All field_collection items are deleted if using hidden widget [#1748534]

If you attach a field_collection field to a node and use the 'hidden' widget (as I do to use the standalone form to manage my field_collection items), all of your existing field_collection items are deleted upon node form submit. I believe this is a result of the unset() happening in hook_form_alter() on line ~76:

<?php
// Remove all items again in case the form submission fails validation.
  if (!empty($form_state['#field_remove_item'])) {
    foreach ($form_state['#field_remove_item'] as $field_name => $field_values) {
      foreach ($field_values as $field_language => $field_deltas) {
        foreach ($field_deltas as $field_delta) {
          if (isset($form[$field_name][$field_language][$field_delta])) {
            unset($form[$field_name][$field_language][$field_delta]);
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
?>

Comments

Comment #1

FranciscoLuz commented 23 August 2012 at 21:51

Hi,

The items being unset in this case are only those that had been removed before a failed form validation occurs.

"All" in this sense does not mean effectively all the items in the field but the user selected ones.

Of course, I am not saying that your assertion is not correct, that might be the cause, although I find it unlikely to be the case.

Try to comment out the line 80 (unset statement) and see if that behaviour still applies.

Comment #2

FranciscoLuz commented 24 August 2012 at 19:17

Ah!

Another thing that I should state is that this module is not suppose to act on field collection fields because field collection has its own remove button.

Check out the code on line 15, it excludes field collection.

I haven't got the time to investigate that in depth right now but you could test it yourself by disabling this module and see if it has any impact on what you are experiencing whatsoever.

Comment #3

charlie-s commented 23 August 2012 at 22:22

When I disable this module the field_collection items are not touched. When I enable this module again and save the node edit form of a node that contains field_collection items, they are deleted completely from the database.

field collection has its own remove button.

This is not true for hidden field_collection widgets, and I suspect this is where the problem lies.

Comment #4

FranciscoLuz commented 24 August 2012 at 19:25

I see.

I wont have time to fix it right now but apparently it is only a matter of finding out what value in the $element array says it is a hidden field and then add a exclusion condition in the "if" statement at line 14.

I will look into this as soon as I can.