Creating fielded entities in a module: how to ensure unique field names?

Question

I created some entities with the Entity Construction Kit, exported them with Features and proceeded to build a module upon that.

I had been pretty much ignoring field names, then realised I'd used really generic names for my fielded entities. Oops.

What's the best way to ensure names are not going to crash into the namespace of something else [in future]?

Is it module_name_entity_name_field_fieldname?

And if so, is there any problem with really long field names (and presumably, therefore even longer column names in the tables)? Is there a limit?

EDIT: yes, there seems to be a 32 character limit for field names. So how can you be sure of a unique field name?

Answer 1

The only way to be sure you have a unique field name is to test on creation whether the same field already exists.

As you have realised, this is a problem when deploying your fields as a feature, as you do not know what environment your fields will be deployed in. Unfortunately Features does not provide you with a way to rename the fields when a feature is first enabled.

This is something you could implement yourself ; it should be possible to do this in a way that doesn't stop you from automatically re-creating the feature. Here is an idea about how this could be done:

(1) Name all your fields prefix_fieldname (I will assume you used 'mymodpref' for the prefix) and ensure they are no more than (say) 30 characters ;

(2) In your module's .install file, implement hook_install such that you find a safe field prefix that will make your fields unique. For instance:

function mymodule_install() {
  $prefix = 'mymodpref';
  $prefix_index = $prefix;
  $index = 1;
  $found_unique = FALSE:
  while (!$found_unique) {
    $c = db_query("
      SELECT COUNT(*) 
        FROM {field_config} 
       WHERE field_name LIKE :prefix",
    array(':prefix' => $prefix . '_%')
    )->fetchField();
    if ($c > 0) {
      $prefix_index = $prefix . $index;
      $index++;
    } else {
      $found_unique = TRUE;
    }
  }
  if (strlen($index) > 2) {
    // Our fields are up to 30 characters, so we can't have an index
    // of more than 2 characters. If this happens we're in trouble -
    // add some code here to tell the user we can't install the module.
  } else {
    variable_set('mymodule_field_prefix', $prefix_index);
  }
}

(3) In you feature's main module file, add an implementation of hook_field_default_fields_alter which allows you to change the default field definitions, and rename them with the right prefix :

function mymodule_field_default_fields_alter(&$fields) {
  $prefix = variable_get('mymodule_field_prefix', 'mymodpref_');
  $new_fields = array();
  foreach ($fields as $key => $field_info) {
    // Replace 'myentity' and 'mybundle' accordingly
    if (strpos($key, 'myentity-mybundle-') === 0) {
      $new_field_name = $prefix . '_' . $fied_info['field_config']['field_name'];
      $field_info['field_config']['field_name'] = $new_field_name;
      $field_info['field_instance']['field_name'] = $new_field_name;
      unset($fields[$key]);
      $new_fields['myentity-mybundle-' . $new_field_name] = $field_info;
    }
  }
  $fields = array_merge($fields, $new_fields);
}