Issue status update for http://drupal.org/node/19965 Project: Drupal Version: cvs Component: block.module Category: bug reports Priority: normal Assigned to: Robin Monks Reported by: budda Updated by: drumm Status: patch Code looks okay. +1 "You must enter unique data into the block description field." doesn't sound like the friendliest of error messages. drumm Previous comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ April 4, 2005 - 11:03 : budda When setting more than one block's title to '' (blank) Drupal dies, and doesn't catch the SQL query error nicely. The error is as follows: user error: Duplicate entry '' for key 2 query: UPDATE boxes SET title = '', body = ' ...<cut>... in /var/www/html/drupal-cvs/includes/database.mysql.inc on line 66. Using 4.6 build from 4/4/2005 The page ends with: warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /var/www/html/drupal-cvs/includes/common.inc:384) in /var/www/html/drupal-cvs/includes/common.inc on line 192. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ April 8, 2005 - 02:08 : robertDouglass There should be a check before the insert is attempted and if the block title already exists the user should be notified with form_error(). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ April 8, 2005 - 03:46 : Poolio this certainly doesn't solve the problem, but I've worked around this issue by using html tags in the title field for blocks that I don't want to show a title. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ April 8, 2005 - 18:31 : Robin Monks Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/block.module.blank.title.patch (955 bytes) A small patch that checks to ensure the title does not already exit in the Blocks list. Also, if the field was left blank, in adds an HTML comment with the current date to the second to ensure that a duplicate title isn't created. This is my first patch, so I probably did something wrong, but I'm willing to fix it too. Robin Monks MozNetwork.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------ April 8, 2005 - 19:22 : Morbus Iff I'm, personally, fine with how you've fixed the blank block title. You've really solved two problems in one: duplicate titles (which is the cause of this Issue), and the desire to have blank (or no) titles (which is the reason for this Issue) for the end user. With that said, I'm not a fan of your error message (but, then again, anal wording is my specialty, so don't think I'm picking on you): I'd rename it to "That block title is already in use; please choose another." The goals here: The user may not remember all the previous titles he's used. Using "unique" starts forcing him to remember. We shouldn't do that. The user already knows he entered it - we don't have to repeat that to him. It's active, not passive (no use of "have"). Use a semi-colon, not a comma. It's much shorter and concise. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ April 9, 2005 - 00:27 : chx Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/box_title.patch (1.49 KB) Why display any message at all? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ April 9, 2005 - 08:11 : Morbus Iff Displaying no message at all would only work if the user wasn't typing in ANY title whatsoever (since then we'd make one for them based on the date). But, if a user names a block "Users" one week, and then creates another block called "Users" three weeks later, than an whoopsidaisy error needs to be shown - we shouldn't modify the text randomly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ April 9, 2005 - 09:10 : chx Well, let's discuss the main point: why shoiuld be the title unique? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ April 9, 2005 - 09:38 : Morbus Iff Are you asking why Drupal enforces them being unique, or why, visually and to the end-user, they should be unique? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ April 9, 2005 - 09:43 : chx I guess Drupal forces them 'cos for some reasons it is thought that for the users they should be unique. This is not the case, however. Yes, it's confusing if they are on the same page. But I can think on circumstances where they would not be on the same page, so the force from Drupal seems unnecessary. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ April 9, 2005 - 13:00 : robertDouglass agree with chx on the unique point. Like the functionality of adding html comments and timestamp (why timestamp? why not a block id?) if left blank if they must be uniqe. Would be in favor of making the visible title completely optional. Administrators have description to keep them separate on the admin screen. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ April 9, 2005 - 13:48 : Robin Monks Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/drupal_0.patch (3.67 KB) This new patch no longer requires a unique value for title, and also checks to ensure the Block Description is not a duplicate or empty value. Big thanks go out to chx for assistance. Robin ------------------------------------------------------------------------ April 11, 2005 - 08:20 : Anonymous Shouldn't we add a test too to check info unicity ? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ April 11, 2005 - 08:38 : chx <?php if (empty($edit['info']) || db_num_rows(db_query("SELECT info FROM {boxes} WHERE info='%s'", $edit['info']))) { ?> To me, this seems like a check for info unicity... not to mention that the UNIQUE(info) DB constraint is not touched. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ April 11, 2005 - 08:46 : tostinni Ups, sorry for the anonymous and the message, I didn't saw this verification, I was only remembering block.module code. That's all fine for me. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ April 11, 2005 - 10:27 : njivy +1 to Robin Monks' patch. When I install Drupal, the first thing I always do is remove the /unique key/ constraint on block titles. I have not tested the other parts of Monks' patch, though, including the uniqueness constraint on block descriptions.