Updating Plugins for Craft 4

While the changelog (opens new window) is the most comprehensive list of changes, this guide provides high-level overview and organizes changes by category.

If you think something is missing, please create an issue (opens new window).

# High Level Notes

The majority of work updating plugins for Craft 4 will be adding type declarations throughout the code. We’ve released a Rector package that can handle most of that work for you.

Custom volume types will need to be updated, as will anything deprecated in Craft 3 that’s been completely removed in Craft 4.

Some events, permissions, and controller actions have changed largely in support of new features you may want to take advantage of:

# Plugin Store Considerations

It’s best to update an existing plugin for Craft 4 rather than creating a new one with its own handle. A separate plugin complicates the developer experience, licensing, and migration path.

We anticipate most developers will choose to release a new major version of their plugin that requires Craft 4, though all Craft and the Plugin Store look at for compatibility is what’s required by composer.json.

You’ll need to explicitly state support for each major Craft version. Any craftcms/cms constraint beginning with >= will be treated as ^. If your plugin supports Craft 3 and 4, for example, you’ll need to set your craftcms/cms constraint to ^3.0|^4.0 rather than >=3.0.

While it’s not required, we also recommend setting a php constraint to clarify expectations and carefully manage any breaking changes. A Craft 3 plugin with support for PHP 7 and PHP 8, for example, might look like this:

  "require": {
    "php": "^7.2.5|^8.0"
  }

If the Craft 4 version adds support for (not yet released) PHP 9, it would look like this:

  "require": {
    "php": "^8.0.2|^9.0"
  }

# Improving Code Quality

We’ve added PHPStan (opens new window) and ECS (opens new window) configurations to Craft CMS, Craft Commerce, and a growing number of first-party plugins to improve our code quality and consistency.

While there’s no requirement that you use these tools, we encourage all developers to join us—with this upgrade process being a timely opportunity to integrate code quality tools into your workflow.

If you decide to use PHPStan and/or ECS, we recommend doing it in the following order:

  1. Run PHPStan on your existing Craft 3 codebase and apply the greatest level of fixes you’re comfortable with.
  2. Run Craft’s Rector rules to prep a bunch of your code for Craft 4.
  3. Update your craftcms/cms requirement to ^4.0.0 and run composer update.
  4. Run PHPStan again to identify issues and opportunities specifically related to Craft 4 changes.

# Rector

Craft’s Rector (opens new window) rules can save you time by adding required type declarations throughout your code. It’s important to do things in the right order so you can run Rector once and be on your way.

  1. Start with your plugin running with Craft 3.7.35 or later. (No Craft 4 in composer.json yet!)
  2. Run the following commands:
    composer config minimum-stability dev
    
    composer config prefer-stable true
    
    composer require craftcms/rector:dev-main --dev
    
    vendor/bin/rector process src --config vendor/craftcms/rector/sets/craft-cms-40.php
    
    Your code should have type declarations added throughout that are compatible with Craft 4; it’s normal if things are now broken in Craft 3.
  3. Update your composer.json requirement to "craftcms/cms": "^4.0.0-alpha" and run composer update.

Most of the busywork is now done so you can continue addressing the breaking changes on the rest of this page.

You can do the same thing with your custom modules by replacing src above with modules, or the path to wherever your custom modules live.

PhpStorm (opens new window) does a great job of identifying and offering to fix type issues—consider using it if you aren’t already!

# Unified Element Editor

Craft 4 streamlines element editing machinery (opens new window) to support a more rich, consistent authoring experience across all element types.

If you have a plugin or module that implements custom element types and want to take advantage of these improvements, there are a handful of new methods to extend:

It’s best to rely on the new element authorization methods (canView(), canSave(), etc.) rather than checking permissions directly:

// Good
if (Craft::$app->getUser()->checkPermission('myplugin-manageMyElements')) {
    // ...
}

// Better
if ($myElement->canSave()) {
    // ...
}

You may need to evaluate any routes, controllers, templates, and permissions that support the editing process.

While Craft 4’s changes touch a variety of element type pieces, the good news is that you’ll most likely be able to consolidate a fair amount of code.

# Field Layouts

Element editing has become more complex. A Craft 3 entry could already be edited on its own page, in a slideout, and included UI for handling drafts. With Craft 4, entry editing is more consistent via slideout or dedicated page—and other element types can more easily offer the same experience. There are also permissions and brand new conditional fields to manage.

