Add an option to machine name elements to increment with a delta instead of failing validation

Created on 14 June 2013, over 11 years ago

Updated 3 February 2025, 1 day ago

Updated: Comment #0

Problem/Motivation

Machine names are by their nature unique, so they typically have validation to ensure a duplicate machine name does not already exist. However, when the machine name is auto-generated based on another field, the user might sometimes create a duplicate machine name without knowing the machine name field even exists. This causes a usability problem when the user is suddenly confronted with an error on a field they've never seen before.

For example, in the field UI:

Install 8.x standard.
Go to admin/structure/types/manage/page/fields.
Under "Add new field," type "tags" in the Label field and select a term reference field.
You receive a validation error on a field you did not fill in.

Proposed resolution

Make the machine name element provide the option to automatically append a delta.

#1998582: Auto-generate machine_name for Views Blocks using [viewname]_[displayname] rather than forcing manual entry → does this by adding the delta to the default value. For more typical machine name fields, this would mean that the realtime machine name generation would need to query for existing machine names on each keystroke, which might not be ideal.
Another option would be to append the delta on save.

Remaining tasks

Choose an approach.
Create patch.
Update existing machine names in the block and field UIs to use the auto-delta.
Remove the custom delta generation from the views block plugin.

Related Issues

📌 Task

Status

Postponed: needs info

Version

11.0 🔥

Component

forms system

Created by

🇺🇸United States xjm

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Needs tests
The change is currently missing an automated test that fails when run with the original code, and succeeds when the bug has been fixed.

VDC
Related to the Views in Drupal Core initiative.

stale-issue-cleanup

Incomplete comments

Comments & Activities

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Comment 1 day ago →
🇺🇸United States smustgrave
Thank you for creating this issue to improve Drupal.

We are working to decide if this task is still relevant to a currently supported version of Drupal. There hasn't been any discussion here for over 8 years which suggests that this has either been implemented or is no longer relevant. Your thoughts on this will allow a decision to be made.

Since we need more information to move forward with this issue, the status is now Postponed (maintainer needs more info). If we don't receive additional information to help with the issue, it may be closed after three months.

Thanks!

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