Redirect user after login in Drupal

Redirecting users in Drupal is not easy as it seems to be. In this 6.19 version of Drupal, there are some gotchas to have in mind to make a succesfull redirection

The Direct Path : Hooking form_alter
Like the title say, what we need to do is create a hook for the form_alter hook. This hook is usefull for modifyng the form before rendering it (and for a lot of other interesting stuff), and because Mr. login block and Ms. login page (sitemap.com/user) are also forms, we are going to have fun with the hook(er) (bazinga? well, thats a sick joke). Here are the steps for ultimate redirection control:

1. Create a module: Create two files yeah.info and yeah.module (change yeah for whatever you wish but make sure to remember that key word) and put them inside sites/all/modules/yeah.
2. Fill yeah.info with this generic code:

   ;
   $Id$
   name = Yeah Redirect
   description = "Redirect your users at login"
   core = 6.x
   package = "Yeah"

   
   This is just a required file the module need to exist.
   


3. Fill yeah.module with this code

   
   function yeah_form_alter(&$form, $form_state, $form_id){
   if ($form_id == 'user_login' || $form_id == 'user_login_block') {
   $form['#redirect']=array('thepath/you/want.php');}
   }

   
   Now, let me explain how this works:
   • The first line tell you that you're hooking the hook_form_alter hook (sic). What does this means is that before any form is rendered this function is being called. Notice the three parameters, first one is the variable that hold the form, its an reference (& anyone?) so the changes you make to &form will exist outside this function. Dont worry too much about $form_state. The third one is the id of the form.
   • The second line is an if that we use to capture only the user_login page form (user_login) and the user_login block form.
   • If the form currently on form_alter is a login form, then we are going to modified it, giving the #redirect property the url that we want to go. If you need to pass parameters then use an array, the first one is the path, and the next ones are the parameters
   
   

This code should work for all the user login pages. But it will not work for user login blocks...

What the..
Yes, that code will not work for the login block of Drupal. Why? well because, redirect calls the function drupal_goto($url) an that function is going to ignore you if $_REQUEST['destination'] and/or $_REQUEST['edit']['destination'] exist. Why? I dont have a clue, maybe someone in Drupal wants us to be slapped in the face as a price for using this awesome piece of framework ( no sarcasm here, really!, i luuuuuuuuuve Drupal, well except the drupal_goto function).

The Solution

unset($_REQUEST['destination'], $_REQUEST['edit']['destination']);

Insert this after form redirect and youre ready to go!.

Dude, its not working
Well here are some hints if you need more help:

1. Make sure you activate the module . Duh!
   
2. Check that others noncore modules are not using drupal_goto. Drupal_goto is like a header('Location:....) , it will redirect you to another page, and if there is more code to process after calling drupal_goto, it would not be use.
3. Clear your theme_cache. Even if you have the 'Rebuild the theme registry on every page load.' on, hell just clear all the cache just in case.

Maybe im missing something here but with this easy explanation i think i have covered all that is need to know for redirecting users at login state. Happy Hooking

Drupal Subtheming nightmare with a happy ending

Im modifying the user login form of a normal Drupal installation using the adaptative theme. so far so good, until i started to create some template suggestion files for my subtheme.

The tpl in question is named block-user.tpl.php. So i create my .tpl file and put all the needed stuff inside it. Then I put it in the template directory of my subtheme and .. it didnt work.

• For now the file was in /sites/all/themes/adaptativetheme/subtheme/template/block-user.tpl

The second thing I did to make it work was copying that file on the template directory of the adaptative theme ( the father of my subtheme), and it works!. But why it didnt work on my subtheme?

• The copied file was in /sites/all/themes/adaptativetheme/adaptative/template/block-user.tpl and also in:
  

• /sites/all/themes/adaptativetheme/subthemename/template/block-user.tpl

The Fix
Apparently you have to had a copy of all the parent templates in your template directory. So the parent .tpl file of block-user.tpl.php is block.tpl.php. Its a bug in Drupal6, live with it because it wont be fixed. Why it works on the theme instead of the subtheme, because the Adaptative theme has that file by default. So I copy that file on my subtheme.. to no avail.

