Fixed: Module config in /config is not automatically synced on install

[jhodgdon-drp]

Describe your issue or idea

If you create a module and put config in its /config directory, the config is copied to active during module install. However, the sync step is not run.

This leads to an inconsistent state, if the config requires database tables. For example, if a module includes configuration for fields, database tables need to be created for the fields to actually work. These would normally be created during the sync step, but this step is not run, so the field data tables are not created and the fields do not work.

Steps to reproduce (if reporting a bug)

1. In one Backdrop installation, create a field for a content type.
2. Copy the resulting field bundle and field instance config to the /config directory of a custom module (you might also need the content type it is on).
3. In a second Backdrop installation, install this module.
4. Attempt to create content for the content type including this field.

Actual behavior (if reporting a bug)

The field will not work correctly. If you try to add content to the content type of that field, you will see the field on the content editing form, but if you save, you will get a database error, because the field data tables do not exist in the database.

Expected behavior (if reporting a bug)

The field should work correctly. I.e., if you put config in /config for a module, and it is copied to active config storage, the sync step should be run so that the configuration actually works.

Next Steps

We have a PR that seems to work, but we need someone to write tests.

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PR by @docwilmot backdrop/backdrop#3695

[jenlampton]

@quicksketch mentioned that always running the sync step might cause problems with the installer.

I'm envisioning that we may need to add some sort of a flag that modules could use to indicate that the sync step is necessary. Actually, it may be safer to do it the other way around -- allow modules to indicate when the config step does NOT need to be run.

[jhodgdon-drp]

I was able to work around this bug with the following hook_install() implementation in my module.

Notes:

• I moved the config files from /config to /config_import within my module directory.
• To use the config_sync_file() function, currently the core Config Management (config) module must be enabled, so you will have to have a dependency on config in your .info file. See Move config_sync_file() into includes/config.inc #3226 for details on that.
• I found that doing one import/sync didn't make all the required database tables, so I did a second pass (see comment in code below). This is probably because of config dependencies, which don't formally exist in Backdrop. Maybe there is an order I could run my config sync so that it would all work, but it wasn't obvious to me how to figure that out. However, running the import a second time (again, see code) fixed the problem. (Yes, it's a hack, but it does seem to work, and it's a bit slow but it is a one-time operation when you install the module.)

  // Set up config storage objects for the active config and our directory.
  $active_storage = config_get_config_storage('active');
  $directory = BACKDROP_ROOT . '/' . backdrop_get_path('module', 'MY_MODULE') . '/config_import';
  $module_storage = new ConfigFileStorage($directory);

  // Figure out which items need to be imported/updated -- see
  // config_get_statuses().
  $active_files = $active_storage->listAll();
  $module_files = $module_storage->listAll();
  $create_files = array_diff($module_files, $active_files);
  $update_files = array_diff($module_files, $create_files);
  sort($module_files);
  sort($create_files);
  sort($update_files);

  // Perform the updates and imports.
  module_load_include('inc', 'config', 'config.sync');
  foreach ($create_files as $config_file) {
    config_sync_file($config_file, 'create', $module_storage->read($config_file));
  }
  foreach ($update_files as $config_file) {
    config_sync_file($config_file, 'update', $module_storage->read($config_file));
  }

  // Finding the right order to do the imports is difficult. Alphabetical is
  // pretty close, because it means bundles are before fields, which are before
  // instances, but it still doesn't all work correctly. So, as a hack, do
  // them all again as updates to make sure all the database tables are created.
  foreach ($module_files as $config_file) {
    config_sync_file($config_file, 'update', $module_storage->read($config_file));
  }

[jenlampton]

No PR here yet, removing milestone. (We can add it back into the next bug-fix release as soon as we have a PR)