I am having some difficulties with my module I am currently working on. As part of this module I have created a few fields that appear on a form. This form is based in a custom entity.
First I am using field_create_field($field); to create the row in the field_config table. I am then using field_create_instance($instance); to create the row in the instance table and also create the table that begins with field_data_field.
The problem I am running into is how to remove these tables correctly at the end. I have tried manual deletion (via hook_uninstall), I've tried field_delete_field, I've tried to use the remove_instance hook that is built into the Commerce module. Either way, I end up getting lots of field_deleted_data_xxx tables being created. These don't even have data in them as I created a manual query to empty the main data tables before this function was called that seems to create these tables.
Has anyone else ever run into this problem? How do I stop Drupal from creating these tables??
You can't stop Drupal from creating them but I believe you can rid yourself of them totally using field_purge_batch and its related functions.
I really wish I knew the answer to your second question (in your comment above), my instinct would be that if you re-attach the field to the bundle then that data would become automatically available again (otherwise it really doesn't make sense to keep hold of the deleted tables) but I really can't be sure about that.
Related
I am asked to automate the tracking of changes in the structure of the database: Any modification, addition or removal of tables, fields, indexes, etc.
I have searched the audit but only found that it can track changes in the "Database schema", which is something else.
Do you know if it is possible to do that?
We use 11.6.3.
One wonders how those magical changes in the schema (I think you clarified that it was actually schema changes you wanted to automate) occur. Optionally it could be up to those making the changes to also keep track of them. Usually (hopefully) the database is updated using "delta df-files". Those df-files if kept are a changelog of the database.
Another option is to daily/hourly/weekly dump the data definitions:
CREATE ALIAS DICTDB FOR DATABASE sports.
DISPLAY LDBNAME("DICTDB").
RUN prodict/dump_df.p ("ALL",
"c:/temp/sports.df",
"").
DELETE ALIAS DICTDB. /* Optional */
Taken from this entry in the knowledge base: https://community.progress.com/s/article/15884
Then you can diff that df-file using your favorite tool or keep as it is.
If you actually mean structure (that's more how the data is stored in different files on disc) you can use the prostrct command to save a new st-file to disc:
prostrct list sports
This will save a file called sports.st. Handle it as above and you will have a changelog of the database structure.
I'm creating a data entity with multiple tables and I'm getting duplicate results. Because of the nature of the duplicates, I thought an easy solution would be to add the relevant fields to the Group By section in the primary datasource. However, when I run the entity as a data project in the DMF, I'm getting the following error:
Has anybody run into this before and how do I resolve it? I've tried adding the RecId to the group by (even though it shouldn't even be in the select list as it is not in the field list for the entity). I have noticed that adding fields to the Group By section changes the view in SQL and removes all of the RecId#2, Partitian#2 etc. fields. Does the Group By section even work or is it a broken "feature"?
The entity works perfectly (other than with duplicate results of course) when I remove all fields from the group by section.
UPDATE: From what I can find online, the group by functionality doesn't work. I'll update this question if somebody finds an answer. I am lucky this was an XML export, so I was able to use a XSLT file in the transformations under data entity mapping to remove duplicates.
I'm trying to create a view of approval tasks that also includes a column from the related form library. I have tried creating a linked data source between the tasks list and the form library, but have trouble finding much information on creating linked views with the task list.
I have tried:
http://deannaschneider.wordpress.com/2012/07/25/joining-the-task-list-with-related-content-in-a-dvwp/
without luck - it just tells me "there are no items to show in this view." which I assume means it couldn't be joined correctly with the specified table.
I am using the standard approval workflow.
Here is the closest solution I've found so far
1.) Create task form fields in SharePoint designer.
2.) Go into Approval(1) to add the task form fields.
3.) Click 'Change the behavior of a single task'. Add 'Set task field' action in the Before a task is assigned section to set the task form fields to get the value of Current Item:ID.
4.) Use the new task field to create your subview on your linked datasource
While not optimal - and it created me many different problems - I was able to create the view desired.
Hopefully someone will come up with a better solution.
I am trying to learn how to create a custom content type programmatically from within my module.
However, after uninstalling and reinstalling my module I was getting an error stating that one or more of the fields I was trying to create could not be created because they already exist.
So I went hacking through my databse, removing the content type and all tables that belonged to it.
Same result -- field already exists.
Next I went to the Drupal API website looking for ways to delete fields and field instances, and came across
field_delete_field()
and
field_delete_instance()
I made a php page to try to delete the fields that I had created, only to get an error stating that the table I was trying to delete does not exist.
So I'm kinda stuck -- I can't create the fields because they already exist, and I can't delete them because they don't exist!
BTW the code I was modeling my module after is the code found in the "node_example" section of the Drupal examples module.
Ouch, deleting the database tables manually is never a good idea - Drupal's not that forgiving :)
Just to address the code in your install/enable hook, wrap the field creation in:
if (!field_info_field('field_name')) {
field_create_field(...
}
That will stop the problem happening again. Or if you don't want to do that, make sure the field is deleted in the uninstall/disable hook. Obviously that method would potentially result in data loss.
To address the current problem, follow this process:
Completely uninstall (not just disable) your custom module. If it's in an inconsistent state, just delete its row in the system table.
Delete all traces of the field from the field_config and field_config_instance tables.
Truncate all the cache tables manually (any table beginning with cache_).
Not strictly necessary but clear up any lingering content:
$nids = db_query('SELECT nid FROM {node} WHERE type = :type', array(':type' => 'type'))->fetchCol();
node_delete_multiple($nids);
That ought to do it.
Any time you delete a field, through the UI or programatically you'll need to either run cron or call field_purge_batch() to 'hard' delete the fields as they're only marked for deletion in the first instance.
Currently, I'm using tablepress to output different info using a table format. I want users to be able to add to existing information. I need a form in wordpress that saves user posts to these different tables. How should I go about this? Sorry if I sound stupid but I'm soft on html.
Thanks.
If you want to insert in posts table using custom form, you can use wp_insert_post().
This function inserts posts (and pages) in the database. It sanitizes variables, does some checks, fills in missing variables like date/time, etc. It takes an object as its argument and returns the post ID of the created post (or 0 if there is an error).
Reference : http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_insert_post