Clearing the Cache
I had the Rebuild the theme registry on every page load option on, so i wonder why it didnt work. I cleared all the cache ( Its an options that appears in the module Administration Menu, a must have module ), and Voila!, it worked in my subtheme!, so you must clear the cache when seeing funny stuff happening with your tpl files.

Optional Life Savier Info
Also they must be in the same directory as the parents of your subtheme. So if your main theme saves all our .tpl files in the templateyeah carpet, you need to create the same carpet in your subtheme.

Hope this little article help someone drupaling. Happy coding!

Aptana 3 Color schema sucks (and the remedy)

So you installed the new Aptana 3 beta, but suddenly all your code its invisible to your eyes, including the cursor, yes, the cursor is, for some unknow reason, invisible to a normal human being.

And that's the reason, you shouldn't smoke crack cocaine when devising the new color schema of Aptana.

But dont worry, after some googling i found how you can change this to a more acceptable color schema.

1) Open your Aptana an go to the menu Windows->Preferences


2) Change the eyeburning theme to any other theme, god ,any other theme will do it fine. Just select Aptana->Theme and you will see something like the photo below:

BONUS PACK: How about the variable highlight, it just messing up my retina!!!!. Well I finally found where is the option to change it so it will look like this:



Well today is your luck day. Just follow this guide:

1) Go again to Windows->Preferences, and then navigate to Aptana ->PHP -> Mark Ocurrences . TIP: If you want to dissable it all, just uncheck all the options here and forget abot the rest.

2) Do you see the link called annotation up there?, just click it and you will see the next windows:


3) Here you will have to modified two options PHP Read Ocurrences and PHP Write Ocurrences, does those name make sense to you? neither to me, but what the heck, Aptana rules but the color schema suck, but you can change it anyway so enjoy it.

IE6 and Ubertcart

There's a problem with Ubercart and any modules that use a great quantity of CSS files in Drupal. It doesnt seem to work in IE (any version).

Sympthoms
You install Ubercart or any other big module in Drupal. you test it and seems fine in all the browsers , except IE (again, any version). Seems like some CSS files are missing.

WTF happened to my CSS! yelling is another sympthom of this IE induced disease

Cause:
IE6 was created to support only 31 stylesheets if you use the link tag to insert them. So when you install ubercart, theres a big possibility that youre excedding that nonsense limit. Have a good day with that.

Remedy:
There are two ways to work this in Drupal without feelin like youre kicked in the nuts with an iron spiked shoe:

• Im too young to die way (Easy Way): Just use unlimited css module, install it an forget about it. This module will call all the CSS files via an @import rule , you can have more thant 31 @import rules in IE, that why it work. Just as a side note, as a good web developer youre not supposed to use the @import rule because its mean trouble.

• Hurt me plenty way (Medium Way): Activate the Css File Optimizer in Drupal. Go to admin/settings/performance and you will find the option Optimize the Css Files (duh!). This will mix all the css files in your web page to just one file. I couldnt make it work in my server, this option need a beefy machine to run so make sure you have a really reaaaaally fresh backup of your site before activating this.
  

You can also activate the Optimize the Javascript Code option, jsut remember to make a backup

So at least in Drupal there are ways to deal with it. Hey dont blame IE for teaching you about web server performance and making you lost 4 hours of your life yelling like a crazy schoolgirl before a Jonas Brothers concert.

Hate the Computers Gnomes, yeah thoses little rascals causing trouble again.

Change the Scayt language in Drupal CKEditor Module

This will be a short post about that dammed Spell Checker that comes active by default in the Ckeditor module of Drupal. Well as to this day the best WYSIWYG Module in Drupal 6 (for me) is Ckeditor. Its simple to install, fast as hell at least compared to Fckeditor, and easy to configure, except the SpellChecker plugin.

Yes Ckeditor has an SpellChecker, No its not easy to configure.

By Default the SpellChecker plugin is active, and in english, so i couldnt find a way to deactivate it but at least I found the way to change the language. Just search for the string 'en_US' in the file ckeditor.js and change it according to the idiom you want.For spanish is 'es_ES'. You will found this file in the real ckeditor directory , not in the module.

That file is a minimized version of ckeditor. You can found the source in '_source' directory, just in case you wonder what does the real ckeditor do.

Drupal Lightbox2 and Paging

So I had a strange problem with an ecommerce site Im developing. The site shows in the front page some products. The Owner told me to put a button with the magnifying glass over there, and when clicked, make it appear a modal box that shows more info of the product.

