Change LinkItem schema to also store a description

AFAIK this is required in order to not lose translatability, which makes it a hard blocker for #2407505: [meta] Finalize the menu links (and other user-entered paths) system, so adjusting some metadata.

I added it to the widget, did we want that? If so, do we want a setting to disable it similar to "Link text"?

I added it to the widget, did we want that?

I think so.

If so, do we want a setting to disable it similar to "Link text"?

I agree. It doesn't make sense to have title optional but not description. I am implementing that in my patch.

I also attempted to use the description in the formatter to show up as the link's title attribute.

Fixing minor misses. Basically, making the setting to disable link description actually work.

1. +++ b/core/modules/link/src/Plugin/Field/FieldType/LinkItem.php
   @@ -74,6 +78,11 @@ public static function schema(FieldStorageDefinitionInterface $field_definition)
   +        'description' => array(
   +          'description' => 'The link description.',
   +          'type' => 'varchar',
   +          'length' => 255,
   +        ),
   

   Are we sure 255 is enough? I could easilly expect this to be quite long ... but well, this is what menu_link_content is doing.

2. +++ b/core/modules/link/src/Plugin/Field/FieldType/LinkItem.php
   @@ -112,6 +121,17 @@ public function fieldSettingsForm(array $form, FormStateInterface $form_state) {
   +      '#title' => t('Allow link description'),
   +      '#default_value' => $this->getSetting('description'),
   ...
   +        DRUPAL_DISABLED => t('Disabled'),
   +        DRUPAL_OPTIONAL => t('Optional'),
   +        DRUPAL_REQUIRED => t('Required'),
   

   $this->t() is available from here ... so let's use it for new code.

Just for reference, this was the discussion that originally started the need for a description field.

Need to add description column (or otherwise handle description translation) on the link field, right now while it supports options/attributes there's no UI for them.

From #2407505-20: [meta] Finalize the menu links (and other user-entered paths) system

I am documenting it here because I had to trace this through a couple of issues. This should probably be in the issue summary.

@Wim Leers @dawehner re #9.1 Title attribute has a limit in IE of 512 charaters, maybe that would be a reasonable limit here, as it seems the description is often used for the link title?

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/ms534683%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

Updated the issue summary as per suggestion in #11. I am not sure how adding the description is required to support translatability? I mean if there is no description, there is no need to translate it either? We don't need to add it so we can translate it if we don't have it in the first place. Not sure what justifies this being critical?

We (xjm, wim, tim, dawehner) discussed that a bit and decided that this is not critical.

a) Moving description later would be a pretty forward in terms of an upgrade path (just rename the column and be done)

b) We think description is not required to be changed, because the description is already part of menu link content and is working fine there.
It would just addition effort we would not strictly needed, especially if we decide that the title does not belong on the link item but rather the menu link content.

c) it makes things harder in terms of creating the UI, because a LinkWidget itself could be not mixed with some of the other fields.

Given that we don't think this would be required.

Great!

Reactivating, patch no longer applies

needs work might be a better issue status