Re: [development] Accessing CCK field data (single, multiple, or shared) from another module

23 Mar 2007

      To find the right table for a field for a SQL query, use the API, like this:

$db_info = content_database_info($field);
$table = $db_info['table'];

That will always return the right table for the requested field. 

$field needs to be the complete field array, not just the field name, so if you only have the field name, you would do:

$field = content_fields(my_field_name);
$db_info = content_database_info($field);
$table = $db_info['table'];

content_database_info($field) also contains info about the columns declared by the field so you know what field names to use in a SQL query. It returns an array that looks like:

Array (
    [table] => content_type_story
    [columns] => Array (
            [value] => Array  (
                    [type] => varchar
                    [length] => 50
                    [not null] => 1
                    [default] => ''
                    [sortable] => 1
                    [column] => field_phone_value
                )
            [value2] => Array (
                    [type] => int
                    [length] => 10
                    [unsigned] => 1
                    [not null] => 1
                    [default] => 0
                    [column] => field_phone_type
                )
        )
)

----- Original Message ----
From: Rob Barreca <rob@electronicinsight.com>
To: development@drupal.org
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2007 7:55:31 PM
Subject: Re: [development] Accessing CCK field data (single, multiple, or shared) from another module
...
Is there a function for getting the data that you can just give a node
type and a field name and it handles the rest?
This is something I've just run into as well. I have a hardcoded to 
query the DB for the multiple field table, but have a TODO in there to 
find the right API call.

Rob Roy Barreca
Founder and COO
Electronic Insight Corporation
http://www.electronicinsight.com
rob@electronicinsight.com

Benjamin Melançon wrote:
...
Gracious developers, CCK people especially...
I wrote an access control module that works with the node relativity
module to cascade permissions to all nodes lower in a hierarchy.  I
hard-coded a query for a userreference field on a custom content type
as one way to give a user access to a node (and its descendants).
In generalizing this, the current stumbling block is the way CCK
stores single instances in the content data table and shared instances
of a field in a separate table.
Is there a function for getting the data that you can just give a node
type and a field name and it handles the rest?
Or is there a place to check what the case is for a particular field?
(Even a "column_exists()" function would do it for me, but haven't
found one in PHP...)
It's being developed in Drupal 5 and fixing this (as well as saving
explicitly permitted users when creating a new node) is all that's
needed for posting the project for general use.
Many thanks,
ben
Agaric Design Collective
Open Source Web Development
http://AgaricDesign.com/
People Who Give a Damn
building the infrastructure of a network for everyone
http://pwgd.org/

Re: [development] Accessing CCK field data (single, multiple, or shared) from another module

Karen Stevenson