To help with this potential complexity, Craft 4 broadly puts more emphasis on field layouts than templates. It’s field layout logic, more than template logic, that determines what the content author interacts with.

Craft 4 has removed its own element-specific controllers and templates in favor of re-usable ones that more easily support the nuanced editing experience—along with some convenient controls and cleaned-up permissions. All element types, including those added by third parties, can take advantage of these improvements.

Any element type providing control panel editing UI may need to update it.

# Field Inputs

If your element type already supported custom field layouts and behaved well with slideout UI in Craft 3, you may only need to update a few renamed events and permissions.

If your element type relies on getEditorHtml() (opens new window), however, whether it’s because it has legacy UI or does its own thing entirely, you’ll need to migrate those pieces elsewhere since that method has been removed. Craft 3.7’s getSidebarHtml() (opens new window) and getMetadata() (opens new window) are still available for tailoring what’s displayed in sidebar and metadata areas, but Craft will always give priority to any custom field layout when it exists.

Each elements type’s defineRules() method needs to fully cover any inputs that could be posted via native field elements, getSidebarHtml(), and getMetadata().

This is because an additional security measure applies posted values using the element’s setAttributes() method, which only allows “safe” attributes (having validation rules) by default.

Craft 4 introduces the concept of “native” fields, meaning ones offered or required by the element type. These are distinctly different from the custom fields added by users.

If your element type requires native fields to be available, or even mandatory, it’s best to include them in a field layout by implementing getFieldLayout() for your element type and using EVENT_DEFINE_NATIVE_FIELDS—which replaces EVENT_DEFINE_STANDARD_FIELDS—to have them included.

A saved field layout can be returned from the fields service:

public function getFieldLayout(): ?\craft\models\FieldLayout
{
    return \Craft::$app->getFields()->getLayoutByType(MyElement::class);
}

This example adds mandatory title and text fields that cannot be removed from MyElement’s field layout, even in the field layout designer:

use craft\events\DefineFieldLayoutFieldsEvent;
use craft\fieldlayoutelements\TextField;
use craft\fieldlayoutelements\TitleField;
use craft\models\FieldLayout;
use yii\base\Event;
use mynamespace\elements\MyElement;

Event::on(
    FieldLayout::class,
    FieldLayout::EVENT_DEFINE_NATIVE_FIELDS,
    function(DefineFieldLayoutFieldsEvent $event) {
        /** @var FieldLayout $fieldLayout */
        $fieldLayout = $event->sender;

        if ($fieldLayout->type === MyElement::class) {
            $event->fields[] = new TitleField([
                'label' => 'My Title',
                'mandatory' => true,
                'instructions' => 'Enter a title.',
            ]);
            $event->fields[] = new TextField([
                'label' => 'My Description'
                'attribute' => 'description',
                'mandatory' => true,
                'instructions' => 'Enter a description.',
            ]);
        }
    }
);

If you don’t make the field layout designer available or support custom fields at all, you can create your field layout in memory instead:

public function getFieldLayout(): ?\craft\models\FieldLayout
{
    $layoutElements = [
        new TitleField([
            'label' => 'My Title',
            'mandatory' => true,
            'instructions' => 'Enter a title.',
        ]),
        new TextField([
            'label' => 'My Description',
            'attribute' => 'description',
            'mandatory' => true,
            'instructions' => 'Enter a description.',
        ])
    ];

    $fieldLayout = new FieldLayout();

    $tab = new FieldLayoutTab();
    $tab->name = 'Content';
    $tab->setLayout($fieldLayout);
    $tab->setElements($layoutElements);

    $fieldLayout->setTabs([ $tab ]);

    return $fieldLayout;
}

# Controllers

Many of Craft’s element-specific controller actions and supporting templates have been removed.

For example, entries/edit-entry, categories/edit-category, and assets/edit-asset each rely on the elements/edit action. Here’s the before-and-after for those routes, for example:

// Craft 3
'assets/edit/<assetId:\d+><filename:(?:-[^\/]*)?>' => 'assets/edit-asset',
'categories/<groupHandle:{handle}>/new' => 'categories/edit-category',
'entries/<section:{handle}>/<entryId:\d+><slug:(?:-[^\/]*)?>' => 'entries/edit-entry',

// Craft 4
'assets/edit/<elementId:\d+><filename:(?:-[^\/]*)?>' => 'elements/edit',
'categories/<groupHandle:{handle}>/<elementId:\d+><slug:(?:-[^\/]*)?>' => 'elements/edit',
'entries/<section:{handle}>/<elementId:\d+><slug:(?:-[^\/]*)?>' => 'elements/edit',

Categories take advantage of this unified element editing improvement with their new draft support—so the Category (opens new window) element is a good example to investigate.

