Replace node reference module with entity reference module

[jenlampton]

Since entityreference is now in core, we should be using that on our own sites. If there is a limitation in entityreference that makes references preferable, we should fix that in core. :)

This is a placeholder issue for the swap to entityreference. We should link to any blocking issues in the core queue here.

[yorkshire-pudding]

@jenlampton - Should this now be about replacing with entity_reference ?

[yorkshire-pudding]

@jenlampton
There are two places where Node Reference fields are used:

• field_fapi_property used in FAPI Properties paragraph type
• field_parent used for Parent Documentation Page in Contrib Documentation

For field_parent, IMHO, if ER was enabled this would be easy to fix manually as we only have a few pages so far. field_fapi_property would be trickier and might need an SQL script to update the field tables.

[jenlampton]

For field_parent, IMHO, if ER was enabled this would be easy to fix manually as we only have a few pages so far.

Let's go ahead and do this, and delete the old field so that we don't accidentally create more work for ourselves later :)

field_fapi_property would be trickier and might need an SQL script to update the field tables.

IIRC the field table structure is identical between Reference and Entity Reference. So I would try updating the config for the field to change its type, rather than creating a new field and migrating all data from old to new. (After confirming table structure)

[jenlampton]

Let's go ahead and do this,

I have enabled Entity Reference and added the new field.

I think it will be easiest to modify the view by editing the views config file directly and replacing field_parent with field_docs_parent everywhere, then testing locally. That view is pretty complicated and I'm sure I'd break something if I tried to add/remove the fields via the UI 😆

[yorkshire-pudding]

I've updated the 3 child pages to use the new field.

[jenlampton]

Thank you!, I've updated the view, and that seemed to work :) So I have also removed the legacy field.
https://docs.backdropcms.org/documentation/add-ons/domain
One down!

I'll have a look at the tables for field_fapi_property now...

[yorkshire-pudding]

Great. I like the new "See all" link too. I think we discussed this in a docs meeting so great to see.

[jenlampton]

I'm seeing one main difference between the structure of the database tables... the name of the value column for Reference is fieldname + _nid, and in Entity Reference it's fieldname + _target_id. We will also need to update all of our form API views after making this change.

I'm going to run a little experiment... well, that didn't go well.

Even though the databse structure is largely the same, the rendered output is quite different, and we were doing a LOT with the output inorder to make our form API tables. I think this is going to take more time than I have today, but I'll push a draft PR so none of this work gets lost :)