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Core Architecture

When to Use

Read this when you need to understand Group 4.x's data model and how it differs from earlier versions before writing any code.

Decision

Situation Choose Why
New site, Drupal 11.2+ Group 4.x No contrib dependencies, Access Policy API, OOP hooks
Existing site on Drupal 10 Group 3.3.5 4.x requires Drupal 11.2+; 3.x is the latest stable for Drupal 10
Existing site on Drupal 11.2+ with Group 3.x Upgrade to 4.x Normal module update — same data model and machine names
Migrating from Group 2.x Upgrade to 3.x first Same data model as 3.x; then upgrade core to 11.2+ and upgrade to 4.x

Pattern

group_type (config entity, bundle of group)
    |
    +-- group (content entity, bundle = group_type id)
    |
    +-- group_relationship_type (config entity, bundle of group_relationship)
            |
            +-- group_relationship (content entity)
                    |-- gid          -> points to group
                    |-- entity_id    -> points to the related entity
                    |-- plugin_id    -> which GroupRelationType plugin handles this
                    |-- group_type   -> denormalized group type id (performance)

Three scopes of users relative to a group:

Scope Description Constant
Outsider Authenticated site user, NOT a member PermissionScopeInterface::OUTSIDER_ID
Insider Authenticated site user, IS a member PermissionScopeInterface::INSIDER_ID
Individual A specific member with an explicitly assigned role PermissionScopeInterface::INDIVIDUAL_ID
Anonymous Unauthenticated user (subset of outsider scope) —

v4 key dependencies (core only — no contrib required):

  • Access Policy API (core 11.2+) — replaces flexible_permissions contrib. Group registers IndividualGroupRoleAccessPolicy (priority -100) and SynchronizedGroupRoleAccessPolicy (priority -50) tagged access_policy.
  • Revision UI (core) — replaces drupal/entity contrib.

Common Mistakes

  • Wrong: Treating Group 4.x like Group 1.x → Right: GroupContent, addContent(), and GroupContentEnabler are gone since 3.x. Use GroupRelationship, addRelationship(), and GroupRelationBase.
  • Wrong: Registering a flexible_permissions_calculator-tagged service → Right: In 4.x the tag is access_policy. Re-implement custom calculators as AccessPolicyBase subclasses.
  • Wrong: Installing Group 4.x on Drupal 10 or Drupal 11.0/11.1 → Right: Group 4.x requires Drupal 11.2+ for the Access Policy API.

See Also