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Converting UTF8 strings to ASCII in Drupal
by Brian Vuyk 16 Nov '09

16 Nov '09

Hi all. I am having a bit of a unique problem here, and I am hoping someone can help me out. In short, we are outputting strings from a custom module we wrote to an external service that only accepts the ASCII character set. So, I am trying to run all the strings through iconv() to convert them. Here's the weird part. Take the script below: $string = "Stéphanie,D Hérouville"; $output = iconv("UTF-8", 'ASCII//TRANSLIT', $string); print $output; If I run this from the command line, I get the proper output - 'Stephanie D Herouville'. However, if I run it in my Drupal installation, whether as part of a module or from the Devel 'Execute PHP' box, I get different output: 'St?phanie D H?rouville'. That is, instead of replacing the character with it's expected ASCII counterpart, it replaces it with a ?. Has anyone encountered this, or have any idea why this is happening? Brian

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D7UX
by Josh Miller 12 Nov '09

12 Nov '09

This is a straight copy-paste from a post on gdo (http://groups.drupal.org/node/35140 by brandonojc <http://groups.drupal.org/user/16403> ): ============= The focus of the Drupal 7 code slush has now shifted to Accessibility, Usability and Performance. Dries and webchick are prioritizing many patches that the 'Accessibility Task Force' had focused on. Yay! Some important accessibility enhancements have now been committed to D7 core: * #541612: Sortable table header links lack accessible purpose and context <http://drupal.org/node/541612> * #551034: Find Content filter accessibility <http://drupal.org/node/551034> * #541568: Link to expand / collapse fieldsets has poorly accessible link text <http://drupal.org/node/541568> * #521852: Local tasks (tabs) lack semantic markup to indicate an active task <http://drupal.org/node/521852> * #447816: Relying on a color to indicate a field validation error <http://drupal.org/node/447816> * and 4 patches that add proper headings to status/error messages <http://drupal.org/node/515236> , navigation menus <http://drupal.org/node/364219> , breadcrumbs <http://drupal.org/node/526674> , and the pager <http://drupal.org/node/321023> Your help is needed to review and refine other key improvements: * #169912: Garland: Use appropriate header-tags following the W3C <http://drupal.org/node/169912> * #622136: User/People admin filter accessibility <http://drupal.org/node/622136> (this one just needs review!) * #467296: Accessibility improvements for vertical tabs <http://drupal.org/node/467296> * #448292: Drag-n-drop for table rows is not accessible <http://drupal.org/node/448292> (needs work) * #558928: Form element labeling is inconsistent, inflexible and bad for accessibility <http://drupal.org/node/558928> * and 3 ARIA improvements for installation progress indicator <http://drupal.org/node/513946> , autocomplete <http://drupal.org/node/515262> , and password strength indicator <http://drupal.org/node/521904> . The new deadline for this phase is December 1 so as of today we have just under 3 weeks left. Read more about the code slush rules and Dec 1 deadline for accessibility: http://buytaert.net/drupal-7-code-freeze-status-update-and-next-steps See the full list of accessibility issues <http://drupal.org/project/issues/search/drupal?text=&assigned=&submitte d=&participant=&status%5B%5D=Open&issue_tags_op=or&issue_tags=accessibil ity> . _____________________________________ Josh Miller Web / Technology Director Haan Marketing + Communications http://www.haanmc.com/ 123 N. 8th Street, Lafayette, IN 47902-0350 T. 765.423.5470 F. 765-742-2881

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can you alter the way a node is represented
by vishnu vardhan 12 Nov '09

