When this started we had 11

JeevesBond — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 02:51:00 +0000

When this started we had 11 checkboxes. This has expanded to over 80 (against my protestations) and each checkbox topic needs it's own 'news' category and it's own forum and these will have to be raised at the same time as the checkboxes are added.

The way I would tackle this is create a module, call it 'category_profile_fields' (or something), which synchronises Forum taxonomy, synonym/related terms in the News taxonomy and check boxes on the user profile edit page. This could happen when a new term or profile option is created, or on a hook_cron.

I wonder if an option wouldn't be to write those checkboxes directly to the profile_fields and profile_values tables?

You'd have to give up using CCK and Content Profile, as those are the database tables used by Drupal core's profile module, which doesn't use CCK. If you've given up on Content Profile/CCK already then this is probably the way to go.

Either way, you're going to have to get quite heavily into Drupal internals, read a lot of code and work out how stuff functions. One good way to find out how to do stuff is by looking at the code for core or other contributed modules.

Also, as said before, you can group CCK fields (not sure if the same is possible for profile.module) in a collapsible fieldset (see the modules page for an example). Personally, I'd use these, then set 'collapsed' => FALSE in a category where the user has checked a box. Not sure if that makes sense for what you're trying to do though.

The disadvantage of using CCK over profile.module is that I can't seem to find any CCK API docs anywhere. This will improve when CCK goes into Drupal core, but until then you'll be stuck looking at how other modules integrate with CCK

Hi JB, Sorry about getting a

davecoventry — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:00:11 +0000

Hi JB,

Sorry about getting a little terse.

Although I wouldn't describe this project as 'professional', I am hoping to make money from it and I do have a partner in the enterprise, so in that context it's not a hobby which I can abandon if the going starts getting tough. Also, my partner (my cousin) behaves like a 'boss' sometimes, so it very definitely feels like a professional project, however, neither of us has the funds, resources and backing which might be considered the prerequisite of a one.

What I'm also planning to do is programmatically add checkboxes to the user's profile. When this started we had 11 checkboxes. This has expanded to over 80 (against my protestations) and each checkbox topic needs it's own 'news' category and it's own forum and these will have to be raised at the same time as the checkboxes are added. Additionally I have blocks which must be made aware of their existence.

At the moment some six or seven pieces of code must be updated with the addition of each new checkbox, so the scope for error through typo or omission is significant and would be eliminated through such a one-click implementation.

I can easily write an DHTML form with the checkboxes hidden intially, but expanded as the user selects a category. I wonder if an option wouldn't be to write those checkboxes directly to the profile_fields and profile_values tables?

I would envision that the

JeevesBond — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:45:00 +0000

I would envision that the panels (or the mini panels) would allow the checkboxes to be grouped together,

I don't have much experience with mini-panels, so could be wrong, but I don't think they can do that, unfortunately.

The Fieldgroup module is more likely to do what you want. At the very least it'll be able to group your fields so -- with a little JQuery magic -- you'll be able to make the groups behave in the required way. In fact, under Configure, it's possible to set the groups to 'collapsible' or 'collapsed', which seems to be exactly what you're looking for.

Panels should be used for pages only, in fact (and sorry I didn't think to mention this before) but for the form Panels shouldn't be required at all.

APK's role is mostly just to give you the theme and some instructions. There's also some default Panels and Views; if you're using the APK theme for your user profiles the module has to be enabled. It's also worth leaving enabled to see updates to the module/theme.

If I think (deluded fool that I am) that I have managed to configure a panel to provide the 5 checkboxes, how do I get these to show up on the profile?

Am a little unsure where you are or how you got there. :-/ However, to start ignore Panels and APK. Concentrate on CCK and Content Profile. Make sure Content Profile is installed, go to Administer -> Content management -> Content types then on the Profile row, see the manage fields link. On that page is where the registration/user edit form can be setup.

Note: might be a good idea to switch off the default 'Profile' module, supplied by Drupal.

I don't know why this isn't enabled by default, but it's also important to go to: Administer -> Content management -> Profile -> Edit, then hidden at the bottom under Content Profile is a checkbox. Make sure it's checked and Save.

You'll notice that whatever you configure in manage fields will appear on the user registration and edit forms. Also, note that these are nodes, and when logged-in as admin there'll be a lot of crap about menus, promoting to front page, title etc. Firstly: the problem is that nodes were not strictly designed to be used as user profiles (although conceptually they're perfect for the job), so there's some extra cruft. Secondly: it's easy to hide the cruft from your users, in fact they should see very little of it by default. Thirdly: Nodes are being made more versatile in the up-coming Drupal 7, so this usage of nodes is known -- and approved of -- by the Drupal core developers (those that care anyway).

