How to create a 

Drupal 7 Module

Basic steps

Taken from: https://drupal.org/node/1074362

1. Choose a short name for your module

   Ours will be "madlibs" but it could be "mad_libs" or "madlib_maker"
   
2. Create a module folder in:
   

   sites/all/modules/madlibs 
   

3. Create a ".module" file in the module folder

   Format is "module_name.module" so in our case, "madlibs.module"
and need only contain <?php
   
   Let's build a .module file now!
   

Create info file

Taken from https://drupal.org/node/1075072

1. Create a ".info" file in the module folder

   Format is "module_name.info" so in our case, "madlibs.info"

2. The .info file must contain the following information:

   name = Module Name
   description = A description of what your module does.
   core = 7.x 
   

Let's build a .info file now!

Check to see the new module is in your admin/modules area now.

Or, if you want to avoid all that...

Use Features!

• Advantages
  
  1. User interface
  2. Follows coding standards
     
• Disadvantages
  
  1. Requires another module
  2. Adds a line about "features[features_api][] = api:2"
     

Let's make our module

do something!

Easiest thing -- display some text

1. Enable hook_menu to declare a custom page
   See hook_menu documentation
   Ours needs to be called "madlibs_menu"
   
   
2. Add the page callback to display the page.
3. Also need an access callback so we know who can 
   see the page.
4. And a title is nice.
5. Don't forget to return something in each function.

Adding the javascript

1. Create a subfolder in your module to host your js.
2. The JS is located here:
   http://www.bennadel.com/blog/623-jQuery-Demo-Mad-Libs-Word-Game.htm
3. Drupalize the JS a bit (we won't go into this much).
   https://raw.github.com/mariacha/madlibs/master/sites/all/modules/madlibs/js/madlibs_maker.js
   
4. Use drupal_add_js to load it on our page.
   https://api.drupal.org/api/drupal/includes!common.inc/function/drupal_add_js/7
   

Improving the UI

Let's make people feel good about finishing the Madlib with a silly picture in a block.

Creating a block

Taken from https://drupal.org/node/1104464

1. Declare the block using hook_block_info
2. Tell Drupal how to render the block with hook_block_view
   We're using theme_image to render our image.
3. Don't forget to add block as a dependency for your module

 dependencies[] = block

We should now have a working version of the module!

See repo at this state: v1.0

But the code's not very pretty...

What can be improved:

1. The madlib text is all in the .module file -- not very intuitive
   if you want to alter it.
2. Same for the block's image -- a themer would need to open
   the .module file to change the image.
   

Step 1: Theme functions!

We have two choices here for theming:

• Write a theme_hook function that could be overwritten by
  themers in their template.php file
  -- Disadvantage: lots of html inside php... not really intuitive
  
• Add a default .tpl.php file that can be copied and replaced in
  a theme.
  -- This one seems better for us.
  

Telling Drupal to look for our .tpl.php

1. Create a file "madlibs.tpl.php"
   
2. Declare a new theme function using hook_theme.
   Be sure the array key matches the name of the template!
   

     $themes = array (
       'madlib' => array(
         'path' => drupal_get_path('module', 'madlibs') .'/templates',
         'template' => 'madlib',
       ),
     ); 

3. Now we have the ability to call theme('madlib') in our
   page callback.

And theme templates can overwrite this template!

Step 2: Altering the block form

Give users the option of uploading their own funny image

See http://fourkitchens.com/blog/2012/07/18/building-custom-blocks-drupal-7

1. Add hook_block_configure
2. Add hook_block_save

We should now have a much better, still functional module.

Find more...

These slides: https://slid.es/mariafisher/dug-nov-2013

The project: https://github.com/mariacha/madlibs

Me: mariacha1 on Drupal