[development] D7 $page and global objects

Thu May 14 13:32:03 UTC 2009

I needed somewhere where to store <head> in a more structured way so
that modules can modify head easier.

Jeff Eaton suggested to put it in $page.
I tried to get an idea about what $page is but I'm not sure I got it.

eg. block uses _page_alter to fill $page elements.
node doesn't.

Finally everything is somehow "serialized" in

template_preprocess_page

But most of the things that end up in the $page (theme.inc
template_preprocess_page) arrive there from functions that don't take
any parameter
eg.
drupal_get_breadcrumb(), menu_main_menu(), drupal_add_css() etc...

Currently very few things reach $page directly or through
_alter_page.

I definitively don't like the idea of adding one more global object
but I can't see any way to fill $page in the same context in which
content is created.

$page doesn't look as a global object but still doesn't get passed
to modules hook.

Let's stick to the initial itch (structured head) and see how things
may work. Still you can extend the problem to other page "sections"
and you'll have the same hook vs. global problem.

Currently anything that need to "modify" head... is actually
modifying a global object through drupal_add_html_head.
So when I'm preparing a page content, no matter if it is a node or
just something pushed to a page I can access head.

Now if I plan to use _page_alter... I won't be able to access head
content in the same context in which I'm creating the page content.

On the other side if I add one more global object, wrapped up in a
function with a static variable (that should be declared in core so
that everything can access it) as the many already used in
template_preprocess_page I can't see the real advantage of having
head in $page.

I remember I've read something about handlers... by Larry Garfield...

Is there any shift in policy about "objects" in Drupal?
http://api.drupal.org/api/file/developer/topics/oop.html/7
mainly for a namespace reason at the moment.

-- 
Ivan Sergio Borgonovo
http://www.webthatworks.it