Field types¶

A compound uses the field types your installed modules provide, each with its own widget, formatter and validation. The type chooser grows as you enable core, contributed or custom modules.

Values to group	Example field types	Provider
Session names and summaries	Short text, long text, formatted text	Core; Text for formatted values
Prices, capacity and flags	Integer, decimal, boolean	Core
Contact details	Email, telephone, link	Core; Telephone and Link modules
Dates	Date, date range, timestamp	Core; Datetime and Datetime Range modules
Fixed choices	Text and integer lists	Core Options
Uploaded files	File and image	Core File and Image
Existing content	References to content, taxonomy terms or media	Core Entity Reference; the target's module
Postal addresses	Address, country, zone	Contributed Address module
Revisioned content	Entity Reference Revisions	Contributed Entity Reference Revisions
Another grouped record	A compound field you have defined	Compound Field

Build a session with Address, Media, taxonomy, content references, email and a link. A custom field type joins a compound through the same plugin system, with no second implementation for Compound Field.

Measured parity¶

The table below records the result of CompoundFieldTypeMatrixTest, an automated comparison of a one-sub-field compound with a standalone field of the same type, settings and sample value. PASS means the saved values, validation violation counts and formatter output match.

Each row measures one value at sub-field cardinality 1 and does not establish widget support or cover every setting. Capped sub-fields, nesting (any acyclic depth; cycles and unknown types are refused) and Media Library (including nested capped selections) are covered separately. The entity_reference row targets taxonomy terms.

List class: the type declares its own item-list class. Sample: the type's own generateSampleValue(), or a supplied value where it has none. The Address samples leave some columns unset to check NULL preservation.

Field type	Provider	List class	Sample	Verdict	Notes
`boolean`	core	no	Own generator	PASS	—
`decimal`	core	no	Own generator	PASS	—
`email`	core	no	Own generator	PASS	—
`integer`	core	no	Own generator	PASS	—
`string`	core	no	Own generator	PASS	—
`string_long`	core	no	Own generator	PASS	—
`telephone`	telephone	no	Own generator	PASS	—
`timestamp`	core	no	Own generator	PASS	—
`link`	link	no	Own generator	PASS	—
`text`	text	yes	Own generator	PASS	—
`text_long`	text	yes	Own generator	PASS	—
`text_with_summary`	text	yes	Own generator	PASS	—
`list_string`	options	no	Own generator	PASS	—
`list_integer`	options	no	Own generator	PASS	—
`datetime`	datetime	yes	Own generator	PASS	—
`daterange`	datetime_range	yes	Own generator	PASS	—
`entity_reference`	core	yes	Own generator	PASS	—
`file`	file	yes	Own generator	PASS	—
`image`	image	yes	Own generator	PASS	—
`address`	address	yes	Harness-supplied	PASS	—
`address_country`	address	no	Harness-supplied	PASS	—
`address_zone`	address	yes	Harness-supplied	PASS	—
`entity_reference_revisions`	entity_reference_revisions	yes	Own generator	PASS	Measured where Paragraphs is installed, on the plain host and on a translatable, moderated `entity_test_mulrevpub` — see below

A row for an optional module is measured only where that module is installed.

A pass here says a sub-field of that type behaves like a standalone field of the same type. It says nothing about another module's own per-field logic; see modules and compound items as entities for that.

Not exercised here¶

comment: its bundle and host requirements exceed what the comparison sets up.
geofield and office_hours: not measured.

Sample values¶

Compound Field supplies sample-value fallbacks for address, address_country and address_zone, including restricted country lists; the matrix uses its own samples to test those types independently of the fallback. When a reference generator returns an unsaved entity, Compound Field uses an existing target where possible, or saves the placeholder if the bundle allows it. A type that cannot resolve, has no usable generator or fallback, or throws while generating is omitted with a warning on the compound_field log channel, so a generated host can fail required-field validation.

Revision references¶

entity_reference_revisions needs Entity Reference Revisions and Paragraphs; the row was measured at 1.14 and 1.23, on a plain host and on a translatable, moderated one. Child revision forking and change detection are covered too. See translation and moderation.

A paragraph's parent metadata names the outermost host and its compound field, not the sub-field slot: getParentEntity() resolves the host, whose compound field then returns compound items, not the paragraph. Orphaned paragraphs reach the purge queue, but the upstream purger does not recognise the compound's flattened revision-reference columns and skips them, so orphans accumulate. Changing a revision-reference sub-field's target_type while the compound is in use is refused, because existing IDs would change meaning.