See Controller Actions for the complete list of changes, and notice how many of the newer actions are re-used across element types.

# Controller Actions

A number of controller actions have been renamed or removed, largely to support the unified element editor improvement. We’ve also improved how we create and respond to action requests, and adopting these changes will lead to cleaner (and less!) code.

# Changed

Old What to do instead
assets/edit-asset elements/edit
assets/generate-thumb assets/thumb
categories/delete-category elements/delete
categories/edit-category elements/edit
edit/by-id elements/edit
edit/by-uid elements/edit
entries/edit-entry elements/edit
elements/get-editor-html implement getFieldLayout() (opens new window)
elements/save-element elements/save
entries/delete-entry elements/delete
entries/delete-for-site elements/delete-for-site
entries/duplicate-entry elements/duplicate
entry-revisions/create-draft elements/create
entry-revisions/delete-draft elements/delete-draft
entry-revisions/publish-draft elements/apply-draft
entry-revisions/revert-entry-to-version elements/revert
entry-revisions/save-draft elements/save-draft
users/get-remaining-session-time users/session-info

# Controller Requests & Responses

Craft 4 improves controller request and response handling to be much simpler and more uniform.

# Action Requests

On the front end, we recommend replacing deprecated Craft.postActionRequest() calls with Craft.sendActionRequest():

// Craft 3
Craft.postActionRequest('my-plugin/do-something', data, function(response, textStatus) {
  if (textStatus === 'success') {
    // ...
  } else {
    // Handle non-2xx responses ...
  }
});

// Craft 4
Craft.sendActionRequest('POST', 'my-plugin/do-something', {data})
  .then((response) => {
      // ...
  })
  .catch(({response}) => {
      // Handle non-2xx responses ...
  });

The sendActionRequest() method returns a Promise with a resolved value containing the response (opens new window). Non-200 responses can now be handled with a catch() handler.

# Controller Responses

Controller actions can return new asSuccess() (opens new window) / asModelSuccess() (opens new window) or asFailure() (opens new window) / asModelFailure() (opens new window) functions that automatically handle…

  • checking whether the request accepts JSON and returning a JSON response accordingly
  • returning relevant HTTP status codes
  • returning an accompanying message in the JSON response or flash
  • returning relevant model data in the JSON response or route params
  • honoring a redirect provided via argument or request param

A JSON error response will now be returned with a 400 HTTP status in Craft 4.

Using these new methods, most controller action methods can be shortened:

// Craft 3
public function actionSave() {
    // ...

    if (!Craft::$app->getElements()->saveElement($myElement)) {
        if ($this->request->getAcceptsJson()) {
            return $this->asJson([
                'success' => false,
                'errors' => $myElement->getErrors(),
            ]);
        }

        $this->setFailFlash(Craft::t('myPlugin', 'Couldn’t save element.'));

        Craft::$app->getUrlManager()->setRouteParams([
            'myElement' => $myElement,
        ]);

        return null;
    }

    if ($this->request->getAcceptsJson()) {
        return $this->asJson([
            'success' => true,
            'id' => $myElement->id,
            'title' => $myElement->title,
            'url' => $myElement->getUrl(),
        ]);
    }

    $this->setSuccessFlash(Craft::t('myPlugin', 'Element saved.'));
    return $this->redirectToPostedUrl($myElement);
}

// Craft 4
public function actionSave() {
    // ...

    if (!Craft::$app->getElements()->saveElement($myElement)) {
        return $this->asModelFailure(
            $myElement,
            Craft::t('myPlugin', 'Couldn’t save element.'),
            'myElement'
        );
    }

    return $this->asModelSuccess(
        $myElement,
        Craft::t('app', 'Element saved.'),
        data: [
            'id' => $myElement->id,
            'title' => $myElement->title,
            'url' => $myElement->getUrl(),
        ],
    );
}

asErrorJson() (opens new window) has been deprecated in Craft 4 and will be removed in Craft 5. Use asFailure() (opens new window) instead:

// Craft 3
return $this->asErrorJson('Thing not found.');

// Craft 4
return $this->asFailure('Thing not found.');

# Elements

While the unified element editor introduced some new methods, some others have been changed and removed.