12 Nov '09

HI, If a predefined node say a page, a story or any other content needs to be displayed as a result of search or displaying authors created list of stories, etc is there any way of modifying the default node_view. I mean is there any facility like node_view_alter or something so that i can change the way the content is getting displyed through my module ???????????/ Vishnu On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 5:30 PM, <development-request(a)drupal.org> wrote: > Send development mailing list submissions to > development(a)drupal.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://lists.drupal.org/mailman/listinfo/development > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > development-request(a)drupal.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > development-owner(a)drupal.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of development digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: PHP Standards Group (Naheem Zaffar) > 2. Re: PHP Standards Group (Daniel F. Kudwien) > 3. Re: PHP Standards Group (Cameron Eagans) > 4. Re: PHP Standards Group (Jeff Greenberg) > 5. Re: PHP Standards Group (David Metzler) > 6. Doing hook_update_N() when module is installed (Randy Fay) > 7. Re: Doing hook_update_N() when module is installed (Ken Rickard) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:10:22 +0000 > From: Naheem Zaffar <naheemzaffar(a)gmail.com> > Subject: Re: [development] PHP Standards Group > To: development(a)drupal.org > Message-ID: > <3adc77210911111010n462becbcs4ac0bd4a18c1d562(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > 2009/11/11 Alex Bronstein <alex(a)craftyspace.com> > > > +1 for requiring PHP 5.3 for D8 (that's obviously not a community > decision > > yet, just me saying I'd support a GoPHP 5.3 project) > > > > -1 as it kind of involves abandoning a majority of the current user base. > > Let's see how the 5.2 thing is handled first - the latest RHEL release is > still on 5.1.6 (with maybe patches that may or may not give it enough > functionality). If RHEL 6 does not get a move on, there could be many users > crying foul on the support forums, and this is with > what-I-assume-is-a-special-case ultra extended 2 year development cycle for > Drupal 7 instead of the previous 6 to 9 month cycles. >

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Can .htaccess discard part of a path?
by Nancy Wichmann 11 Nov '09

11 Nov '09

I am getting lots of requests like this: http://www.example.com/index.php?q=cgi-bin/printOriginal.pl&file=/alpha/beta /gamma/rage_prevention.shtml The file argument is a valid page on our old site and is itself redirected with a ReWriteRule in .htaccess. However, cgi-bin/printOriginal.pl does not exist and I have no idea what it was supposed to do (well, I can guess print the page). We get lots of these requests for different pages. I have tried a simple rewrite rule and a URL alias to prevent the 404 processing, but neither has fixed it. Is it possible to design a rewriterule that essentially discards the "cgi-bin/printOriginal.pl" and just serves up the requested page (well, after its own rewrite rule has worked)? So this would become http://www.example.com/index.php/alpha/beta/gamma/rage_prevention.shtml Nancy E. Wichmann, PMP Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. -- Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.

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new content type appear in admin/content/types but doesn't appear node/add
by Matias Carranza 11 Nov '09

11 Nov '09

Hi developers!! I've created a new content type (drupal 5) and it appears in admin/content/types, but for some reason (that I cant understand) it doesn't appear in node/add list... And if I go to node/add/[content-type], the result is the same page of node/add, but in the title shows the title of the new content-type instead of "Create Content" Well.... I've checked the permissions in Control Access, and these are ok... Somebody had has this bug some time?? Thanks!! -- ------------------------ Matias Carranza

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Help with custom_url_rewrite_outboud(), url(), and l() because external URLs need rewriting too
by Mlen-Too Wesley 10 Nov '09

10 Nov '09

Hello, I am currently developing a module to help libraries rewrite links to external databases, such as ProQuest and LexisNexis, routing those links through an EZProxy <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EZproxy> or other proxy referral server. For example, consider a resource located at: http://www.books24x7.com/marc.asp?bookid=30164 If accessed from an on-campus IP address, the resource will be available to the student. However, if off-campus, the student would either have to use VPN to route all their internet traffic through a university IP address or use an proxy referral server, such as EZProxy. EZProxy is easier, so from the library home page, the link is rewritten to something such as: http://ezproxy.example-library.edu/login?url=http://www.books24x7.com/marc.… This way, the student is presented with a login screen for authentication and then directed to the resource. An easy module to make... or so I thought. Given the custom_url_rewrite_outbound() function, this kind of stuff should be easy to do in Drupal, but it is not. The url() function in common.inc returns the $path variable without any attempts to call custom_url_rewrite_outbout(). All would be well, if line 1408 of common.inc added the same functionality to external links in the url() function as it does for internal links. It just needs 3 lines: if (function_exists('custom_url_rewrite_outbound')) { // Modules may alter outbound links by reference. custom_url_rewrite_outbound($path, $options, $original_path); } Other than applying a patch, does anyone know another way around this issue? I am not talking about Apache mod_rewrite or anything similar, Clean URLs, or the Path module and URL aliases. I am looking for a way to rewrite external URLs in anchor tags (links) without creating a wrapper function for url() or l()... or using JavaScript or AJAX. Thanks! MT

