Circular dependency on base fields' module

Question

I have 3 custom modules that provide custom entities with all fields defined as base fields.

Contact module - provides a contact entity(it could be one of the type: a person or email or phone etc) that has a store entity reference field.

Store module - provides a store entity that has a region entity reference field.

Region module - provides geographical region entity that has a contact entity reference field.

So

1. Contact depends on Store
2. Store depends on Region
3. Region depends on Contact

Each definition would look like this:

public static function baseFieldDefinitions(EntityTypeInterface $entity_type) {
  ...
   $fields['store'] = BaseFieldDefinition::create('entity_reference')
    ->setLabel(t('Store'))
    ->setDescription(t('Select the store the contact is part of.'))
    ...
    ->setSetting('target_type', 'custom_store')
    ...
}

As these modules provide more than just entity (and custom field API plugins), We can't combine them together.

when trying to install the modules, getting an unknown entity target_type error.

Answer 1

Since the dependency is purely on the reference field, we could add the target_type later. For example, setting the target_type at the bundleFieldDefinition wouldn't throw the install's error and set the right target_type.

So the baseFieldDefinitions would be

public static function baseFieldDefinitions(EntityTypeInterface $entity_type) {
  ...
  $fields['store'] = BaseFieldDefinition::create('entity_reference')
    ->setLabel(t('Store'))
    ->setDescription(t('Select the store the contact is part of.'))
    ...
}

And the bundleFieldDefinitions would be

public static function bundleFieldDefinitions(EntityTypeInterface $entity_type, $bundle, array $base_field_definitions) {
  $fields = parent::bundleFieldDefinitions($entity_type, $bundle, $base_field_definitions);
  $fields['store'] = clone $base_field_definitions['store'];
  $fields['store']->setSetting('target_type', 'custom_store')
  ...
  return $fields;
}