The Magnifying Glass in all it splendor

So hands at work, i use the lightbox2 and views module to make something like the owners command. The frontpage must show 8 products and if we have more, use a pager to navigate between products.

This is the pager, just in case youre asking what is a pager.

The problem? The view use paging so i show only the first eight products in the first page but if we go to the second page, problems occurs. The lightbox show all the modal boxes with the information of the first page. Oh god i smell some bug induced headache soon


The Solution
So after an entire day of debuging I found the problem: Lightbox2 is not taking in account the page you are when it retrieve the data. Basically lightbox2 use the load() function of jquery to get the WHOLE page it need to extract the info. The url of the page is inserted by lightbox2 usign the template in the file lightbox2_handler_field_lightbox2.inc

You have to change the line 124 like this:
Before:

   // We don't actually use the link, but we need it there for lightbox to function.
    if (empty($link)) {
      // Get the path name.
      $path = isset($_GET['q']) ? $_GET['q'] : '';
      //Created By Carlos
    }

After:

   // We don't actually use the link, but we need it there for lightbox to function.
    if (empty($link)) {
      // Get the path name.
      $path = isset($_GET['q']) ? $_GET['q'] : '';
      //Created By Carlos
      if(isset($_GET['page'])){
        $path = $path .'?page='.$_GET['page'];
      }
      $link = url($path, array('absolute' => TRUE));
    }

I just get the GET value of the current page and if it have a variable called page, append ?page= and the number of the page to the path that will be inserted in the lightbox trigger. Question anyone?

Adding new fields to the Ubercart Checkout module

So, you are using Ubercart and Drupal, but the checkout address fields isnt enough for you. Lets say, you need to add some more fields like a cellphone number or a district field. Well you have come to the right place, but before this, let me give you some advice.

Before the hack/slash

• There is a module called Extra Fields, that give you the ability to input some extra fields to your checkout page. But you can't insert your fields to the billing and delivery panel. It just create a new panel to put that extra info. Maybe with some CSS and JS you can move the extrafields to the biling and/or delivery panel.
• There is a webform to ubercart checkout module, its in beta stage, if you need more thant text boxes maybe this is the module you are looking for.
  

Into the Abyss
This tutorial is not for beginners, but with a little know of copy and paste you can do the magic. User with a cpanel hosting can use the file manager and phpmyadmin to easily modified the required files and tables.

Also remember that hacking your Drupal Files is not something that i recommend, but in some cases, its the only way to do things here. I didnt know too much about hooks in Drupal, but for what can i see in the code, i think it isnt possible for this Ubercart version to create hooks to modify the delivery and billing panels.

Step o : Requisites:
Obviously you will need to install Ubercart 2.X with all the required modules. I used Drupal 6.15 for this tutorial, but I think it will work well with any Drupal 6 version.

Then, fill your Drupal+ Ubercart installation with some products and the info of your store. Make sure you install the checkout module of Ubercart.

Next step is creating a backup of your files and your database. You are not going to advance to the next step until you make your lifesaver backup. Seriously dont go ahead without your backup.

Also, before we going any further, theres something strange i need to explain first. The checkout panel contains two important panels, the delivery panel and the billing panel. Essencially those panels share the same fields, and, for some strange reason in ubercart, if you only need a field in one panel, you are going to create it in both panels and save that info in your database of both fields.You can hide one of them if you dont need it anyway.

In this example I'm going to create a new cellphone field for the billing and delivery address.

Step 1 : The database
First we need an identifier name for our new field. It should be a word in lower case. In my example I will just call it cellphone. Next thing is insert that variable in our database.

1. Use any DB manager (here im using phpMyAdmin) to update the table called variable and search for the row with the name uc_address_fields. This row contain the list of all the variables used in the checkout panel. Dont be scare, the text here is just a serialized php array. Now add a line containing something like this: s:9:"cellphone";s:9:"cellphone" (sic) somewhere between two semicolons, just like my image. Notice that you are going to repeat twice your new field. And for the curious s:9 means [s]tring of nine spaces. cellphone is a word with 9 letters. Just look how the other fields are stored here.
   

s:9:"cellphone";s:9:"cellphone";

2. Add the fields billing_identifiername and delivery_identifiername. to the uc_orders table. In this example im going to create billing_cellphone and delivery_cellphone. Its doesn't matters if you are going to use only one of them, you will need to create both.

