Clarify naming of entity properties and fields

Created on 28 May 2014, about 11 years ago

Updated 11 July 2025, about 1 month ago

Problem

Right now the entity system faces some inconsistencies in regard to naming. Content entities have fields, config entities have properties, but the storage layer tries to work with both.

For example, we have got EntityStorageInterface::loadByProperties() to load entities by field values.

Proposed resolution

Clarify the relationship of fields and properties, e.g. a field is an entity property with a fixed structure of field items lists, field items and field item properties.

Remaining tasks

* Agree on the path forward
* Clarify things on interface and method documentation, fix method names if necessary.

User interface changes

API changes

Depends on the solution.

📌 Task

Status

Active

Version

11.0 🔥

Component

entity system

Created by

🇦🇹Austria fago Vienna

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Entity Field API

Incomplete comments

Comments & Activities

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It's likely this issue predates Contrib.social: some issue and comment data are missing.

Comment about 1 month ago →
🇺🇸United States smustgrave
Would this still be a major?
Comment 22 days ago →
🇦🇹Austria fago Vienna
I do think people already are used to this now.

The way I'd see it a field is just a special kind of property, and with that the loadByProperties() method makes sense for fields also. However still, I think some people are confusing by loadByProperties() and do not think they can use it for fields also.

That said, I do think it still makes sense to clarify this better and e.g. just add an alias loadByFieldValues() in ContentEntityStorage. But that will be up to the new entity maintainers to decide. So setting the right tag.

I think major is ok, it's a quite important aspect still, so leaving the priority as it is.

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