Arbitrary Form Processing with Drupal
- by Aaron
I am writing a module for my organization to cache XML feeds to static files to an arbitrary place on our webserver. I am new at Drupal development, and would like to know if I am approaching this the right way.
Basically I:
Expose a url via the menu hook, where a user can enter in a an output directory on the webserver and press the "dump" button and then have PHP go to drupal and get the feed xml. I don't need help with that functionality, because I actually have a prototype working in Python (outside of Drupal)..
Provide a callback for the form where I can do my logic, using the form parameters.
Here's the menu hook:
function ncbi_cache_files_menu() {
$items = array();
$items['admin/content/ncbi_cache_files'] = array(
'title' => 'NCBI Cache File Module',
'description' => 'Cache Guide static content to files',
'page callback' => 'drupal_get_form',
'page arguments' => array( 'ncbi_cache_files_show_submit'),
'access arguments' => array( 'administer site configuration' ),
'type' => MENU_NORMAL_ITEM,
);
return $items;
}
I generate the form in:
function ncbi_cache_files_show_submit() {
$DEFAULT_OUT = 'http://myorg/foo';
$form[ 'ncbi_cache_files' ] = array(
'#type' => 'textfield',
'#title' => t('Output Directory'),
'#description' => t('Where you want the static files to be dumped.
This should be a directory that www has write access to, and
should be accessible from the foo server'),
'#default_value' => t( $DEFAULT_OUT ),
'#size' => strlen( $DEFAULT_OUT ) + 5,
);
$form['dump'] = array(
'#type' => 'submit',
'#value' => 'Dump',
'#submit' => array( 'ncbi_cache_files_dump'),
);
return system_settings_form( $form );
}
Then the functionality is in the callback:
function ncbi_cache_files_dump( $p, $q) {
//dpm( get_defined_vars() );
$outdir = $p['ncbi_cache_files']['#post']['ncbi_cache_files'];
drupal_set_message('outdir: ' . $outdir );
}
The question: Is this a decent way of processing an arbitrary form in Drupal? I not really need to listen for any drupal hooks, because I am basically just doing some URL and file processing.
What are those arguments that I'm getting in the callback ($q)? That's the form array I guess, with the post values? Is this the best way to get the form parameters to work on?
Thanks for any advice.
