[support] can i hook a hook?

[sebastian chedal]

Thanks for your input, a few final questions about this before i give up on
trying to be fancy.

1. Is it not possible to "extend" a module with a custom module? Kinda like
if I was object programing? Or is hook_alter also required for this?

2. Is there any documentation I can read about making a module able to be
altered? What changes need to be made to allow this?

3. The nodeasblock.module does have several nodeasblock_*_form_alter
functions in it, is it somehow possible to preprocess some of these in a
theme or in a custom module, to add the new checkbox to toggle the link
being an href yes/no, and to then call a different function [from my custom
module] to accomplish this?

Even if this last option is not the best solution [since I should probably
submit a patch to the module with the new checkbox as part of the module's
code], I'm curious to just know IF this is possible; so that when I
encounter more complicated problems, where what I need to do isn't
necessarily something that anyone else is ever going to want, and I still
want to make sure that if the module is updated that my extension to it
still (probably) works.

While I appreciate your comment that I could just "leave it" I'm also trying
to learn here at the same time the more advanced aspects of drupal at this
stage since I am feeling ready for it! At the moment the best solution I
have is using PHP at the block-nodeasblock.tpl.php level to do a string
replace and strip the a href; but that feels like "wearing a bullet vest"
instead of just "getting rid of the gun".
:-)

Until now I've been depending on a lot of other Drupal people to handle
bugs/features when they get hardcore but I really want to get a better
understanding for how to modify / extend / hook into and alter modules. It's
hard finding a lot of good information on this, so I'm always open to some
good links too!

Thanks again!
Really appreciated.

Sebastian.

On Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 8:55 PM, Larry Garfield <larry at garfieldtech.com>wrote:

> Unfortunately in that case it doesn't look like there's a way in.  You'll
> need
> to either hack the module or submit a patch back to the maintainer to make
> it
> more flexible.  The latter approach is generally preferred. :-)
>
> Or just decide that having the link there doesn't actually hurt anything so
> it's not worth fussing over.  That's also a viable option far more often
> than
> people realize.
>
> --Larry Garfield
>
> On Thursday, December 09, 2010 10:17:12 pm sebastian wrote:
> > Hi Larry,
> >
> > Thank you so much for replying to my query.
> >
> > So if my contrib module doesn't offer an _alter() (and it does not) my
> > only option is to hack the module? [or worse, use jquery to alter the
> > output]
> >
> > The module is question is nodeasblock and the function implements:
> >
> > nodeasblock_block ($op = 'list', $delta = 0)
> >
> > It makes theming decisions in it's operation, which I need to alter.
> > Namely it decides that the $node->title should be:
> >
> > l($node->title, 'node/'. $node->nid)
> >
> > I need to strip the <a href> since I don't want my block to be clickable
> > and lead to itself.
> >
> > In other words:
> >
> > 'subject' => l($node->title, 'node/'. $node->nid),
> >
> > will just become
> >
> >   'subject' => $node->title,
> >
> > I can hack the module, but that seems like a "no-no"
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > Sebastian.
> >
> > On 2010-12-09 8:04 PM, Larry Garfield wrote:
> > > Some hooks that offer definitions, like hook_menu(), will have a
> > > corresponding alter hook like hook_menu_alter().  There is no alter
> hook
> > > for hook_block(), though.  That said, there is an alter hook for all
> > > forms, hook_form_alter(). So if you're manipulating a form you may be
> > > able to do so that way.
> > >
> > > --Larry Garfield
> > >
> > > On Thursday, December 09, 2010 9:22:48 pm sebastian wrote:
> > >> Hello,
> > >>
> > >> Having a terrible time finding anything about this, and all I can find
> > >> on Drupal.org is the API for hooks, which doesn't really explain
> enough.
> > >>
> > >> My question is, if there is a contrib module with an implementation
> of:
> > >>
> > >> hook_block()
> > >>
> > >> such as:
> > >>
> > >> nodeasblock_block()
> > >>
> > >> How can I change the values inside of this function, without changing
> > >> the function directly?
> > >>
> > >> can I write something in template.php to catch the nodeasblock_block
> > >> hook and then change the values in it?
> > >>
> > >> Or do I need to change the nodeasblock module directly? perhaps adding
> > >> the feature as a full blown check box addition or just hack it??
> > >>
> > >> Thanks for any help you can provide me!
> > >>
> > >> kindly,
> > >>
> > >> Sebastian.
> --
> [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
>
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