The document provides an overview of configuration management in Drupal 8, detailing its features and improvements over Drupal 7. It explains how configuration is stored using YAML files, the configuration API, and the workflow for exporting and importing configurations. Additionally, it discusses the differences between simple configurations and more complex configuration entities, alongside administrative commands for handling configuration changes.

1. Drupal 8: Configuration Management
by Alex Goja

2. What Is Drupal Config?
A quick quiz01

3. What is Drupal config ?
Blog post

4. What is Drupal config ?
Permissions

5. What is Drupal config ?
Vocabulary

6. What is Drupal config ?
Taxonomy term

7. What is Drupal config ?
Field definition

8. What is Drupal config ?
Menu

9. What is Drupal config ?
Variable

10. What is Drupal config ?
Menu item

11. What is Drupal config ?
User

12. What is Drupal config ?
Contents of a block

13. Content An article page, uploaded files
Session
State
Configuration
Logged in status, shopping carts
Last cron run
Everything else

14. Challenge
• Developer:
• Wants to work on code
• Wants to change the config
• Wants to deploy across environments
• Client:
• Wants to work on content
• Doesn’t want to lose work

15. Current Situation
02

16. Current Situation
Drupal 7 Configuration
How do we currently manage configuration in Drupal?
• Features
• Install/Update hooks
• Install Profiles

17. Current Situation
Features
• Features ‘Overridden’ sadness
• Adding Features support for modules is not easy
• Export and import of certain configurations as modules

18. Current Situation
Install/Update Hooks
• Create tables
• Set up variables
• Fill in ‘gaps’ in Features modules

19. Current Situation
Install Profiles
• Combine Features modules and install hooks
• Full site setup out of the box
• Limited Drupal API available
• Doesn’t always work as planned

20. Drupal 8 CM
03

21. Drupal 8 CM
Configuration Management
• Move configuration management into core
• Allow storage of configuration in files
• Allow the transfer of configuration between environments
• Create an API to allow custom configurations
• Integrate UUID into core so certain configurations can be given machine names

22. Usage
04

34. Drupal 8 CM
Behind The Scenes
• Active configuration is stored in the database
• Clicking Export collates the configuration that each module
defines and combines it with the current active configuration
• Export contains the active configuration in the form
of YAML files

35. Drupal 8 CM
Behind The Scenes
• YAML files are used to store the configuration
• Used to store and compare the current configuration
• By default the directories are stored in the location /sites/default/files/
config_<hash>/

36. Drupal 8 CM
YAML Filenames In Drupal 8
• < module >.< component >.yml
system.settings.yml
views.settings.yml
• < module >.< component >.< entity >.yml
image.style.medium.yml
views.view.content.yml

37. Configuration API
05

38. Configuration API
Configuration Schema
• Needed to define what your configuration will hold
• Used to define what types of data the configuration will contain
• See more at: https://drupal.org/node/1905070

39. Configuration API
system.schema.yml
system.site:
type: mapping
label: 'Site information'
mapping:
uuid:
type: string
label: 'Site UUID'
name:
type: label
label: 'Site name'
mail:
type: email
label: 'E-mail address'
slogan:
type: label
label: 'Slogan'
page:
type: mapping
label: 'Pages'
mapping:
403:
type: path
label: 'Default 403 (access denied) page'
404:
type: path
label: 'Default 404 (not found) page'
front:
type: path
label: 'Default front page'
admin_compact_mode:
type: boolean
label: 'Compact mode'
weight_select_max:
type: integer
label: 'Weight element maximum value'
langcode:
type: string
label: 'Default language'

40. Configuration API
system.schema.yml
Schema name
- Used to reference this configuration
- Also shows the configuration filename
“system.site.yml”
system.site:
type: mapping
label: 'Site information'
mapping:
uuid:
type: string
label: 'Site UUID'
name:
type: label
label: 'Site name'

41. Configuration API
Container data type
- ‘mapping’ is for key value sets
- allows for associative arrays of
different data types
system.site:
type: mapping
label: 'Site information'
mapping:
uuid:
type: string
label: 'Site UUID'
name:
type: label
label: 'Site name'
system.schema.yml

42. Configuration API
system.site:
type: mapping
label: 'Site information'
mapping:
uuid:
type: string
label: 'Site UUID'
name:
type: label
label: 'Site name'
Label
- Used as an interface label
system.schema.yml

