Replace \Drupal::service with Dependency injection in FieldWidget class

Question

I have created an ajax callback inside a custom Field Widget plugin. In the Ajax callback I have called a custom service using

$service = \Drupal::service('service.name')

I am using phpmd to clean up the code and it suggested that the service should be called using dependency injection.

This means I should create a constructor for the Fieldwidget class and then get it as argument. I am not sure how to pass the argument when the Field widget is called. Not even sure what interface should be set for the Drupal service caller.

Any ideas on how to do that.

Answer 1

This requires three steps:

1. Declare a property to hold the service.
2. Implement a __construct() method to populate the property from step 1.
3. Implement a create() method, to generate the service that is passed to __construct().

1) Declare a property to hold the service

In your class, declare the property that will hold the service.

/**
 * The example service.
 *
 * @var \Drupal\example\Service\ExampleService
 */
protected $exampleService;

With this, you can now refer to $this->exampleService within your class. However, at this point it is still NULL, so it needs to be populated.

2) Implement a __construct() method to populate the property from step 1

This is done by overriding WidgetBase::__construct(), and adding the service to it.

public function __construct(
  $plugin_id,
  $plugin_definition,
  FieldDefinitionInterface $field_definition,
  array $settings,
  array $third_party_settings,
  ExampleServiceInterface $exampleService
) {
  // Initialize the parent class:
  parent::__construct($plugin_id, $plugin_definition, $field_definition, $settings, $third_party_settings);

  $this->exampleService = $exampleService;
}

Now the property from step one can be populated when the class instantiated. However, the service itself needs to be generated, and passed to the __construct() method.

3) Implement a create() method, to generate the service that is passed to __construct().

The service is generated in the create() method. This is done by copying the code from WidgetBase::create(), and adding the service to it. WidgetBase::create() looks like this:

public static function create(ContainerInterface $container, array $configuration, $plugin_id, $plugin_definition) {
  return new static(
    $plugin_id,
    $plugin_definition,
    $configuration['field_definition'],
    $configuration['settings'],
    $configuration['third_party_settings']
  );
}

Notice that the values returned are the same values passed to the __construct() method, but without the example.service service. The example service needs to be retrieved from $container and added to the above, by implemented create() in your class as follows:

public static function create(ContainerInterface $container, array $configuration, $plugin_id, $plugin_definition) {
  return new static(
    $plugin_id,
    $plugin_definition,
    $configuration['field_definition'],
    $configuration['settings'],
    $configuration['third_party_settings'],
    $container->get('example.service')
  );
}

This function call generates the example service, which passes it to __construct(), which in turn populates $this->exampleService, so it can be used in your class in place of \Drupal::service('example.service').