Problem:
Nodes are not saving with inaccesible pre-existing referenced items.
Issue has been fixed once with the ticket:
https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal/issues/2791269 →
stating, "Allow saving pre-existing references to inaccessible items" means there should not be any validation check for the existing referenced items.
Still the node save was disallowed and throwing an exception : "This entity (node: 32) cannot be referenced."
On cheking deeper the solution contains a condition:
/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Entity/Plugin/Validation/Constraint/ValidReferenceConstraintValidator.php
@@ -119,32 +119,31 @@ public function validate($value, Constraint $constraint) {
+ // Check if any of the invalid existing references are simply not
+ // accessible by the user, in which case they need to be excluded from
+ // validation
+ if (isset($previously_referenced_ids[$target_id]) && isset($existing_entities[$target_id]) && !$existing_entities[$target_id]->access('view')) {
+ continue;
+ }
Accordingly, the clause !$existing_entities[$target_id]->access('view') is causing problem in my casue.
Steps to reproduce
- Create a content type with an entity reference field, able to reference the same content type.
- Give a test user access to edit all content of that type + "view own unpublished content".
- Create an unpublished node using user "test user".
- Create another node referencing the unpublished node. using user "test user"
- As the test user, edit the second node. Notice the reference field says “- Restricted access - (1)”
- Try saving the node, get an “This entity (node: 1) cannot be referenced.” error.
here, the condition is failing becasue the "test user" has "view access" for the referenced unpublished node ceated by himself.
It is not only the problem with "view own unpublished content" permisisons. When you have any other Node access module enabled like Domain Access or content modertion. The issue get more severe and requires a broader scope.
Becasue user will be editing a node shared on different domains consisting different doamins (assigned) entity references.
Required solutions
- The scope of the validation check should be defined.
- When the items should be validated - pre-existing or new ?
- Should validate existing items in case of deleted entites ?
- What is overall requirement of the validations ?
- Remove the "view access" condition ? And add other conditions depending upon the anwser of above point.