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Learning Drupal 6 Module Development

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Learning Drupal 6 Module Development

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Learning Drupal 6 Module Development
May, 2008 | 328 pages
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Table of Contents (14 chapters)
Learning Drupal 6 Module Development
Learning Drupal 6 Module Development
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Introduction to Drupal Modules
Introduction to Drupal Modules
Drupal's Architecture
Crucial Drupal Concepts
Developers' Tools
A Word on Our Demonstration Site
Summary
2
Creating Our First Module
Creating Our First Module
Starting Out
A Basic .module File
Installing a Module
Using Goodreads Data
Finishing Touches: hook_help()
Summary
3
The Theme System
The Theme System
The Theme System's Architecture
Creating a Custom Theme
Summary
4
Theming Modules
Theming Modules
Our Target Module: What We Want
Creating a Custom Content Type
The Foundations of the Module
A Simple Database Lookup
Theming Inside a Module
Overriding the Default Theme from a Theme
Summary
5
Using JavaScript and AJAX/JSON in Modules
Using JavaScript and AJAX/JSON in Modules
Picking up Where We Left Off
Introducing jQuery
Writing a Drupal AJAX/JSON Service
Summary
6
An Administration Module
An Administration Module
The emailusers Module
The Beginning of the Module
Registering an Administration Page
Handling Forms with the Forms API (FAPI)
Sending Mail with the Mail API
Incorporating the Module into Administration
Summary
7
Building a Content Type
Building a Content Type
The biography Module
The Content Creation Kit
The Starting Point
The Module Installation Script
Correlating the New Table with Nodes
The Content Creation Form
Access Controls
Database Hooks
Hooks for Getting Data
Theming Biography Content
Summary
8
Filters, Actions, and Hooks
Filters, Actions, and Hooks
The sitenews Module
Getting Started
A Simple Content Type, Defined in Code
Creating Filters and an Input Format
The Beginning of an Action
Defining a Hook
Completing the Action: Theming and Mailing
Adding a Trigger
Summary
9
An Installation Profile
An Installation Profile
Introducing Installation Profiles
Setting up a Distribution
Programming Profiles
The .profile Script
The Installation Task System
Packaging the Distribution
Summary

Chapter 5. Using JavaScript and AJAX/JSON in Modules

The module we created in the last chapter used the theme system to provide user‑interface elements for our Philosophy Quotes module. In this chapter, we will pick up where we left off, and we will take steps toward a richer user interface.

In this chapter, we will use Drupal's JavaScript libraries (including the popular jQuery library) to add client-side features to the Philosophy Quotes module. We will also use AJAX (Aysnchronous JavaScript and XML) technology to dynamically change page contents without having to do a full page reload.

Here are some of the items we will cover while working on this module:

  • Using the Drupal and jQuery JavaScript libraries

  • Adding new locations (URLs) using hook_menu()

  • Building a JSON (JavaScript Over the Network) service

  • Fetching content using AJAX/JSON queries

Picking up Where We Left Off

In the last chapter, we built a module that read data from a custom content type, and displayed it as block content. This module...

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