How to add extra data to a programmatically created node

Question

Using Drupal 8 i am importing data from an external source and creating the node programmatically from the controller:

$node = Node::create(array(
  'type' => 'article',
  'title' => 'some title'
));
$node->save();

I want to add some extra field with the external id (e.g. "3cru_81pazBBRbj5e8LZkZ").

Adding of the field should happen programmatically within the module without the need of the user having to add it via the ui.

I have been reading up on this but i have come to the point that tutorials have confused me more then helped me.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Field entities can be created via FieldConfig::create($values).

For example, in the UserRegistrationTest of core, a 'user_picture' field is added to the user entity like this:

$field_storage = FieldStorageConfig::create([
  'field_name' => 'user_picture',
  'entity_type' => 'user',
  'type' => 'image',
]);
$field_storage->save();

$field = FieldConfig::create([
  'field_name' => 'user_picture',
  'entity_type' => 'user',
  'bundle' => 'user',
]);
$field->save();

Answer 2

I found this can easily be done using the Features module. Now i could create the the fields manually and then export them using features and copy the export to my custom module.