# Removed

# Services

# Added

# Removed

The following core services have been removed:

# Control Panel Templates

Control panel template updates have largely been in support of the unified element editor experience and a variety of UI refinements.

  • All control panel templates end in .twig now. (#9743 (opens new window))
  • The forms/selectize control panel template now supports addOptionFn and addOptionLabel params, which can be set to add new options to the list.
  • The limitField macro in the _components/fieldtypes/elementfieldsettings control panel template has been renamed to limitFields.
  • Added the htmx.org JavaScript library.
  • Removed the assets/_edit control panel template.
  • Removed the categories/_edit control panel template.
  • Removed the entries/_edit control panel template.
  • Removed the _layouts/element control panel template.

# Editable Tables

If your Craft 3 plugin was using Craft’s editable table (via editableTableField() or editableTable), you may need to explicitly set allowAdd, allowDelete, and allowReorder to true for it to behave the same in Craft 4:

{% import _includes/forms.twig' as forms %}

{# Craft 3 #}
{{ forms.editableTableField({
  label: 'My Table Field',
  name: 'myTable',
  cols: myTableCols,
  rows: myTableRows,
}) }}

{# Craft 4 #}
{{ forms.editableTableField({
  label: 'My Table Field',
  name: 'myTable',
  cols: myTableCols,
  rows: myTableRows,
  allowAdd: true,
  allowReorder: true,
  allowDelete: true,
}) }}

# New Form Macros

The control panel’s _includes/forms got a few new macros: button, submitButton, fs, and fsField.

The button and submitButton macros can each take a spinner option that will include markup for a loading animation you can use for Ajax requests:

{% import '_includes/forms.twig' as forms %}

{{ forms.button({
  label: 'Save a Copy',
  spinner: true,
}) }}

{# Output:
<button type="button" class="btn">
  <div class="label">Save a Copy</div>
  <div class="spinner spinner-absolute"></div>
</button>
#}

{{ forms.submitButton({
  label: 'Save',
  spinner: true,
}) }}

{# Output:
<button type="submit" class="submit btn">
  <div class="label">Save</div>
  <div class="spinner spinner-absolute"></div>
</button>
#}

You can then use JavaScript to toggle a loading class on the button element as needed:

Animation of a submit button with its “Save a Copy” label that switches to a spinner when a loading class is added to the element

# Events

# Changed

The TypeManager::EVENT_DEFINE_GQL_TYPE_FIELDS (opens new window) event is now triggered when resolving fields for a GraphQL type instead of when the type is first created.

The following events have been moved or renamed:

Old Renamed to
Assets::EVENT_GET_ASSET_THUMB_URL (opens new window) Assets::EVENT_DEFINE_THUMB_URL (opens new window)
Assets::EVENT_GET_ASSET_URL (opens new window) Asset::EVENT_DEFINE_URL (opens new window)
AssetTransforms::CONFIG_TRANSFORM_KEY (opens new window) ProjectConfig::PATH_IMAGE_TRANSFORMS (opens new window)
AssetTransforms::EVENT_BEFORE_SAVE_ASSET_TRANSFORM (opens new window) ImageTransforms::EVENT_BEFORE_SAVE_IMAGE_TRANSFORM (opens new window)
AssetTransforms::EVENT_AFTER_SAVE_ASSET_TRANSFORM (opens new window) ImageTransforms::EVENT_AFTER_SAVE_IMAGE_TRANSFORM (opens new window)
AssetTransforms::EVENT_BEFORE_DELETE_ASSET_TRANSFORM (opens new window) ImageTransforms::EVENT_BEFORE_DELETE_IMAGE_TRANSFORM (opens new window)
AssetTransforms::EVENT_AFTER_DELETE_ASSET_TRANSFORM (opens new window) ImageTransforms::EVENT_BEFORE_DELETE_IMAGE_TRANSFORM (opens new window)
AssetTransforms::EVENT_GENERATE_TRANSFORM (opens new window) ImageTransforms::EVENT_GENERATE_TRANSFORM (opens new window)
AssetTransforms::EVENT_BEFORE_APPLY_TRANSFORM_DELETE (opens new window) ImageTransforms::EVENT_BEFORE_APPLY_TRANSFORM_DELETE (opens new window)
AssetTransforms::EVENT_BEFORE_DELETE_TRANSFORMS (opens new window) ImageTransforms::EVENT_BEFORE_INVALIDATE_ASSET_TRANSFORMS (opens new window)
ElementIndexes::EVENT_DEFINE_SOURCE_TABLE_ATTRIBUTES (opens new window) ElementSources::EVENT_DEFINE_SOURCE_TABLE_ATTRIBUTES (opens new window)
ElementIndexes::EVENT_DEFINE_SOURCE_SORT_OPTIONS (opens new window) ElementSources::EVENT_DEFINE_SOURCE_SORT_OPTIONS (opens new window)