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Can the new D7 database api handle ER_LOCK_DEADLOCK?
by Jonathan Brown 10 Nov '09

10 Nov '09

Database transactions are always susceptible to deadlock: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/innodb-deadlocks.html Looking at the last example on this page: http://api.drupal.org/api/group/database/7 Surely in catch{}, the exception should be examined for ER_LOCK_DEADLOCK? The entire transaction could be in a do-while loop, so it is continually reattempted until the transaction does not deadlock. ER_LOCK_DEADLOCK is mysql specific. Does the new db layer have an abstraction for this? -- Jonathan Brown Blue Droplet Media http://bluedroplet.com/

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CVS Outage For Upgrade
by Narayan Newton 09 Nov '09

09 Nov '09

There will be a 30 min CVS outage at 1PM Pacific Time Today. After which CVS will be on a much more powerful server. I apologize for any inconvenience. 30 Min Outage 1PM Pacific/2000 UTC -- Narayan Newton GA Member Drupal Association Tag1Consulting

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Views and Rules
by Steven Jones 09 Nov '09

09 Nov '09

Hi, Most of us know that the project_issue module automatically closes fixed issues after two weeks of inactivity, this is done with a fairly simple SQL query run on cron. The casetracker modules that are bundled with open atrium lack such a feature, and I'm trying to add one. Now I know that I could add a simple SQL query on cron, and add the feature, but I think closing fixed cases after two weeks is a specific example of a more general feature. That is: doing some actions to a bunch of stuff. I think the 'some actions' can be provided by actions, or even rule sets from the rules module, but it seems that the only way to invoke actions at the moment is from an event driven perspective, and although there is a 'cron' event in rules, it seems you can't then iterate over nodes matching certain conditions. So I'd still need to code a way to build the 'bunch of stuff'. One of my first thoughts was: 'can I use views for this?' My idea is to add a display plugin that 'renders' a view 'into actions', the providing module can execute the view on cron. Is there something similar out there that already does this? Does it sound like even a vaguely sensible idea? Regards Steven Jones ComputerMinds ltd - Perfect Drupal Websites Phone : 024 7666 7277 Mobile : 07702 131 576 Twitter : darthsteven http://www.computerminds.co.uk

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Announcing DRUPAL-7-0-UNSTABLE-10
by Angela Byron 09 Nov '09