43. Configuration API
system.site:
type: mapping
label: 'Site information'
mapping:
uuid:
type: string
label: 'Site UUID'
name:
type: label
label: 'Site name'
system.schema.yml
Start of mapping section
Item key
Item type
Item label

44. Configuration API
Simple Configuration
• Can be single values or arrays of values
• Used to store global configuration options
• Easy to implement:
• Create schema YAML file in
< module >/config/install/schema
• Create config YAML file
< module >/config/install

45. Configuration API
Getting Configuration
uuid: ''
name: Drupal
mail: ''
slogan: ''
page:
403: ''
404: ''
front: user
admin_compact_mode: false
weight_select_max: 100
langcode: en
$config = Drupal::config('system.site');
$email = $config->get('mail');
$cofig = Drupal::config(‘system.site')
$page403 = $config->get('page.403');

46. Configuration API
Setting Configuration
$config = Drupal::config('system.site'); $config->set(‘mail’,
‘test@example.com’); $config->save();
$config = Drupal::config(‘system.site’)->set('mail', ‘test@example.com’);
$config->save();
Drupal::config(‘system.site’)->set('mail', ‘test@example.com)- >save();

47. Configuration API
Clear Configuration
$config = Drupal::config('system.site');
$config->clear('mail')->save();
Drupal::config('system.site')->delete();

48. Configuration API
Configuration Entities
• Used to store custom entity configurations
• More complex and therefore harder to implement
• Used for configurations that have multiple entries
Example: Views, Image cache settings, Contact form
categories

49. Configuration API
Contact Category Interface
namespace Drupalcontact;
use DrupalCoreConfigEntityConfigEntityInterface;
/**
* Provides an interface defining a contact category entity.
*/
interface CategoryInterface extends ConfigEntityInterface {
}

50. Configuration API
Contact Category Entity

51. Configuration API
class Category extends ConfigEntityBase implements CategoryInterface {
/**
* The category ID.
*
* @var string
*/
public $id;
/**
* The category label.
*
* @var string
*/
public $label;
/**
* List of recipient e-mail addresses.
*
* @var array
*/
public $recipients = array();
/**
* An auto-reply message to send to the message author.
*
* @var string
*/
public $reply = '';
/**
* Weight of this category (used for sorting).
*
* @var int
*/
public $weight = 0;

52. Configuration API
contact.category.personal.yml
id: personal
label: 'Personal contact form'
recipients: { }
reply: ''
weight: 0
status: true
uuid: 43155e41-8a58-4264-ab00-be97a0736aa0 langcode: en
dependencies: { }
$contact_category = $this->entityManager()
->getStorage('contact_category')
->load(‘personal');
$contact_category->label();

53. Configuration API
contact.category.personal.yml
id: personal
label: 'Personal contact form'
recipients: { }
reply: ''
weight: 0
status: true
uuid: 43155e41-8a58-4264-ab00-be97a0736aa0 langcode: en
dependencies: { }
$config = Drupal::config('contact.category.personal')->get();
$label = $config['label'];
$label = Drupal::config(‘contact.category.personal')->get('label');

54. Configuration API
Drush
Export config from the active configuration to the staging
directory
drush config-export
drush cex

55. Configuration API
Drush
Import the staging configuration into the active configuration
drush config-import
drush cim

56. Configuration API
Workflow
• Staging config should become part of your
codebase
• New configuration changes should be exported
and integrated into code base
• Configuration in code should then be used to move
configuration between servers

57. Configuration API

58. Configuration API

59. Drupal 7
06

60. Configuration API
Drupal 7
• Configuration management has been back ported
• Configuration Management module
https://drupal.org/project/configuration

61. Resources
07

62. Configuration API
Resources
• Creating Drupal 8.x modules
https://drupal.org/developing/modules/8
• Configuration API in Drupal 8
https://drupal.org/node/1667894
• Understanding Drupal 8's config entities
http://www.previousnext.com.au/blog/understanding-drupal-8s-config-entities
• Configuration schema/metadata
https://drupal.org/node/1905070
• Configuration inspector for Drupal 8
https://drupal.org/project/config_inspector

63. Questions ?

64. Alex Goja
Team Lead
agoja@adyax.com