[gatsby-source-contentful] Why do content types use name instead of ID?

[njbmartin]

@axe312ger I've just stumbled on an issue when renaming the "display name" for a content type, which results in queries suddenly failing because the type this plugin creates uses the name field (eg. Content Highlight Section), and not the ID (eg. contentHighlightSection).

I have prefixed some content types with [deprecated] to show content editors which types not to use any more without their content suddenly disappearing... unfortunately that's exactly what has happened here. If I wasn't pinning the schema with gatsby-plugin-schema-snapshot, this may not have surfaced as an issue, but I definitely believe the type name should be inferred from the ID.

The name field can be changed at any time, whereas the ID field cannot, so I think the below doesn't make sense, at least for the type definition.

gatsby/packages/gatsby-source-contentful/src/create-schema-customization.js

Lines 117 to 138 in 6ffe0af

	// Create types for each content type
	contentTypeItems.forEach(contentTypeItem =>
	contentfulTypes.push(
	schema.buildObjectType({
	name: _.upperFirst(
	_.camelCase(
	`Contentful ${
	pluginConfig.get(`useNameForId`)
	? contentTypeItem.name
	: contentTypeItem.sys.id
	}`
	)
	),
	fields: {
	contentful_id: { type: `String!` },
	id: { type: `ID!` },
	node_locale: { type: `String!` },
	},
	interfaces: [`ContentfulReference`, `ContentfulEntry`, `Node`],
	})
	)
	)

I can't use the config option useNameForId: false, as that changes the content nodes, so all the queries then break. Also, useNameForId when it's a name field?

[njbmartin]

Correction, it breaks queries regardless if you use fragments ;)

[axe312ger]

Sorry for the inconvenience, this pattern was introduced as IDs can not be changed in Contentful but these IDs might conflict with the GatsbyJS naming scheme.

What you can do:

1. Keep using IDs which should not change queries at all
2. Do not rename the content type names when using useNameForId
3. Or do rename and rewrite all queries :/

Alternatively: To get rid of this madness, I am working hard on #31385. As this is a huge change to the plugin, development on that new major will continue but take some more time.