09 Nov '09

Today I committed the last of the straggler RTBC API changes from code freeze week (see http://drupal.org/node/578446 for the D7 development schedule), and have just rolled DRUPAL-7-0-UNSTABLE-10. There are / lots/ of changes in this one, since it embodies the entire "code slush" phase of release, and the community really rallied (especially towards the end) to cram lots of awesome stuff in! The full commit log is attached; this e-mail contains some of the highlights. We're now API frozen, except for any API changes necesary to fix critical, release-blocking issues. So it "should" be safe to start porting your modules, if you haven't already begun. I'll announce via the devel list and Twitter (http://twitter.com/webchick) about any major API changes that are particularly gnarly, but hopefully, most of the worst is behind us now. I'm also hoping that this will be one of the last unstable releases, and that we can start heading into alpha/ beta territory in the new year. To help make Drupal 7 the best release possible, please help out in one or more of the following areas, which are the focus until 12/1: * ¡¡PERFORMANCE!! (seriously, we need help! ;)) Meta issue where efforts are being coordinated: http://drupal.org/node/615822 http://drupal.org/project/issues/search/drupal?issue_tags=Performance * Usability improvements: "Hit list" from UX team: http://www.bojhan.nl/drupal-7-ux-last-phase/ http://drupal.org/project/issues/search/drupal?issue_tags=Usability http://drupal.org/project/issues/search/drupal?issue_tags=D7UX Overlays: http://drupal.org/node/610234 Note that a lot of these usability patches are relatively easy to create for developers, but the UX team is in a lot of cases blocked by lack of people assisting. So if you're looking for a spot to jump in, let the folks in #drupal-usability know! * Accessibility improvements: http://drupal.org/project/issues/search/drupal?issue_tags=accessibility * Documentation/Text improvements: http://drupal.org/project/issues/search/drupal?component[]=user +interface+text http://drupal.org/project/issues/search/drupal?component[]=documentation And, if /none/ of those floats your boat, there's always the critical queue: http://drupal.org/project/issues/search/drupal? version [0 ]= 156281 &status [0 ]= 1 &status [1 ]= 8 &status [2]=13&status[3]=14&priorities[0]=1&categories[0]=bug&categories[1]=task So, what's new in DRUPAL-7-0-UNSTABLE-10? I'm so glad you asked! Feature exceptions ================== The first topic to cover is that of our 10 feature exceptions. As mentioned in the last unstable release announcement at http://lists.drupal.org/pipermail/development/2009-September/033741.html , the "code slush" period leading from Oct. 15 -> Nov. 15 established was to get these in, along with any required API clean-ups. The community rallied in a *huge* way, and we were able to get 8 of the 10 feature exceptions in, including such awesomeness as: * Image Field: The default "Article" content type even ships with an image field utilizing image styles to auto-resize pictures to show off this awesome functionality. * Contextual links: If you install D7, you'll notice that there are now edit, configure, etc. links everywhere; new functionality that's baked into the menu system. Now, instead of this having to be implemented separately by certain modules and themes, it comes by default in core. Yay! (Note: The styling and interaction of these links is being handled as a separate clean-up issue to keep bikeshedding to a minimum. If you're design/UX-savvy and want to help out, see http://drupal.org/node/601150.) * Customizable admin shortcuts: A dedicated menu that appears underneath the toolbar for frequently-accessed tasks. As an administrator, you establish "sets" of shortcuts which can then be allocated on a per-user or per-role basis. Handy! * Customizable administrative dashboard: Drupal now comes by default with a drag-and-drop Dashboard screen for arranging blocks to give a "bird's eye view" of the site's activity. We're hoping that this addition will cause module developers to design blocks specifically for the dashboard that would be of general use to site administrators and content editors. (Note: The UX team needs some hands on building out some default Dashboard blocks to ship with core; see http://drupal.org/node/614410 if you want to lend a hand.) * Update manager: Now, Drupal provides a web interface for installing and updating your modules and themes! HUZZAH!! It prompts for a URL or file upload of the module, your FTP password, and then fetches and auto-extracts it. See http://3281d.com/2009/11/03/d7-update-manager for more information on this totally kick-ass new feature, and for a list of issues where you can lend a hand! * Native RDFa support. This involves a new hook, hook_rdf_mapping() and allows you to map your modules' data to an namespace. This involves a few changes to theme templates as well, to print out the necessary attributes. Really proud to see Drupal leading the way on the semantic web! * Taxonomy -> Field API translation: Now, not only are terms fieldable, they're also fields themselves! How meta. Yay! That's all great news. So what /didn't/ get in? Unfortunately, Profile => Field API conversion. :( It turns out there's quite a bit more to this conversion than initially meets the eye, so the effort didn't get off the ground in time. This also means that Drupal 7 core will be shipping with the same Profile module as Drupal 6, sadly... But the good news is that a renewed effort for building a full Field API-utilizing Profile module replacement has begin in contrib as the "Profile2" module, in an effort to rectify this situation in Drupal 8. See http://drupal.org/node/623210 for the gory details and to help push this forward. Administrative overlays also didn't make it, though it got around 80-90% working, and all required API changes were ready to go by code freeze. Therefore, Dries and I have decided