When you've set the checkbox under Content Profile a tab, of the same name, will appear next to Edit. Note that Hide form fields: only applies to the user registration page, not the user edit page. For that you'll need the Auto Node Title module.

This is all pretty new, innovative stuff for Drupal, so a lot of the UI is still being worked out. As I said earlier: it all works pretty well, but is very hard for a newbie to put together, 'unintuitive' is a good way of describing it, yes.

If this is a professional project and you're really stuck, it would take me about two hours to get a user profile creation/edit form that has grouped checkboxes on it. Hopefully this will be enough information to get you going though.

If I think (deluded fool

davecoventry — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 10:06:14 +0000

If I think (deluded fool that I am) that I have managed to configure a panel to provide the 5 checkboxes, how do I get these to show up on the profile?

If I could get that far, then I could possibly have a look at implementing the CSS and Javascript which would control the visibility of the 4 sub checkboxes. Not that I can see any way of adding that code. But still, getting to first base would be nice. I cannot begin to describe how frustrating it is to be at no further forward after three days of googling the same content (largely outdated) repeatedly.

JeevesBond, This is

davecoventry — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 22:15:46 +0000

JeevesBond,

This is completely impenetratable.

I have been through it and created a mess of Panels, mini panels, field types, nodes, pages and a mass of different content, but I have got no clue on where it all fits together.

I would envision that the panels (or the mini panels) would allow the checkboxes to be grouped together, but I cannot see any way of placing the checkboxes on the form nor of displaying them (or hiding them). And why do I need to specify a teaser when I create a panel? Where does the teaser appear, and what function does it serve? And why can't I just leave it out?

And what is the APK's role in all of this? It doesn't appear to do anything at all.

Sorry if I sound a bit grumpy, but I'm chasing my tail here.

I'm starting to feel that what I'm hoping to do is not possible.

Hi JeevesBond, JeevesBond

davecoventry — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:34:52 +0000

Hi JeevesBond,

JeevesBond wrote:

Ah yes, I forgot to mention that APK is hard. This whole area is undergoing a lot of development at the moment. The code is usable/pretty stable, but it takes a bit of graft to setup.

It's not really intuitive, is it?

JeevesBond wrote:

Gone to /admin/settings/advanced-profile where there is a checkbox called "Create user profile node type" but when I enable this and save configuration it just disables itself.

Believe it or not, that's what it's supposed to do!

If the box is checked, APK tries to create a node type to store profile information in, it then unchecks the box. If I remember correctly, I could never get it to create the blasted content type anyway. So don't worry that it doesn't work.

Yes, it makes sense. I just couldn't see anywhere to edit my profile and assumed that the checkbox enabled more configuration settings.

JeevesBond wrote:

I believe the part you're getting stuck on is:

2. Profile type auto creation: Check this box and save configuration. This option will be disabled once the node type exists and you will need to delete your node type if you want to re-create it. If you get errors with this step, it is due to issues with CCK's content copy module. Try importing manually, by copying and pasting the contents of uprofile.inc directly to ?q=admin/content/types/import

Bear in mind these instructions are for Drupal 5, where the profiles as nodes modules are different to the ones for Drupal 6 (there were two competing in five, which were merged for six -- generally regarded as a good thing).

Yes, when the checkbox didn't stay enabled, I assumed that there was something wrong with my install.

JeevesBond wrote:

Does http://www.example.com/?q=admin/content/types/import exist on your site? If not, it's because Content Profile doesn't work the same as its Drupal 5 equivalents.

If it does exist, look in the advanced_profile/includes directory for a file named uprofile.inc (I've updated the documentation to make a little more sense), then copy and paste the contents to http://www.example.com/?q=admin/content/types/import

Yes it's there.

JeevesBond wrote:

If that URL does not exist, don't worry about it, just skip that step. It's mostly just creating a bunch of default stuff for you, that's easy to do by hand.

I imported the uprofile.inc as you suggested, but got the following error: "The content type uprofile already exists in this database.
Exiting. No import performed."

JeevesBond wrote:

Then, this instruction will be erroneous for you:

8. Configure Bio:

You're using Content Profile, if you're on Drupal 6.

Yes, I realised that.

JeevesBond wrote:

The rest should be reasonably straight-forward. What you need to know: all user profiles will become nodes, just like Story, Page, Blog post or Forum post. APK tries to create the node type of 'uprofile' for user profiles (that's what the importing earlier is all about). However, if this doesn't work out, you can either create your own blasted node type or -- if it creates one, I'm not sure -- use the one provided by Content Profile.

