Issue status update for http://drupal.org/node/10056 Project: Drupal Version: cvs Component: node system Category: feature requests Priority: normal Assigned to: Anonymous Reported by: Anonymous Updated by: nedjo Status: patch Here's another patch that's sat for months without being either applied or turned down, although there was expressed support and, after several iterations, it addressed all issues that had been raised. The point is to remove the hard-coded "Title" field - inapprioriate for many node types, e.g., companies - from node forms, instead allowing node modules to treat this as appropriate (e.g., a "Subject", "Name" or "Topic", or nothing at all). Are there problems with this approach that were not raised? Is there a reason this wasn't accepted? nedjo Previous comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ August 14, 2004 - 14:17 : Anonymous Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/node.set-title-field.patch (2.02 KB) The default "title" field in a node object is useful but not always appropriate. For some node types it would be preferable to rename the field for display to users (e.g., from "title" to "name" for a record of an organization or business), while in others the title might be best drawn from a combination of other fields (e.g., first_name and last_name fields, for a record of an individual). This patch enables two new alternatives for node titles: renamingThe title field can be renamed, e.g., from "title" to "name". substutingOther fields can be substituted for the title field. The functionality is implemented through a new proposed node hook, _title_field($op). There are two possible values for $op: "action" (either "rename" or "substitute") and "names" (a list of field names to be used in the title field). Sample uses: <?php PHP function example_title_field($node, $op) {   switch ($op) {     case 'action':       $return = 'rename';       break;     case 'names':       $return = array('Name');   }   return $return; } ?> In this case, since the requested action is "rename", the title field would be labelled "Name" (instead of "Title") in node add and edit forms for nodes of type "example". <?php PHP function example_title_field($node, $op) {   switch ($op) {     case 'action':       $return = 'substitute';       break;     case 'names':       $return = array('first_name', 'last_name');   }   return $return; } ?> In this case, no "Title" field would be displayed in node add or node edit forms of node type "example". Instead, the fields "first_name" and "last_name" would be concatenated to form a title. Implementing this patch would significantly increase the flexibility of the node system, making it feasible to store information of many types not currently supported because they don't have a "title" attribute. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ August 15, 2004 - 12:39 : Dries This is best accomplished through the existing nodeapi hook, using a separate module. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ August 15, 2004 - 19:02 : nedjo Thanks for the suggestion. I did look for a way to accomplish this through _nodeapi (and other existing hooks), but couldn't see how. The "title" field is hard-coded into node.module. The _nodeapi hook allows various types of manipulations, but not, so far as I could see, changes to elements that have been generated by, e.g., form_textfield() calls. Are there possibilities I'm missing? Other approaches? Any specific suggestions as to means we could use to change the hard-coded "title" field? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ August 19, 2004 - 14:27 : nedjo Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/node.set-title-field_0.patch (741 bytes) Drawing on Dries's suggestion, I've substantially revised this patch to enable node title field customization with only three additional lines of code in node.module. In place of the existing line in function node_form() <?php $output .= form_textfield(t('Title'), 'title', $edit->title, 60, 128, NULL, NULL, TRUE); ?> the patch substitutes a the following: <?php $title = variable_get('node_titlefield_'. $edit->type, 'Title');   if(!($title == 'none')) {     $output .= form_textfield(t($title), 'title', $edit->title, 60, 128, NULL, NULL, TRUE);   } ?> With this change in place, node modules will be able to override the standard node title label by setting a variable, node_titlefield_nodetype, where nodetype is the type of node. This could be done, e.g., in a _settings hook, so that the first time settings were accessed the module would set the variable: <?php if (variable_get('node_titlefield_example', '') == '') {    // since none is already set, set this variable    variable_set('node_titlefield_example', 'Name');    drupal_set_message('Example module initialization completed.'); } ?> The special value 'none' would suppress the title field altogether in node forms, used as follows: <?php if (variable_get('node_titlefield_example', '') == '') {    // since none is already set, set this variable    variable_set('node_titlefield_example', 'none');    drupal_set_message('Example module initialization completed.'); } ?> In this case, a _validate hook would be used to set the title field value. Assuming a module where a first name-last name combination was to be used for a title: <?php function example_validate(&$node) {   if(!(isset($node->title))) {     $node->title = $node->first_name . ' ' . node->last_name;   } } ?