to treat this as a user interface improvement, which can still be focused on during the "polish" phase. So please pitch in at http://drupal.org/node/610234. The latest screencast at http://drupal.org/node/610234#comment-2233140 is looking /damn/ sexy. Finally, while all of the required API changes for translatable fields were added, the UI unfortunately didn't make it. There is ongoing work on this at http://drupal.org/node/539110. As for everything else... Changes for developers: ======================= * There's a new hook_username_alter() which enables contrib modules to override the display of a username everywhere. This is an important shift, since in Drupal 6 the only option was overriding theme_username(), which is not called consistently everywhere. * In other user-related news, there's a spiffy new user role/ permission API, with actual functions like user_role_grant_permissions() and so on. No more downloading Install Profile API module to deal with basic user operations. w00t! We also removed hook_user_form() and hook_user_register() in favour of just using standard hook_form_alter() constructs like every other form. * There are new hooks for menu operations: update, insert, delete for both links and menus themselves. This should enable some interesting new things in contrib during the Drupal 7 release cycle. * Huge overhaul of the actions/triggers API so that they now map directly to hooks and generalize out some stuff like the 'prepare' property changes from node/comment. * Pluggable field API storage engines are now per-field, rather than per-entity. This allows a single field to pull in data from Amazon Web Services, for example. * Core now allows <head> metadata to be alterable via hook_html_head_alter(), and implements the rel="canonical" and rel="shortcut" standards out of the box. * A few selected queries in core have been flagged as slave-safe. This will help those sites running master/slave replication. We also removed the last remnants of the old database system; DBTNG all the way, baby... * Links are altogether far more flexible now. "Operations" links are now renderable properties which can be altered, we got rid of the completely obtuse and befuddling custom_url_rewrite "magic" functions in favour of good ol' fashioned hook_url_alter(), and we added a new theme_link() function. * There was a browser.inc we'd committed earlier in the cycle; the intention was to use it as a general tool to replace SimpleTest's browser, drupal_http_request(), etc. However, the necessary follow-up work was not completed, and in talking to Jimmy, he stated that he could handle this better in contrib. Therefore, this was rolled back, in favour of http://drupal.org/project/browser, in case anyone /was/ using it (or wants to help improve it). * Speaking of things we changed our minds about, remember how horrible it was back in D5 and below where we had sequences? Well. They're back. ;) Sorta. We added a sequences API which can be used for selected tables that needs them. The good news is you can now import/ export a Drupal 7 DB in PHPMyAdmin without it crying. * A /fantastic/ new JavaScript "states" system was added, which lets module developers easily create UIs like "show this text field when that checkbox is checked" or "populate this list of options based on the selection from that list of options." In other JS-related news, we also unified the page, AJAX 'path', and AJAX 'callback' callbacks. Changes for themers: ==================== * Page.tpl.php has now been split into html.tpl.php (for <html>, <head>, and <body>) and page.tpl.php (for page content). This was a contentious change, but is necessary to ensure that all template files dealing with user-facing markup can consistently benefit from the new, powerful render()-enabled theming system in D7. * There's a new region.tpl.php to handle changes to block regions. * Themes can now implement *_alter() hooks. hook_form_alter(), hook_page_alter(), etc. Yet another contentious change. ;) However, it was deemed necessary to let themers take full advantage of the render API, otherwise they'd need to create modules for doing what is clearly presentation layer logic. Please, <em>please</em> do not do evil things with this that make me regret comitting it and cause it to get rolled back in D8. ;P * The search box is no longer a theme variable; you now treat it as a normal block. * Core ships with three image style presets: thumbnail, medium, and large. You can now depend on those being there (though not their exact formatting/size size) in your themes. * All theme functions now take a single $variables array. This is so that preprocessing between template files and theme functions is consistent. Changes for site builders: ========================== * You can now choose default input formats (now called "Text formats") per role. Text formats are weightable, and whichever is the lowest- weighted format your role has access to becomes your default. No more cursing yourself for forgetting to flip to "Full HTML" for that cursed image tag! ;) * RSS now outputs to "Full node" by default, to conform with recommended good netizen practices. As always, this is configurable if you like to force people to come to your site to read your stuff. * Password checker now has more sexy, with a longer bar that indicates relative password strength. Better for accessibility, too. * Creating a menu link from a node is a simple checkbox, which as an added bonus pre-populates the title field with the node title. Very slick usability improvement! Another nice one is you can limit the parent menus that can be selected on the form; for example, to just "Main menu" so you don't have to scroll through the 4,000 links in "Navigation." :) * We took out the confusing behaviour of the theme auto-switching when you're on the blocks page. There's now a preview link if you want to see what it looks like.

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