Okay, I'll give it a go.

JeevesBond wrote:

Does that get you any further?

JeevesBond wrote:

*** EDIT ***
Just one more thing: going to ?q=admin/content/types on your site is where you can edit content types and the CCK fields that appear on them.

Ah yes, I forgot to mention

JeevesBond — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 06:54:00 +0000

Ah yes, I forgot to mention that APK is hard. This whole area is undergoing a lot of development at the moment. The code is usable/pretty stable, but it takes a bit of graft to setup.

Gone to /admin/settings/advanced-profile where there is a checkbox called "Create user profile node type" but when I enable this and save configuration it just disables itself.

Believe it or not, that's what it's supposed to do!

I believe the part you're getting stuck on is:

2. Profile type auto creation: Check this box and save configuration. This option will be disabled once the node type exists and you will need to delete your node type if you want to re-create it. If you get errors with this step, it is due to issues with CCK's content copy module. Try importing manually, by copying and pasting the contents of uprofile.inc directly to ?q=admin/content/types/import

Does http://www.example.com/?q=admin/content/types/import exist on your site? If not, it's because Content Profile doesn't work the same as its Drupal 5 equivalents.

If that URL does not exist, don't worry about it, just skip that step. It's mostly just creating a bunch of default stuff for you, that's easy to do by hand.

Then, this instruction will be erroneous for you:

8. Configure Bio:

You're using Content Profile, if you're on Drupal 6.

Does that get you any further?

*** EDIT ***
Just one more thing: going to ?q=admin/content/types on your site is where you can edit content types and the CCK fields that appear on them.

Hmm. Very frustrating. Can't

davecoventry — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 08:42:16 +0000

Hmm.

Very frustrating.

Can't see a way to use it.

Gone to /admin/settings/advanced-profile where there is a checkbox called "Create user profile node type" but when I enable this and save configuration it just disables itself.

I've installed and enabled just about everything I can think of including Author Pane, Panels 3, CTools, Views, CCK, Content Profile and Link.

It says "try manually importing the contents of uprofile.inc with content copy's UI", but I can't see anything that might resemble a UI for copy.

Essentially, what needs to

JeevesBond — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 05:31:13 +0000

Essentially, what needs to be done is to have the 11 checkboxes displayed without their 44 underlings. Then, when a checkbox is checked, the appropriate squad of underling checkboxes would be exposed for the user's consideration.

Sounds like APK is what you need, that and CCK for adding the custom fields to profiles (one of the things APK helps with is turning user profiles into nodes, which CCK can then add fields to).

You may need some custom jquery to make the extra checkboxes appear/disappear though. CCK integrates nicely with Views by the way.

JeevesBond, Thanks for

davecoventry — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:39:14 +0000

JeevesBond,

Thanks for replying to this and for emailing a very nice note to inform me that you had.

Yes the bulk of the questions I was asking have been researched and either implemented or abandoned in favour of something else.

I will horde (hoard?) your example module for a later date as who knows when I may next require to place a jpeg of a Canadian beaver into someone's unsuspecting node?

The views problem has largely been resolved by the use of PHP and SQL queries, which I am certain are pretty ungainly and inefficient hacks which should be consigned to the hack-bucket the moment the site becomes under any sort of strain and I have a better idea of what to replace them with.

However, the profile issue has suddenly become pressing. I had managed to get away with a solid column of checkboxes and textfields stretching for several pages, and although this was somewhat ungainly, it functioned reasonably well.

Now, however, there is a requirement to make each checkbox (there are 11 in all) have 4 sub-categories with their own checkboxes, which will make 55 checkboxes all lined down one side of the web page.

This will undoubtedly be tedious both for the user and for the poor sod who has to click his way through creating each individual checkbox, entering it's title, name and description and (hopefully) not forget to check the box which will render it on the page before clicking 'save' and moving onto the next one.

So your shamless plug re the APK could well be my salvation.

I have had the 'Alphabetical List of Drupal Modules' open for some days now as I have investigated several likely candidates for solving this. In fact I was looking at the Advanced Profile Kit this evening shortly before receiving your email.

I had been fast coming to the conclusion that the best option entailed the use of CiviCRM, but on your recommendation I shall revisit the Advanced Profile Kit.

Essentially, what needs to be done is to have the 11 checkboxes displayed without their 44 underlings. Then, when a checkbox is checked, the appropriate squad of underling checkboxes would be exposed for the user's consideration.

It would be nice if there was a way to group the checkboxes rather than leaving them in their column, but this is really not that consequential.

Oh, and one further point; I shall definitely refrain from calling procedures from other blocks as I really don't want kittens on my conscience.