> In short, this three-line addition to the node.module would significantly increase the flexibility of the node system by removing the hard-coded 'Title' field in node add and edit forms and instead enabling custom labelling or concatenation of the field from other sources. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ August 19, 2004 - 14:50 : moshe weitzman I like this functionality. But the implementation still seems unclean. I would prefer to simply remove the 'title' form field from node_form() and require that modules present this field in whatever way they please. in some cases, they will use a hidden form field because no customer interaction is required. This causes a break with backward compatibility, but cleanliness is facored over compatibilityness (when you must choose). I'm moving this back to 'Active', since I don't think this patch is committable as is. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ August 27, 2004 - 19:46 : nedjo Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/node.set-title-field_1.patch (830 bytes) Thanks for looking at this. The suggestion - dropping the title field altogether and leaving this for module authors - has the advantage of simplicity. However, this change would imply significant new work as it would would require all or nearly all existing modules - core and contributed - be modified. While I think enabling title field customization is important for Drupal as a whole, and while this is a change I need for two modules I'm working on, I'm not immediately convinced that the benefits of this change justify this cost. Also, in most cases, the present title field works fine, so keeping it as a default option would I feel be desirable. Hence the following patch. In place of my (poorly conceived) initial hook proposals, above, this patch introduces a single very straightforward new node hook, _title_field. By setting this hook to return FALSE, node modules authors will suppress the default title field, and be free therefore to substitute what they wish or need. Returning TRUE, or not using the hook, will result in the default title field being used. Sample usage: <?php function example_title_field() {   return FALSE; } ?> This is, I feel, a much better solution than the previous two I suggested--proof, if it's true, that the Drupal issue system works! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ September 6, 2004 - 11:50 : nedjo Are there any objections to or issues raised by this small patch (introducing a new hook to make the title field optional in node forms)? If not, can it be applied? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ September 7, 2004 - 09:46 : Anonymous I think I agree with Moshe's opinion that this should be accomplished by having node modules display the title field. In any event, this is a new feature and shouldn't go in during the feature freeze for 4.5. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ September 7, 2004 - 09:58 : ccourtne +1 for just moving the title field to be a responsibility of the implementing module instead of node_form. There is already to some extent "hook overload", in addition there may be several modules which don't want to even display a title module. Why add that only fixes some of the problems just to have to remove it later when you make a fix that address the whole problem. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ September 7, 2004 - 17:09 : nedjo Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/node.remove-title-field.patch (636 bytes) Thanks for comments. As per feedback, the attached patch removes the title field from node forms, leaving this instead to node modules. Understood that possible approval of this patch this will need to wait until code unfrozen. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ October 24, 2004 - 08:06 : moshe weitzman please patch all core node modules as well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ November 27, 2004 - 21:00 : nedjo Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/node-move-form-title-field.patch (4.29 KB) Good point Moshe. This patch of node.module plus all core node modules simply moves the title field out of node.module and into the node modules, enabling (if desired) customization of the title field by a module. Patches to contributed modules will in most cases be as simple as adding the line <?php $output = form_textfield(t('Subject'), 'title', $node->title, 60, 128, NULL, NULL, TRUE); ?> at the beginning of a typename_form() function (and, if necessary changing an existing $output = to $output .=). In the attached patch, I've customized the title field for only one of the node types, calling the title of a forum topic the "Subject". We could consider calling the title of a blog a "Subject" or "Topic" as well. I feel this is a good solution (thanks for the feedback and discussion) and, for minimal work (minor updates to contributed modules), will have the significant benefit of enabling flexibility in content types beyond those that have "title" attributes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ November 28, 2004 - 13:45 : nedjo Ability to customize title as provided in this patch was requested here [1]: "When adding/editing, the 'title' field is manditory, which is fine. Except that its label is hardcoded to 'title'. A custom node modelling, say, a 'Company' would much rather this field be presented to the user as 'Company Name'. " [1] http://drupal.org/node/13596