The new fields on the uc_orders table

And thats its for the database. The next step is modifiendo the uc_store.module file.

Step 2 : Playing with ubercart/uc_store/uc_store.module file
Here is where the copy&paste party begin:

1. Search for the function uc_store_address_fields_form() that should be around the line 702. Now you see that big array? just add a field that identify your new field. I suggest using your identifiername for the array.

$fields = array(
'first_name' => array(t('First name'), TRUE),
'last_name' => array(t('Last name'), TRUE),
'phone' => array(t('Phone number'), TRUE),
'cellphone' => array(t('Cellphone number'), TRUE),
'company' => array(t('Company'), TRUE),
'street1' => array(t('Street address 1'), TRUE),
'street2' => array(t('Street address 2'), TRUE),
'city' => array(t('City'), TRUE),
'zone' => array(t('State/Province'), TRUE),
'country' => array(t('Country'), TRUE),
'postal_code' => array(t('Postal code'), TRUE),
'address' => array(t('Address'), FALSE),
'street' => array(t('Street address'), FALSE),
);

What is that t() function surrounding the text? It just a drupal functions that allow that text to be translated. Just
copy it as you see here.

2.- Now, next to that big array you just modified, there is a line under it,with a function called variable_get, it could be the line 728 but in any case it should be nearby. Add your identifier name inside single quotes as a parameter of the drupal_map_assoc function, like this:

$current = variable_get('uc_address_fields', drupal_map_assoc(array('first_name', 'last_name', 'phone', 'company', 'street1', 'street2', 'city', 'zone', 'postal_code', 'country','cellphone')));

3. Now go to the function uc_get_field_name that should be near the line 1177 and you will see another array. Just copy and item of the array and paste it and change it using your identifier name like this: 'cellphone' => t('Cellphone number'),

4.Next, go to the function uc_address_field_enabled near the line 1207 and you will find something like step two. Just add your identifier name as the last parameter of the drupal_map_assoc function.

5. This is the most important step on store.module, coz this is where you tell the database to obtain the address values. Go to the function uc_get_addresses near the line 1442 and you will see two database queries one for Mysql and the other one for Postgres. Modified the sql that you use, should be like this using the mysql select:

$result = db_query("SELECT DISTINCT ". $type ."_first_name AS first_name, "
              . $type ."_last_name AS last_name, ". $type ."_phone AS phone, "
              . $type ."_company AS company, ". $type ."_street1 AS street1, "
              . $type ."_street2 AS street2, ". $type ."_city AS city, "
              . $type ."_zone AS zone, ". $type ."_postal_code AS postal_code, "
              . $type ."_country AS country, "
              . $type ."_cellphone AS cellphone FROM {uc_orders} WHERE uid = %d "
              ."AND order_status IN ". uc_order_status_list('general', TRUE)
              ." ORDER BY created DESC", $uid);

6. Now lets get back to line 336, here we are going to copy and paste one of those lines below, copy it and change it. With the cellphone example it should be like this:

  $conf['i18n_variables'][] = 'uc_field_cellphone';  

Step 3 : Playing with ubercart/uc_order/uc_order_order_pane.inc
This is easiest. There are two modifications, one for the delivery and one for the billing:

1. For Delivery: Go to the function uc_order_pane_ship_to and you will see a switch case. Look for the 'edit_form' case in line 27, this is where you have to copy&paste one of the if, and make 4 changes. Heres an example of before (phone) and after (cellphone).

    Before:
   if (uc_address_field_enabled('phone')) {
     $form['ship_to']['delivery_phone'] = uc_textfield(uc_get_field_name('phone'), $arg1->delivery_phone, FALSE, NULL, 32, 16);
   }
    After:
   if (uc_address_field_enabled('cellphone')) {
     $form['ship_to']['delivery_cellphone'] = uc_textfield(uc_get_field_name('cellphone'), $arg1->delivery_cellphone, FALSE, NULL, 32, 16);
   }

Once you have done this, you can modified the line 24 (the view case) if you want that the info fo your field appears in the Orders options of ubercart, the page where you see the data of your order as an admin. This is an example with the line 24 modified for cellphone

$output = uc_order_address($arg1, 'delivery') .'
'. check_plain($arg1->delivery_phone) .'
'. check_plain($arg1->delivery_cellphone);

2. For Billing, just repeat this step but look out in the line 122. if you want the billing data to show in your Order page, just modified the line 112 like in the delivery example.

