[development] Node Rendering Debate

[Jeff Eaton]

Alternately, we can simply instruct people to build their  
presentation data drupal_render()able structures, then pass them on  
to the theming layer, where the are collapsed into strings or exposed  
as complex structures depending on the application.

Drupal has too many nooks and crannies were the same data is stored  
and accessed in completely, counter-intuitively different ways.  
Layering another vocabulary, another set of mapped variables, another  
slice of metaphor and abastraction, on top of the current models is  
not IMO a solution.

That's one of the reasons that I think any real solution will overlap  
with the node object's internal structure, our APIs for outputting  
different formats (JSON, XML, HTML, etc) as well as our rendering and  
theming systems. Our goal must be to make the system more consistent  
and flexible, to eliminate special cases and edge-case exceptions.

--Jeff

On Jul 4, 2007, at 10:05 AM, Farsheed wrote:

> Print_r is a fine way to see what variables are
> *available*.  How to assign or create new variables
> and make that data available to the theme is an
> entirely separate and more complicated issue.  And
> that involves knowing what is literally available from
> drupal to assign.  It often leads to having to code
> dive into someone elses module to figure out how to
> get the information you need to print out.