# Deprecated

# Removed

Old What to do instead
Assets::EVENT_GET_THUMB_PATH (opens new window) Assets::EVENT_DEFINE_THUMB_URL (opens new window)
AssetTransforms::EVENT_AFTER_DELETE_TRANSFORMS (opens new window) Transforms are now invalidated, but no event is triggered after that happens.
Element::EVENT_DEFINE_IS_DELETABLE (opens new window) Element::EVENT_AUTHORIZE_DELETE (opens new window)
Element::EVENT_DEFINE_IS_EDITABLE (opens new window) Element::EVENT_AUTHORIZE_VIEW (opens new window) and Element::EVENT_AUTHORIZE_SAVE (opens new window)
Drafts::EVENT_AFTER_MERGE_SOURCE_CHANGES (opens new window) Elements::EVENT_AFTER_MERGE_CANONICAL_CHANGES (opens new window)
Drafts::EVENT_AFTER_PUBLISH_DRAFT (opens new window)
Drafts::EVENT_BEFORE_MERGE_SOURCE_CHANGES (opens new window) Elements::EVENT_BEFORE_MERGE_CANONICAL_CHANGES (opens new window)
Drafts::EVENT_BEFORE_PUBLISH_DRAFT (opens new window)
Gql::EVENT_REGISTER_GQL_PERMISSIONS (opens new window) Gql::EVENT_REGISTER_GQL_SCHEMA_COMPONENTS (opens new window)
TemplateCaches::EVENT_AFTER_DELETE_CACHES (opens new window) Template caches have been invalidated since Craft 3.5.
TemplateCaches::EVENT_BEFORE_DELETE_CACHES (opens new window) Template caches have been invalidated since Craft 3.5.
Volumes::EVENT_REGISTER_VOLUME_TYPES) (opens new window) Fs::EVENT_REGISTER_FILESYSTEM_TYPES (opens new window)
CraftVariable::EVENT_DEFINE_COMPONENTS (opens new window) CraftVariable::EVENT_INIT (opens new window)
EntryRevisions::EVENT_BEFORE_SAVE_DRAFT (opens new window)
EntryRevisions::EVENT_AFTER_SAVE_DRAFT (opens new window)
EntryRevisions::EVENT_BEFORE_PUBLISH_DRAFT (opens new window)
EntryRevisions::EVENT_AFTER_PUBLISH_DRAFT (opens new window)
EntryRevisions::EVENT_BEFORE_DELETE_DRAFT (opens new window)
EntryRevisions::EVENT_AFTER_DELETE_DRAFT (opens new window)
EntryRevisions::EVENT_BEFORE_REVERT_ENTRY_TO_VERSION (opens new window) Revisions::EVENT_BEFORE_REVERT_TO_REVISION (opens new window)
EntryRevisions::EVENT_AFTER_REVERT_ENTRY_TO_VERSION (opens new window) Revisions::EVENT_AFTER_REVERT_TO_REVISION (opens new window)

# Filesystems

In Craft 4, volumes have been simplified to represent a place where uploaded files can go. Each volume is represented by a single craft\models\Volume (opens new window) class. File operations have been decoupled into a new concept called Filesystems (#10367 (opens new window)).

Screenshot of a Craft 4 Volume’s settings that includes the new Filesystem dropdown field.

The volume’s former type has gone away, replaced instead by whatever filesystem it designates via Volume::getFs() (opens new window).

Screenshot of a Craft 4 Filesystem’s settings, which include former volume type settings like Base Path, Base URL, and Filesystem Type.

A Craft install can have however many filesystems it needs, where each volume designates a single filesystem handle. Since that setting can be an environment variable, it becomes trivial to swap filesystems in different environments.

