I programmatically create a node?

Question

How can I programmatically create nodes with date and image fields?

I know I can do it in Drupal 7 with the following code.

global $user;
    
$node = new stdClass();
$node->title = "YOUR TITLE";
$node->type = "YOUR_NODE_TYPE";
node_object_prepare($node);
$node->language = LANGUAGE_NONE;
$node->uid = $user->uid; 
$node->status = 1; //(1 or 0): published or not
$node->promote = 0; //(1 or 0): promoted to front page

$existing_filepath = "/home/nzcodarnoc/sites/default/files/imported/picture.jpg";
$new_filepath = "public://picture.jpg";
$drupal_file = file_save_data(file_get_contents($existing_filepath), $new_filepath);
$drupal_file->alt = $node->title;
$drupal_file->title = $node->title;
$node->field_my_file[$node->language][0] = get_object_vars($drupal_file);
$node->birth_date[LANGUAGE_NONE][0]['value'] = time();  
$node = node_submit($node);
node_save($node);

What is the equivalent code for Drupal 8?

Answer 1

The following code will help you to save an image in a new node.

use \Drupal\node\Entity\Node;
use \Drupal\file\Entity\File;
 
// Create file object from remote URL.
$data = file_get_contents('https://www.drupal.org/files/druplicon.small_.png');
$file = file_save_data($data, 'public://druplicon.png', FILE_EXISTS_REPLACE);
 
// Create node object with attached file.
$node = Node::create([
  'type'        => 'article',
  'title'       => 'Druplicon test',
  'field_image' => [
    'target_id' => $file->id(),
    'alt' => 'Hello world',
    'title' => 'Goodbye world'
  ],
]);
$node->save();

Answer 2

I think that object oriented way is more convenient, isn't it?

use Drupal\node\Entity\Node;

$my_article = Node::create(['type' => 'article']);
$my_article->set('title', 'My article');
$my_article->set('field_text', 'My text');
$my_article->set('field_image', FID);
$my_article->set('field_user', UID);
$my_article->enforceIsNew();
$my_article->save();

Answer 3

In drupal 8 entities are objects and as such, to create an entity is to create an instance of the entity's type class. If you know the class of the entity then you can either use the new keyword or the create function.

I.E. $foo = new Foo(); or $foo = Foo::create();

If you don't know the class of entity (only the machine name) then you can use the request the Storage class like so: \Drupal::entityTypeManager()->getStorage($entity_type_id)->create();

To populate the fields of an entity you can either use the $entity->set($key, $value) method on the entity object or pass a key=>value array to the entity constructor. As such:

$foo = new Foo([
  'name'=>'bar',
  'baz'=> TRUE,
  'multi_value' => [
    'first',
    'second',
    'third',
  ]
]);

To save an entity you only have to call the $entity->save() method on the entity object.

Since files in drupal 8 are also entities you need to either pass the id of the file entity, or the actual file entity, as the value.

$file_1 = File::load(1);
$foo->set('bar_files', [
  $file_1,
  2
]);

Here is a code for your specific scenario:

$node_entity_type = \Drupal::entityTypeManager()->getDefinition('node');
// The [file_save_upload][1] function returns an array of all the files that were saved.
$poster_images = file_save_upload($upload_name, $validators, $destination);
$node = new Node([
  $node_entity_type->getKey('bundle') => 'movie',
  $node_entity_type->getKey('label') => 'Foo',
  'field_release_date' => '1/1/2015',
  'field_poster_image' => $poster_images,
]);
$node->save();

Answer 4

If you want to do it in the most clean way (testable), use entity_type.manager service:

$storage = $this->entityTypeManager->getStorage($entity_type_id);
$my_entity = $storage->create([
   ....
]);

The problem with Node::create function, that it is static call, and that's why you cannot really unit test your class anymore. Avoid doing static calls whenever it's possible. It will make your code more readable (because dependencies will be clear).

Answer 5

Following code is working for me

use \Drupal\node\Entity\Node;
use \Drupal\file\Entity\File;

$node = entity_create('node', array(
'type' => 'article',
'title' => $form_state->getValue('title'),
'body' => array(
'value' => $form_state->getValue('body'),
'format' => 'basic_html',
),
'uid' => $uid,
));
$node->save();

Answer 6

Another way to create node with image is:

use \Drupal\file\Entity\File;

// Create file object from remote URL.
$data = file_get_contents('https://www.drupal.org/files/druplicon.small_.png');
$file = file_save_data($data, 'public://druplicon.png', FILE_EXISTS_REPLACE);

$node = \Drupal::entityTypeManager()->getStorage('node')->create(array(
  'type'        => 'article',
  'title'       => 'Druplicon test',
  'field_image' => [
    'target_id' => $file->id(),
    'alt' => 'Hello world',
    'title' => 'Goodbye world'
  ],
));
$node->save();

Answer 7

use Drupal\Core\Language\Language;


$definition = \Drupal::entityTypeManager()->getDefinition('node');
$values = [
    $definition->getKey('bundle') => 'basic_page',
    'langcode'                    => Language::LANGCODE_NOT_SPECIFIED,
    'title'                       => '...',
];
$entity = \Drupal::entityTypeManager()->getStorage('node')->create($values);