Version 4 is now out using a dedicated polymorphic table. If you are migrating from version 3, please read the relevant section here

Element Meta

This package adds the ability to save schemaless metadata to all element types, including custom elements.

Why?

Sometimes you'll need to attach additional information to your element (e.g Entry, Product or Category) without creating a corresponding field in Craft. Common examples include saving an identifier of the element in another system, keeping track of post views, or flagging an element as seeded for later removal.

One option would be to create a read-only field on Craft using a plugin that allows for hidden/read-only field types. However, there are multiple cons to this approach:

1. You now have a field in your section layout that does not semantically belong there.
2. It can be accessed, modified and deleted from the control panel (granted only on dev environment).
3. It is loaded when creating or editing a post, which can be easily tampered with from the developer console of the browser.
4. It does not allow for ad-hoc data that could pertain to a single post or just some posts, without creating yet another field.
5. It is saved to the content table, which is not its natural habitat.

Element Meta offers a more flexible, schemaless alternative, which by-passes the Craft data structure and allows you to save metadata in JSON format to a designated polymorphic table.

Installation

1. Include the package:

composer require matfish/craft-entry-meta

2. Install the plugin:

php craft plugin/install entry-meta

Initial Setup

Once installed go to the plugin's settings page (Under Settings in the control panel).

Select the elements you'd like to add metadata to. Note that for custom elements (as opposed to Craft's native elements) you would need to provide both the Element class and the Active Record class. E.g if you would like to enable metadata on Craft Commerce's products:

Element Class = craft\commerce\elements\Product

Active Record Class = craft\commerce\records\Product

The package will validate both classes to ensure they exist and are children of Element and ActiveRecord respectively.

Once you save the settings the plugin will add the metadata functionality to the relevant elements.

Usage

$entry below refers to an entry element (craft\elements\Entry).

Note that the element must be already saved in order to use metadata methods.

Set metadata (will replace existing metadata):

$entry->setElementMetadata([
    'foo'=>'bar'
]);

Add to existing metadata, or replace an existing value:

$entry->addElementMetadata([
    'a'=>1
]);

Delete metadata:

$entry->deleteElementMetadata();

Get all metadata of an entry:

$entry->getElementMetadata();   

Get a specific key value:

$entry->getElementMetadata('foo');   

Get nested values:

$entry->getElementMetadata('foo.bar');   

Or using Twig:

{{entry.getElementMetadata('foo')}}

Query by metadata

You can query by metadata on the active record class (e.g craft\records\Entry) using the methods detailed below.

When using version 4 or above the user should first join the metadata table. E.g

Entry::find()->joinMetadata()->whereMetadata('foo','bar')

You can also use an element query instead (e.g craft\elements\Entry): E.g:

craft\elements\Entry::find()->joinMetadata()->whereMetadata('foo','bar')

or in Twig:

{{ craft.entries().joinMetadata().whereMetadata('foo','bar') }}

This is a left join, so it doesn't affect query results, just adds the metadata column.

Filter by metadata

Value

Entry::find()->whereMetadata('foo','bar');

For more complex queries you can also chain orWhereMetadata and andWhereMetadata.

The method defaults to the = operand, which you can override on the third argument. E.g:

Entry::find()->whereMetadata('views',0,'>');

Existence

You can also check for existence of metadata keys:

Entry::find()->hasMetadata('foo');

Or, conversely:

Entry::find()->doesntHaveMetadata('foo');

To filter down by the existence of metadata itself, simply omit the key argument:

Entry::find()->hasMetadata(); 

or

Entry::find()->doesntHaveMetadata(); 

Sort by metadata

Entry::find()->whereMetadata('views',0,'>')->orderByMetadata('views',false, true);

The second boolean argument is whether to sort in ascending order. Defaults to true

The third boolean argument is whether the value is an integer. Defaults to false

Nested data

You can search and sort by nested data using the . syntax:

Entry::find()->whereMetadata('foo.bar','baz')->orderByMetadata('foobar.baz');

Metadata on element editor page

By default metadata is rendered on the sidebar along with Craft's metadata (status, created at, updated at). You can disable this behaviour via the plugin settings page.

Migrating to version 4

Version 4 introduces an internal change to the way metadata is stored. Up until now metadata was saved to an additional emMetadata column on the respective tables (e.g entries). This was replaced in version 4 with a single polymorphic table that stores all metadata. Data migration from version 3 should be fully automated.

For extra caution the old emMetadata column is not dropped automatically. After updating the version in production, run the following query to get the count for each element type:

select elementType, count(*) FROM [prefix]_elementmeta
GROUP BY 1

Then, for each individual table run:

SELECT count(*) FROM [table] WHERE emMetadata IS NOT NULL

The numbers should match.

Then to verify the data is the same run this for each individual table:

SELECT count(*) FROM [table] 
JOIN elementmeta
ON [table].id=elementmeta.elementId
AND elementmeta.elementType='[elementClass]'
WHERE [table].emMetadata=elementmeta.data

e.g:

SELECT count(*) FROM mf_categories
JOIN mf_elementmeta
ON  mf_categories.id=mf_elementmeta.elementId
AND mf_elementmeta.elementType='craft\\elements\\Category'
WHERE mf_categories.emMetadata=mf_elementmeta.data

The numbers should match again.

Once you have verified that ALL metadata was migrated correctly, you can drop the column(s) on the respective tables.

You may also need to re-enable native elements (e.g entry, category etc.) in the settings page.

In terms of public API the only breaking change is that one should join the metadata table using ->joinMetadata() before querying the active records. In addition, a deleteElementMetadata method was added.

If you run into any trouble during migration please open an issue or write to me at matfish2@gmail.com and I'll do my best to resolve ASAP.

License

You can try Element Meta in a development environment for as long as you like. Once your site goes live, you are required to purchase a license for the plugin. License is purchasable through the Craft Plugin Store.

For more information, see Craft's Commercial Plugin Licensing.

Requirements

This plugin requires Craft CMS 3.7.0 or later.

Contribution Guidelines

Community is at the heart of open-source projects. We are always happy to receive constructive feedback from users to incrementally improve the product and/or the documentation.

Below are a few simple rules that are designed to facilitate interactions and prevent misunderstandings:

Please only open a new issue for bug reports. For feature requests and questions open a new Discussion instead, and precede [FR] to the title.

If you wish to endorse an existing FR please just vote the OP up, while refraining from +1 replies.