Creating a Custom Content Type in Drupal 8

This page is a copy of Enable-by-default configuration in a Drupal 8 module. This should be considered deprecated.

Creating a custom content type has become quite straightforward thanks to the new Configuration API provided by Drupal 8.

Prerequisites

• Drupal 8.0.x is installed.
• You have a custom module (the module name used in this example is foobar).

Creating a Custom Content Type

As mentioned in the introduction, creating a custom content type is done by creating a few YAML files that contain all the necessary settings. In this example, we’ll create a content type called Car Brand, which will contain two default fields: body and title.

foobar/config/install/node.type.car_brand.yml

This file tells Drupal to create a new content type.

Note: We are adding an enforced dependency on the foobar module. Without this, Drupal won’t delete the content type when the module is uninstalled. When a site builder decides this module is no longer needed, we also don’t want the content type lingering around.

# node.type.car_brand.yml
langcode: en
status: true
dependencies:
  enforced:
    module:
      - foobar
name: 'Car Brand'
type: car_brand
description: 'Content type that can be used to provide additional information on Car Brands'
help: ''
new_revision: false
preview_mode: 1
display_submitted: true

foobar/config/install/field.field.node.car_brand.body.yml

This file adds the body field to our content type.

# field.field.node.car_brand.body.yml
langcode: en
status: true
dependencies:
  config:
    - field.storage.node.body
    - node.type.car_brand
  module:
    - text
id: node.car_brand.body
field_name: body
entity_type: node
bundle: car_brand
label: Body
description: 'More specific information about the car brand.'
required: false
translatable: true
default_value: {  }
default_value_callback: ''
settings:
  display_summary: true
field_type: text_with_summary

foobar/config/install/core.entity_view_display.node.car_brand.teaser.yml

This file tells Drupal how to display the teaser view mode of our custom content type.

# core.entity_view_display.node.car_brand.teaser.yml
langcode: en
status: true
dependencies:
  config:
    - core.entity_view_mode.node.teaser
    - field.field.node.car_brand.body
    - node.type.car_brand
  module:
    - text
    - user
id: node.car_brand.teaser
targetEntityType: node
bundle: car_brand
mode: teaser
content:
  body:
    label: hidden
    type: text_summary_or_trimmed
    weight: 101
    settings:
      trim_length: 600
    third_party_settings: {  }
  links:
    weight: 100
hidden: {  }

foobar/config/install/core.entity_view_display.node.car_brand.default.yml

This file tells Drupal how to display the default view mode of our custom content type.

# core.entity_view_display.node.car_brand.default.yml
langcode: en
status: true
dependencies:
  config:
    - field.field.node.car_brand.body
    - node.type.car_brand
  module:
    - text
    - user
id: node.car_brand.default
targetEntityType: node
bundle: car_brand
mode: default
content:
  body:
    label: hidden
    type: text_default
    weight: 101
    settings: {  }
    third_party_settings: {  }
  links:
    weight: 100
hidden: {  }

foobar/config/install/core.entity_form_display.node.car_brand.default.yml

This file tells Drupal how to display the form when creating a new node of our custom content type.

# core.entity_form_display.node.car_brand.default.yml
langcode: en
status: true
dependencies:
  config:
    - field.field.node.car_brand.body
    - node.type.car_brand
  module:
    - text
    - user
id: node.car_brand.default
targetEntityType: node
bundle: car_brand
mode: default
content:
  body:
    label: hidden
    type: text_textarea_with_summary
    weight: 101
    settings: {  }
    third_party_settings: {  }
  links:
    weight: 100
hidden: {  }

Enabling the Custom Content Type

Now that we have our configuration files in place, we need to inform Drupal of our new custom content type. This is done by reinstalling the module. If your module has not been enabled yet, simply enable it. If it is already enabled, uninstall it and then enable it again.
Once enabled, go to the “Create Content” page, and you should see the new Car Brand content type available for use.