Drupal: Avoid database when dealing with node type info?

Question

I'm writing a Drupal module that deals with creating new nodes from CSV files. The way I've been doing it currently, the user provides a node type, and my module goes to the database to find the fields for that node.

After the user matches the node fields to the CSV fields, I want to validate the data. This requires finding out the types of the node fields. I'm not entirely sure how to do that. (Maybe look at the content_node_field table?)

Then, I have to create the nodes. Currently, the module creates a new StdClass object, populates it with the necessary data, and saves it.

But what if I could abstract away from the database entirely and avoid dealing with it? What if I asked the user to a node of this type that already exists? I could node_load() this node, and use that to determine node fields. When it comes time to save the nodes, I could use the "seed" node to figure out what the structure of the new nodes needs to be.

One downside: this requires at least one node of this type to exist before the module can function.

Also, would this be slower than accessing the db directly?

I fear that over time, db names could change, and content types could be defined across multiple tables. By working only from a pre-existing node, I could get around many of these issues. Right?

Answer 1

Surely node_load will be hitting the database anyway? The node fields are stored in the database so if you need to get them, at some point you have to talk to the database. Given that some page loads on Drupal invoke hundreds (or even thousands!) of database queries I really wouldn't worry about one or two!

Table names are unlikely to change and the schema should stay fixed between point versions of Drupal at least. It would be better practice to use the API to get the data you want if it is possible though, and this would give better protection against change. I don't know if that's possible.