Creating a Template for a Custom Drupal Block

Publié le 3 août, 2010 par Suzanne Kennedy

We often define custom blocks in a site-specific module. Sometimes the markup in these blocks can start building up and we realize that it's time to create a template for the block. This is a good way to keep markup out of the module code. It's also a good way to practise writing cleaner and more themer-friendly modules.

To add a template file to your module, you'll need to implement the hook_theme() function.

<?php
/*
 * Implementation of hook_theme().
 */
function mymodule_theme() {
  return array(
    'mymodule_custom_block' => array('arguments' => array(), 'template' => 'mymodule-custom-block')
  );
}
?>

The name of the template will be mymodule-custom-block.tpl.php. You should create this template in the mymodule directory. In order to make the contents of the template appear on the site, you'll need to add it to a custom block. Below, I've implemented the hook_block function and assigned theme('mymodule_custom_block') to the content of my custom block.

<?php
/*
 * Implementation of hook_block().
 */
function mymodule_block($op = 'list', $delta = 0, $edit = array()) {
  switch ($op) {
    case 'list':
      return array(
        0 => array(
          'info' => t('Custom Block'),
        ),
     );
    case 'view':

      

$subject = '';
      $content = '';

      switch (

$delta) {
        case 0:
          $content = theme('mymodule_custom_block');
          $subject = t('My Custom Block');
        break;
      } 

    if (

$subject || $content) {
      return array(
        'subject' => $subject,
        'content' => $content,
      );
    }
    break;
  }
}
?>

In this case, the template file itself will contain static HTML. You can also add arguments to the mymodule_custom_block function if your block is dynamic.

Tags: 
Drupal
Theming
Module Development

Commentaires

Submitted by Sherman (non vérifié) on 30 août, 2010

For some reason, this does not seem to work. Setting $content = "Hello World!" works fine so I am assuming that there is something wrong with the way the theme is supposed to be implemented? Googling offers little help unfortunately. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Submitted by LavaMeTender (non vérifié) on 4 octobre, 2010

indeed code is missing important part. Please update article.

hook_theme looks like this:

function MODULENAME_theme() {
$items['MODULENAME_custom_block'] = array(
'template' => 'TEMPLATENAME',
'arguments' => array(
'SOME_KEY' => NULL, // in template use <?php print $SOME_KEY ?>, repeat this line if needed
)
);
return $items;
}

and hook block has some additions...

/*
* Implementation of hook_block().
*/
function MODULENAME_block($op = 'list', $delta = 0, $edit = array()) {
switch ($op) {
case 'list':
return array(
0 => array(
'info' => t('TITLE IN BLOCK LIST'),
),
);
case 'view':

$subject = '';
$content = '';
$SOME_KEY = 'STATIC OR DYNAMIC CONTENT'; // Repeat this line if needed

switch ($delta) {
case 0:
$content = theme('MODULENAME_custom_block', $SOME_KEY); // Add more arguments seperated by comma.
$subject = t('TITLE WHEN DISPLAYED);
break;
}

if ($subject || $content) {
return array(
'subject' => $subject,
'content' => $content,
);
}
break;
}
}