Creating a new attribute to Customer Entity - Throwing Error

Question

I am creating a new attribute (mobile) for the Customer Entity. The attribute should be of type 'static' since this one is a required field and for easy retrieval.

I came to know that it requires 2 steps:

1. Create a column in the customer_entity table.
2. Add an attribute to the customer entity with Patch.

Below is my code:

1. Creating column in customer_entity table. db_schema.xml

<schema xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:Setup/Declaration/Schema/etc/schema.xsd">
    <table name="customer_entity">
        <column xsi:type="varchar" name="mobile" comment="Customer Mobile Number" nullable="false"/>
    </table>
</schema>

Generated scheme whitelist db_schema_whitelist.json:

{
    "customer_entity": {
        "column": {
            "mobile": true
        }
    }
}

2. Created a Data Patch for adding a new attribute in the eav_attribute table, AddMobileAttributePatch.php:

public function apply()
    {
        $this->moduleDataSetup->startSetup();

        $customerSetup = $this->customerSetupFactory->create(['setup' => $this->moduleDataSetup]);
        $customerSetup->addAttribute(
            \Magento\Customer\Model\Customer::ENTITY,
            'mobile',
            [
                'type'         => 'static',
                'label'        => 'Mobile Number',
                'input'        => 'text',
                'required'     => true,
                'unique'       => true,
                'visible'      => true,
                'user_defined' => true,
                'position'     => 999,
                'system'       => 0,
            ]
        );

        $attribute = $customerSetup->getEavConfig()
                                    ->getAttribute(\Magento\Customer\Model\Customer::ENTITY, 'mobile')
                                    ->addData([
                                        'used_in_forms' => [
                                            'adminhtml_customer',
                                            'checkout_register',
                                            'customer_account_create',
                                            'customer_account_edit'
                                        ],
                                    ]);

        $attribute->save();

        $this->moduleDataSetup->endSetup();
    }

Now the column is created in the customer_entity table and a new attribute is available in the eav_attribute table. The field is also available in the Admin Customer Edit Form.

The problem is when I enter some data into the mobile field and hit save, it returns the error " Mobile Number" is a required value.. This error is from the server-side and Js validation is working fine.

Can anyone help me get through this?

Answer 1

tl;dr: Update is_user_defined and system property to false. This is for my specific where I do not want the attribute to be a system value.

The issue was related to below issues: Customer attribute gives error of required value #7753 Customer EAV Decimal Attribute required allow 0 #20030

During debugging, when the validateValue($value) method was called in Magento\Eav\Model\Attribute\Data\Text, I was getting empty string for $value. But the $_POST does have the newly created attribute value.

Then luckily I found this thread. Attribute property 'system' - what it exactly does

\Magento\Customer\Model\Metadata\CustomerMetadata::getCustomAttributesMetadata These methods are deciding to add or not to add your created attributes to custom_attributes array. It means that these attributes will not be accessible for CRUD operations in Repositories.

Then I changed the is_user_defined property to false and now the attribute value is getting saved in the DB.