Issue #1786740 by shanethehat: Fix up docs for field_update_instance()

1 files changed, 18 insertions, 5 deletions

diff --git a/modules/field/field.crud.inc b/modules/field/field.crud.inc
index e1acdd53b..c4c79d79f 100644
--- a/modules/field/field.crud.inc
+++ b/modules/field/field.crud.inc
@@ -522,17 +522,30 @@ function field_create_instance($instance) {
  * Updates an instance of a field.
  *
  * @param $instance
- *   An associative array representing an instance structure. The required
- *   keys and values are:
+ *   An associative array representing an instance structure. The following
+ *   required array elements specify which field instance is being updated:
  *   - entity_type: The type of the entity the field is attached to.
  *   - bundle: The bundle this field belongs to.
  *   - field_name: The name of an existing field.
- *   Read-only_id properties are assigned automatically. Any other
- *   properties specified in $instance overwrite the existing values for
- *   the instance.
+ *   The other array elements represent properties of the instance, and all
+ *   properties must be specified or their default values will be used (except
+ *   internal-use properties, which are assigned automatically). To avoid
+ *   losing the previously stored properties of the instance when making a
+ *   change, first load the instance with field_info_instance(), then override
+ *   the values you want to override, and finally save using this function.
+ *   Example:
+ *   @code
+ *   // Fetch an instance info array.
+ *   $instance_info = field_info_instance($entity_type, $field_name, $bundle_name);
+ *   // Change a single property in the instance definition.
+ *   $instance_info['definition']['required'] = TRUE;
+ *   // Write the changed definition back.
+ *   field_update_instance($instance_info['definition']);
+ *   @endcode
  *
  * @throws FieldException
  *
+ * @see field_info_instance()
  * @see field_create_instance()
  */
 function field_update_instance($instance) {