Former volume types will need to be implemented as filesystem types, and most calls directly to a volume’s I/O operations will need to be made on the volume’s filesystem:

// Craft 3
$myVolumeHandle = $volume->handle;
$volume->createDirectory('subfolder');

// Craft 4
$myVolumeHandle = $volume->handle;
$volume->getFs()->createDirectory('subfolder');

Each volume has an additional transform filesystem which defaults to the filesystem used for that volume. This makes it possible for volumes without public URLs to designate another filesystem solely for image transforms—accessible via the volume’s Volume::getTransformFs() (opens new window) method.

# Migrating Asset Volumes to Filesystems

If you need to migrate an asset volume type to a filesystem type, you can find migrated filesystems using the old volume type and provide a reference to the new filesystem class (MyFs here):

<?php

use mynamespace\migrations;

use mynamespace\fs\MyFs;
use Craft;
use craft\db\Migration;
use craft\services\ProjectConfig;

class mXXXXXX_XXXXXX_update_fs_configs extends Migration
{
    public function safeUp(): bool
    {
        $projectConfig = Craft::$app->getProjectConfig();

        // Don’t make the same changes twice
        $schemaVersion = $projectConfig->get('plugins.pluginHandle.schemaVersion', true);
        if (version_compare($schemaVersion, '2.0', '>=')) {
            return true;
        }

        $fsConfigs = $projectConfig->get(ProjectConfig::PATH_FS) ?? [];
        foreach ($fsConfigs as $uid => $config) {
            if ($config['type'] === 'my\old\Volume') {
                $config['type'] = MyFs::class;
                $projectConfig->set(sprintf('%s.%s', ProjectConfig::PATH_FS, $uid), $config);
            }
        }

        return true;
    }

    public function safeDown(): bool
    {
        echo "mXXXXXX_XXXXXX_update_fs_configs cannot be reverted.\n";
        return false;
    }
}

# Image Transforms and Transformers

Asset Transforms are now Image Transforms, which utilize the newly-added concept of “Image Transformers”. Existing image transform functionality and index management has been rolled into a default ImageTransformer (opens new window).

Third parties can register new image transformers via the EVENT_REGISTER_IMAGE_TRANSFORMERS (opens new window) event.

# Symfony Mailer

Craft 4 uses Symfony Mailer (opens new window) to send email.

This shouldn’t require any changes to composing and sending messages, but any transport adapter’s defineTransport() method must now return either a transporter that implements Symfony\Component\Mailer\Transport\TransportInterface (opens new window), or an array that defines one.

# User Permissions

# Registering Permissions

Registering permissions has changed slightly in Craft 4: the RegisterUserPermissionsEvent (opens new window)’s permissions array now requires individual items with heading and permissions keys:

use yii\base\Event;
use craft\events\RegisterUserPermissionsEvent;
use craft\services\UserPermissions;

// Craft 3
Event::on(
    UserPermissions::class,
    UserPermissions::EVENT_REGISTER_PERMISSIONS,
    function(RegisterUserPermissionsEvent $event) {
        $event->permissions['My Heading'] = $permissions;
    }
);

// Craft 4
Event::on(
    UserPermissions::class,
    UserPermissions::EVENT_REGISTER_PERMISSIONS,
    function(RegisterUserPermissionsEvent $event) {
        $event->permissions[] = [
            'heading' => 'My Heading',
            'permissions' => $permissions,
        ];
    }
);

# Changed Permissions

A number of user permissions have been renamed in Craft 4:

Old New
createFoldersInVolume:<uid> createFolders:<uid>
deleteFilesAndFoldersInVolume:<uid> deleteAssets:<uid>
deletePeerFilesInVolume:<uid> deletePeerAssets:<uid>
editEntries:<uid> viewEntries:<uid>
editImagesInVolume:<uid> editImages:<uid>
editPeerEntries:<uid> viewPeerEntries:<uid>
editPeerFilesInVolume:<uid> savePeerAssets:<uid>
editPeerImagesInVolume:<uid> editPeerImages:<uid>
publishEntries:<uid> saveEntries:<uid>
No longer differentiates between enabled and disabled entries. Users with viewEntries:<uid> permissions can still create drafts.
publishPeerEntries:<uid> savePeerEntries:<uid>
No longer differentiates between enabled and disabled entries. Users with viewPeerEntries:<uid> permissions can still create drafts.
replaceFilesInVolume:<uid> replaceFiles:<uid>
replacePeerFilesInVolume:<uid> replacePeerFiles:<uid>
saveAssetInVolume:<uid> saveAssets:<uid>
viewPeerFilesInVolume:<uid> viewPeerAssets:<uid>
viewVolume:<uid> viewAssets:<uid>

