hook_url_outbound_alter()
I am struggling to find any documentation or explanation for how to use this hook. I have a page: node/1221
and when it look like so: node/1221/profile/chn/3
It loads a profile for that user.
I want pretty URL's so that when the user visits departments/pch/chn/profile/3
I want it to actually load node/1221/profile/chn/3
I am pretty sure the hook should help me with this but not sure how it works.
Note: Using drupal 6, tried aliases but they didn't work.
2nd update:
The 3
in the URL is a profile ID that I want to pass on to another URL. I have node/1221/profile/chn/3
working because it has a panel that grabs the %4
argument and passes it to a view inside the panel. Hope this gives more context.
Currently trying:
/**
* Implementation of hook_boot()
*/
function pathargs_boot() {
// remain empty, only needed to let Drupal bootstrap system know to load this module earlier.
}
/**
* Will define custom_url_rewrite_inbound(). If url_alter is enabled
* Pathargs inbound alter will be called by its implementation of
* custom_url_rewrite_inbound() instead.
*/
if (!function_exists('custom_url_rewrite_inbound')) {
function custom_url_rewrite_inbound(&$result, $path, $path_language) {
return pathargs_url_inbound_alter($result, $path, $path_language);
}
}
/**
* Implementation of hook_url_inbound_alter()
*/
function pathargs_url_inbound_alter(&$result, $path, $path_language) {
watchdog('Path Arguments', "$path + $original_path");
if($result == 'chn') {
$result = 'node/1222/chn/profile/3';
}
}
Still not working... visiting www.domain.com/chn does nothing.
Try this: http://drupal.org/project/subpath_alias According to that module's description it does what you want it to do.
If you want to use hook_url_outbound_alter()
you need to upgrade to Drupal 7 since it doesn't exist on D6 and earlier.
If I were you, I would use aliases. Aliases work by rewriting the url to that departments/pch/chn/profile/3
would be translated into node/1221/profile/chn/3
which would be a valid Drupal path for your installation.
The thing is that what you got is a bit site specific, so you'll need to create your own system to create the aliases in your custom module instead of relying on path auto.
I don't know the semantics of your urls, so I can't help you how you should create the aliases. Most likely you can do it when a new node is created. Take a look at pathauto_create_alias
it should help you along most of the way.
Using aliases should be more maintainable and some modules hook into this allowing you to do other things. Using custom_url_rewrite_xxx
can quickly become messy quick easily, especially if you need to add a lot of rules. It will probably be quicker to use now, but if you have to maintain the site, this is something that can lead some serious WTF 1 year from now.
hook_url_outbound_alter
If you do decide to take this route, you need to change the $path
variable and not the $result
. You can take a look at the url_alter.api.php for guidance, an example of usage is:
function hook_url_inbound_alter(&$result, $path, $path_language) {
global $user;
// Change all requests for 'article/x' to 'node/x'.
if (preg_match('|^article(/.*)|', $path, $matches)) {
$path = 'node'. $matches[1];
}
// Change all requests to 'e' to the user's profile edit page.
if ($path == 'e') {
$path = 'user/'. $user->uid .'/edit';
}
}