{"id":58,"date":"2009-01-19T15:01:18","date_gmt":"2009-01-19T14:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ridgesolutions.ie\/?p=58"},"modified":"2010-03-31T13:44:42","modified_gmt":"2010-03-31T12:44:42","slug":"passing-an-argument-to-a-block-view-in-drupal-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ridgesolutions.ie\/index.php\/2009\/01\/19\/passing-an-argument-to-a-block-view-in-drupal-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Passing an argument to a Block View in Drupal 6"},"content":{"rendered":"

Q<\/strong>: How can I pass an argument to a ‘block view’ in Drupal 6?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: There is no way to pass an argument to a block view in Drupal 6, but don’t panic as\u00a0there is a way to achieve the same result through some slight-of-hand.<\/p>\n

The use of arguments with Drupal views<\/a> are vital for getting the most out of the views functionality. How are the arguments normal passed to a view?\u00a0 Well, if a view is configured to produce a page then the arguments are easily passed as part of the requesting URL,\u00a0 while if\u00a0a view is embedded using code, then the arguments are passed\u00a0in as part of the call to embed the view.\u00a0 But if a view is configured to produce a block, how do you pass arguments to it?\u00a0 The bad news is\u00a0you can’t –\u00a0the good news is that there is a way fake it and achieve the same result.<\/p>\n

The trick involves providing a PHP handler\u00a0within the view which will be called when the view is invoked\u00a0without an expected argument (this is what happens when the block is displayed!).\u00a0 We just arrange for this handler to retrieve and return the argument’s value and then the view will behave as required – just as if the argument had been passed to it in the first place.<\/p>\n

To do this create the block view as normal and configure the required argument(s).\u00a0 For each argument we choose the ‘Provide default argument’ option, and select the ‘PHP code’ sub-option.\u00a0 We then provide some PHP code which will ‘get’ and return the argument’s value, it doesn’t really matter where or how the PHP code\u00a0gets the argument once it returns the correct value.\u00a0\u00a0 Have a look at screen shot below:<\/p>\n

\"Adding<\/p>\n

The example above is a\u00a0bit simplistic as the PHP code just returns a static value – not very useful at all!\u00a0\u00a0A more realistic or useful example\u00a0 (inspired by\u00a0one of the posts referenced below) would be to return the argument that was passed to the page that contains and displays the block.\u00a0 Consider the mythical paths:<\/p>\n

www.somedomain.com\/content\/projects\/web-design<\/pre>\n
and<\/p>\n
www.somedomain.com\/content\/projects\/illustration<\/pre>\n
Here things are set-up so that ‘web-design’ and ‘illustration’\u00a0are arguments to the\u00a0‘projects’ page, they result in only the projects of that type being displayed. \u00a0 Assuming we are using the pathauto<\/a> module for nice clean URLs (as we almost always are!) then the following PHP code\u00a0when provided as the default argument handler will get the URL, parse\u00a0it and return the argument part to the view.<\/p>\n
[code lang=\"php\"]\r\n$path = drupal_get_path_alias($_GET[\"q\"]); \/\/get URL alias\r\n$path = explode(\"\/\", $path); \/\/break path into an array\r\nif ($path[0] == \"projects\" && $path[1] != \"\")\r\n{\r\n  return $path[1];\r\n} [\/code]<\/pre>\n
So there is is, it’s definitely not the easiest method in the world but at least it does provide a mechanism of getting those arguments to the view…<\/p>\n
Sources: http:\/\/drupalsn.com\/learn-drupal\/drupal-questions\/question-2650<\/a>, http:\/\/drupal.org\/node\/332521<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Q: How can I pass an argument to a ‘block view’ in Drupal 6? A: There is no way to pass an argument to a block view in Drupal 6, but don’t panic as\u00a0there is a way to achieve the same result through some slight-of-hand. The use of arguments with Drupal views are vital for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[48,21,49,17,47],"class_list":["post-58","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech-stuff","tag-argument","tag-drupal","tag-pathauto","tag-php","tag-views"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t