Step 4 : Playing with ubercart/uc_order/uc_order.module file

1. (Optional) Add our field as a token. go to the line 407 inside the function uc_order_token_values. Here you should copy one of those lines, paste and modified it. Create one line for the billing and one for the delivery. In my example it should be like this (the red part is the new):

$values['order-shipping-phone'] = check_plain($order->delivery_phone);
$values['order-shipping-cellphone'] = check_plain($order->delivery_cellphone);
$values['order-billing-cellphone'] = check_plain($order->billing_cellphone);
$values['order-shipping-method'] = is_null($ship_method) ? t('Standard delivery') : $ship_method;

2. (Optional) Give a description of that token. Go to the function uc_order_token_list, near line 441 copy an paste one of those lines. Heres an example for the billing an delivery description:

$tokens['order']['order-shipping-cellphone'] = t('The cellphone number for the shipping address.');
$tokens['order']['order-billing-address'] = t('The order billing address.');
$tokens['order']['order-billing-phone'] = t('The phone number for the billing address.');
$tokens['order']['order-billing-cellphone'] = t('The cellphone number for the billing address.');

3.The code that save your field in the db. Go to the function uc_order_new near line 1013 and search inside it for an sql with the insert command. Modified it so it insert data into the rows create in step1. Remenber one for the delivery and one for the billing field. The sql would look like ( the ... is a resume, dont take it literally!!!)

db_query("INSERT INTO {uc_orders} (..., created, modified,billing_cellphone,delivery_cellphone) VALUES " ."(..., %d, '', '')",

4. The code that update your field in the db. go to the function uc_order_save near the line 1046 and look for the sql that update your data. Modified it so it update your field.

Step 5 : Playing with ubercart/uc_cart/uc_cart_checkout_pane.inc file
1. Modifing the checkout_pane_delivery hook. This hook is called to interact in the checkout module of Ubercart. Go to the function uc_checkout_pane_delivery near the line 224, copy and paste one of those if statement inside it and modified it according to your identifier word, like this:

if (uc_address_field_enabled('cellphone')) {
$contents['delivery_cellphone'] = uc_textfield(uc_get_field_name('cellphone'), $arg1->delivery_cellphone,uc_address_field_required('cellphone'), NULL, 32, 16);
}

2. Go to the case 'process' near line 292 and copy and paste one of those $arg1, modified it accordly:
$arg1->delivery_phone = $arg2['delivery_phone'];
$arg1->delivery_cellphone = $arg2['delivery_cellphone'];

3. Reviewing your field (optional). Go to the case 'review' near line 293. This line is called to review the data of your field when a client make an order.I just copy and paste some text there but maybe you would need some more exotic validations here.

if (uc_address_field_enabled('cellphone') && !empty($arg1->delivery_cellphone)) {
$review[] = array('title' => t('Cellphone'), 'data' => check_plain($arg1->delivery_cellphone));
}
4,5,6 This is the same as 1,2,3 but is for the billing panel. Go to the function uc_checkout_pane_billing in line 371 and modified it if you wish to have an field in the billing pane.

NOTE: you can choose here to do only a field in the delvery or the billing panel, or maybe both. Just follow instruction 1,2,3 for the delivery panel and/or 4,5,6 for the billing panel.


Step 6 : Some js in ubercart/uc_cart/cart.js file
Have you seen that checkbox that copy the billing field to the delivery field? Well you can modified it if you want to copy your new billing_field into your delivery_field. Go to the line 129 and see some repetitive code of the fields. Heres the code i create for copying my new cellphone field.

$('#edit-panes-' + temp + '-phone').val(address.phone).trigger('change');
$('#edit-panes-' + temp + '-cellphone').val(address.cellphone).trigger('change');
$('#edit-panes-' + temp + '-company').val(address.company).trigger('change');


Thats it folks, its not easy but with this we are covering all the step to create a new checkout field in ubertcart. Enjoy