[development] Slight API change in 4.6.10 and 4.7.4

[Heine Deelstra]

On 10/19/06, Gary Feldman <dpal_gaf_devel at marsdome.com> wrote:
> Perhaps the subtleties of English are getting in the way, but all
> modules and themes output only specific form fields; every field in an
> HTML form is a specific field.  At first, I couldn't make any sense out
> of this, and so went to the web site, where the explanation was the same
> but the examples shed some light.
>
> I think that what you're saying is that some modules and themes output
> an explicit subset of form fields from a $form.  Or maybe more
> precisely, judging from the followup note by Rob Barreca, some modules
> and themes call form_render on an explicit subset of fields in a given
> $form, and never call form_render($form) to render the rest of the form.
>
> Is that correct?  If so, does that complete characterize the problem, or
> are there other ways to trigger the incompatibility in 4.7.*, excluding
> totally unreasonable, contrived examples.

Almost. Those modules / themes may very well be rendering the entire
form, but doing so by rendering known fields. As soon as the form is
altered (either by hook_form_alter or a core update), they do not
output the new field.

Another possible incompatability relates to saved data:

> > In addition, certain modules unset a few form fields, then save the
> > remainder of the form. These modules need to account for the new
> > field. Tip: devise something robust.