How Drupal 7 Fields are changing the way you write modules

Drupal 7 introduced the notion of Fields, small pieces of data you can add to several kind of Entities. Several key modules are getting completely written to take advantage of this powerful concept in their Drupal 7 versions.

In this session we will show how Fields are changing the way we write modules, for the better.

From columns to fields

In the beginning, there was tables and columns. Now here are fields, a dynamic way to build data models.

From nodes, users and comments to entities

In the beginning, there was separate realms. The concept of entity unify those realms and bring them to a whole new dimension.

Case Tracker rewritten in 100 lines

Spanning across entities, fields can be used to easily build powerful data models. Here we will see how to rewrite, from the ground up, the Case Tracker module in less then 100 lines.

Using fields and entities as a building block for modules

We will see how two radically different modules: Organic groups and Drupal commerce are, in their Drupal 7 version, leveraging the Field API to build flexible and powerful features on top of standard building blocks.