Issue status update for http://drupal.org/node/19965 Project: Drupal Version: cvs Component: block.module Category: bug reports Priority: normal Assigned to: chx Reported by: budda Updated by: Morbus Iff Status: patch Are you asking why Drupal enforces them being unique, or why, visually and to the end-user, they should be unique? Morbus Iff Previous comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ April 4, 2005 - 12:03 : 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 - 03:08 : 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 - 04:46 : 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 - 19:31 : 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 - 20:22 : 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 - 01:27 : chx Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/box_title.patch (1.49 KB) Why display any message at all? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ April 9, 2005 - 09:11 : 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 - 10:10 : chx Well, let's discuss the main point: why shoiuld be the title unique?