Lesson 25: Work with your db the Drupal way.

So now we know our formapi - we can theme and display our forms any way we want to. But how do we make those forms actually DO something? ajk^ has volunteered to show us how to connect the database to our forms. Module settings, database rows, all done the Drupal way.

Lesson 14: Refactoring book module (part 1)

One of the things mentioned by Dries in his "State of the Drupal" address at OSCMS was how nice it would be if book.module would turn into a more generic outline functionality, rather than being semi-attached to a specific node type. With the code-freeze for Drupal 6.0 coming up June 1st, it's now or never to get new features in.

Sepeck posted an issue on drupal.org about separating special content types from book.module, and another one on reusing menu_renumber to make outlines more efficient. There's a definite need for some changes in book.module, and pwolanin even started a patch for multiple menu support. All of this to say, refactoring the book.module is necessary.

So let's do it! Josh_k is willing to do the majority of the coding, and to package the whole experience into one or more dojo lessons. If others would like to contribute to the effort, that'll be more than welcome. The whole thing has to be completed by the end of May, so toward that end, we'll start a wiki on the g.d.o site to discuss and outline the steps.

There is also a drupal.org Issue queue for book.module so you can follow along.

Lesson 13: Custom CCK fields

CCK is the future for site designers, but how do we make fields do what we want them to? I mean, its no good to have an input field without validation and formatting options, is it? Forthurmore, how does this stuff 'magically' show up in Views?

Never fear, its all there, and we can go through it all step by step.

The current lesson plan is:

* Detail a Content Construction Kit field.
* Build a CCK money field module (for various currencies). Maybe even a form that shows when the user is viewing the node, and lets the user choose a currency.
* Add Google Video functionality to a YouTube CCK field to demonstrate extensibility.