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USAGE.txt in Prepopulate 6

Same filename and directory in other branches
  1. 5 USAGE.txt
  2. 6.2 USAGE.txt
See README.txt for a description of this module.
See this documentation online at http://drupal.org/node/228167.

USING PREPOPULATE MODULE
========================

Simple Usage
------------

Prepopulate the title field on a node creation form:
  http://www.example.com/node/add/content?edit[title]=This is the title
With 'non-clean' urls:
  http://www.example.com?q=node/add/content&edit[title]=This is the title


POST Requests
-------------
Since Prepopulate uses the $_REQUEST variable, you have access to prepopulate
form values from either GET request in the URL, or the form POST requests. In
the below example, we prepopulate a node form's title based on a POST Request:

<html><body>
  <form method="post" action="http://example.com/node/add/story">
    Title: <input type="text" size="12" maxlength="12" name="edit[title]">
    <input type="submit">
  </form>
</body></html>


How to find what variable to set
--------------------------------

This can be tricky, but there are a few things to keep in mind that
should help.

Prepopulate.module is quite simple. It looks through the form, looking
for a variable that matches the name given on the URL, and puts the
value in when it finds a match. Drupal keeps HTML form entities in an
edit[] array structure. All your variables will be contained within the
edit[] array.

A good starting point is to look at the HTML code of a rendered Drupal
form. Once you find the appropriate <input /> (or <textarea>...</textarea>
tag, use the value of the name attribute in your URL, contained in the
edit array. For example, if the <input /> tag looks like this:

  <input id="edit-title" class="form-text required" type="text" value=""
  size="60" name="title" maxlength="128"/>

then try this URL:

  http://www.example.com/node/add/content?edit[title]=Automatic filled in title

CCK fields are a bit more complicated:

  <input id="edit-field-office-0-node-name" class="form-text
  form-autocomplete" type="text" value="" size="60"
  name="field_office[0][node_name]" maxlength="128" autocomplete="OFF"/>

The key is to put this in the edit[] array nested, like this:

  http://www.example.com/node/add/content?edit[field_office][0][node_name]=AL-235

Another example:

  <textarea id="edit-field-content-0-value" class="form-textarea
  resizable processed" name="field_content[0][value]" rows="10"
  cols="60"/>

would be:

  http://www.example.com/node/add/content?edit[field_content][0][value]=A long text string

and, again, for non-clean URLs, it's:

  http://www.example.com?q=node/add/content&edit[field_content][0][value]=A long text string


Body fields
-----------

Body fields are different. Though their HTML entity looks like this:
  <textarea id="edit-body" class="form-textarea resizable processed"
  name="body" rows="20" cols="60"/>

You can't just take the name "body," throw it into a edit[body] and
expect it to work. Drupal wraps the body field into a "body_field"
array when it gets processed. So, for body fields, a URL like:

  http://www.example.com/node/add/content?edit[body_field][body]=This is the body

ought to do the trick.


Multiple fields
---------------

Prepopulate can handle pre-filling multiple fields from one URL. Just
separate the edit variables with an ampersand:

  http://www.example.com/node/add/content?edit[title]=The title&edit[body_field][body]=The body

You're already using the ampersand with non-clean URLs:

  http://www.example.com?q=node/add/content&edit[title]=The title&edit[body_field][body]=The body


Escaping special characters
---------------------------

Some characters can't be put into URLs. Spaces, for example, work
mostly, but occasionally they'll have to be replaced with the string %20.
This is known as "percent encoding." Wikipedia has a partial list of
percent codes at:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percent-encoding

If you're having trouble getting content into field names, or are
getting 'page not found' errors from Drupal, you should check to ensure
that illegal characters are properly encoded.


Bookmarklets
------------

Prepopulate.module was created for bookmarklets. Here is a bookmarklet for
posting web links to a site:

javascript:u=document.location.href;t=document.title;s=window.getSelection();void(window.open(%22http://example.com/node/add/content-web-link?edit[title]=%22+escape(t)+'&edit[body_field][body]='+escape(s)+'&edit[field_url][0][value]='+escape(u),'_blank','width=1024,height=500,status=yes,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes'));

This turns into a URL like this:

http://example.com/node/add/content-web-link?edit[title]=drupal.org%20%7C%20Community%20plumbing&edit[body_field][body]=&edit[field_url][0][value]=http%3A//drupal.org/

Selecting some text on the page first would put that text into the
body of the node.

Happy prepopulating!

File

USAGE.txt
View source 
  1. 

  2. See README.txt for a description of this module.

  3. See this documentation online at http://drupal.org/node/228167.

  4. 

  5. USING PREPOPULATE MODULE

  6. ========================

  7. 

  8. Simple Usage

  9. ------------

  10. 

  11. Prepopulate the title field on a node creation form:

  12.   http://www.example.com/node/add/content?edit[title]=This is the title

  13. With 'non-clean' urls:

  14.   http://www.example.com?q=node/add/content&edit[title]=This is the title

  15. 

  16. 

  17. POST Requests

  18. -------------

  19. Since Prepopulate uses the $_REQUEST variable, you have access to prepopulate

  20. form values from either GET request in the URL, or the form POST requests. In

  21. the below example, we prepopulate a node form's title based on a POST Request:

  22. 

  23. 

  24.   
    

  25.     Title: 

  26.     

  27.   

  28. 

  29. 

  30. 

  31. How to find what variable to set

  32. --------------------------------

  33. 

  34. This can be tricky, but there are a few things to keep in mind that

  35. should help.

  36. 

  37. Prepopulate.module is quite simple. It looks through the form, looking

  38. for a variable that matches the name given on the URL, and puts the

  39. value in when it finds a match. Drupal keeps HTML form entities in an

  40. edit[] array structure. All your variables will be contained within the

  41. edit[] array.

  42. 

  43. A good starting point is to look at the HTML code of a rendered Drupal

  44. form. Once you find the appropriate  (or 

  45. tag, use the value of the name attribute in your URL, contained in the

  46. edit array. For example, if the  tag looks like this:

  47. 

  48.   
  49.   size="60" name="title" maxlength="128"/>

  50. 

  51. then try this URL:

  52. 

  53.   http://www.example.com/node/add/content?edit[title]=Automatic filled in title

  54. 

  55. CCK fields are a bit more complicated:

  56. 

  57.   
  58.   name="field_office[0][node_name]" maxlength="128" autocomplete="OFF"/>

  59. 

  60. The key is to put this in the edit[] array nested, like this:

  61. 

  62.   http://www.example.com/node/add/content?edit[field_office][0][node_name]=AL-235

  63. 

  64. Another example:

  65. 

  66.