Some user permissions have been split into more granular alternatives:

Old Split Into
editCategories:<uid> viewCategories:<uid>
saveCategories:<uid>
deleteCategories:<uid>
viewPeerCategoryDrafts:<uid>
savePeerCategoryDrafts:<uid>
deletePeerCategoryDrafts:<uid>
editPeerEntryDrafts:<uid> viewPeerEntryDrafts:<uid>
savePeerEntryDrafts:<uid>

# Declaring DateTime Attributes

The dateTimeAttributes() (opens new window) method, used to designate a model’s attributes having DateTime (opens new window) values for easier handling and storage, has been deprecated.

Craft uses DateTime type declarations instead.

A model in Craft 3 might have declared its own $dateViewed attribute like this:

<?php

class MyModel extends \yii\base\Model
{
    public $dateViewed;
    
    // ...

    public function datetimeAttributes(): array
    {
        $attributes = parent::datetimeAttributes();
        $attributes[] = 'dateViewed';
        return $attributes;
    }

    // ...
}

In Craft 4, all that’s needed is the DateTime type declaration:

<?php

class MyModel extends \yii\base\Model
{
    public ?DateTime $dateViewed;
    
    // ...
}

Thanks to Craft 4’s Typecast (opens new window) helper, all arrays, floats, booleans, and strings are normalized correctly in addition to DateTime values.

# Templates

# View::renderTemplateMacro() has been removed

With changes in Twig 3, the View (opens new window) class has removed its renderTemplateMacro() method.

The Cp (opens new window) helper includes methods for rendering Craft’s built-in form components you may be able to use (like Cp::textFieldHtml() (opens new window))—otherwise any macros will need to be moved to their own full templates.

# Template Hooks

Element-specific control panel template hooks have been removed:

  • cp.assets.edit.content
  • cp.assets.edit.details
  • cp.assets.edit.meta
  • cp.assets.edit.settings
  • cp.assets.edit
  • cp.categories.edit.content
  • cp.categories.edit.details
  • cp.categories.edit.meta
  • cp.categories.edit.settings
  • cp.categories.edit
  • cp.elements.edit
  • cp.entries.edit.content
  • cp.entries.edit.details
  • cp.entries.edit.meta
  • cp.entries.edit.settings
  • cp.entries.edit

With the new unified element editor, anything that needs to be included in the editor should be provided in a field layout.

If your plugin appended non-field content to a main content area, however, you can use Craft 4’s ElementsController::EVENT_DEFINE_EDITOR_CONTENT (opens new window) to check the event object’s $element property and optionally append markup to $html.

# GraphQL

TypeManager::prepareFieldDefinitions() (opens new window) has been deprecated. Use Gql::prepareFieldDefinitions() (opens new window) instead:

// Craft 3
public static function getFieldDefinitions(): array
{
    return craft\gql\TypeManager::prepareFieldDefinitions([
        // ...
    ], self::getName());
}

// Craft 4
public static function getFieldDefinitions(): array
{
    return Craft::$app->getGql()->prepareFieldDefinitions([
        // ...
    ], self::getName());
}

# Defining Components

Plugins can now define their components (like services) using a new static config() (opens new window) method rather than setComponents() (opens new window). This makes the plugin’s service extendable in the same way Craft’s main app config can be extended via config/app.

To take advantage of this, you could move your existing component definition...

// Craft 3/4 `setComponents()`
public function init(): void
{
    // …
    $this->setComponents([
        'myComponent' => MyComponent::class
    ]);
}

...to the new config() method:

// Craft 4 `config()`
public static function config(): array
{
    return [
        'components' => [
            'myComponent' => ['class' => MyComponent::class],
        ],
    ];
}

A project then has the option to customize the component from config/app.php:

return [
    'components' => [
        'plugins' => [
            'pluginConfigs' => [
                'my-plugin' => [
                    'components' => [
                        'myComponent' => [
                            'myProperty' => 'foo',
                        ],
                    ],
                ],
            ],
        ],
    ],
];