Drupal 7 Module Development Tutorial #7 - Theming Tables with Drupal's Form API

In the 7th drupal video tutorial of this 10 part series, I show you how we can use Drupal's form api to create a table with check boxes and administer our flag applications. Using the form api, we create a tableselect element, check box form element and submit button. In doing so, I also show you the l function and briefing discuss Drupal theme functions.

[jeffguroo]

Took me forever to learn what you laid out here. Thanks again for filling in the gaps.

[maheshkharote]

Thanks Peter, everything you explained was very helpful. Is there any way for call a function using l. Also what are the different ways in which we can render a page to display data from database.

[rolandreedy]

Thanks Peter, your tutorials are extremely helpful!  I'm hoping that you can add to this one just a little bit.   I'm looking to not only have pagination (which this tutorial covers wonderfully) but to also add a sort by column header.  

I have found the ->extend('TableSort') option and read that it should be the answer to my question... it doesn't seem to work though. 

Any chance you have exposure with this one?

[sheetalmore]

Thank you! This series is really helpful!

I need help....I am getting 'Undefined offset: 0 in theme_tableselect() ' and table is not showing any results..only the Approve, deny drop-down and check boxes ..I can see!

[andrewbickford]

Great tutorial. One thing That confused me was why you need to call theme('pager') to print the pager you generated from the database query.

[danielerosa]

Thank you, Peter! Great tutorials!

I wonder if you can add a form to a page using the same logic. I tried
function mymodule_menu() {
  $items['userinfo] = array(
    'title' => 'My Form',
    'description' => 'Form desc',
    'page callback' => 'drupal_get_form',
    'page arguments' => array('mymodule_userinfo_form'),
    'file' => 'mymodule_forms.inc',
  );
  return $items;
}

and visiting the page previously created at the node "userinfo" i don't see the form. But if I change $items['userinfo'] to $items['userinfo/hi'] and visit the node 'userinfo/hi' (which is not associated with any content) I see the form

[gp]

Hi. Awesome tutorial. Is the final code for this one (Module Dev #7) available? I typed out the whole thing and can't get it to run properly. The  select element shows on the page and a checkbox shows, but no results from the query.  I know there are results in the database because I saw them output as part of what I did for video #6. Also, there are a bunch of warnings (see below). I'm not sure how to debug it. I'll paste the warnings and code below.

Warnings when I go to
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in theme_tableselect() (line 3425 of
Warning: array_unshift() expects parameter 1 to be array, string given in theme_tableselect() (line 3435 of
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in tablesort_get_order() (line 206 of
Warning: reset() expects parameter 1 to be array, string given in tablesort_get_order() (line 220 of
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in tablesort_get_order() (line 206 of
Warning: reset() expects parameter 1 to be array, string given in tablesort_get_order() (line 220 of
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in tablesort_get_sort() (line 248 of
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in theme_table() (line 2045 of

---Here's my flag_application.admin.inc:
<?php

/**
*
* Flag Application administration
*/

function flag_application_form($form, $form_state){
    //dpm (debug_backtrace());
    $form = array();
// Build the sortable table header.
  $header = array(
    'title' => t('Flagged Content'),
    'name' => t('Username'),
    'entity_id' => t('Node ID'),
    'uid' => t('User ID'),
    'flagging_id' => t('Flag ID'),
    'status' => t('Status'),
  );

// select table flag_application with alias 'fa' and join with flagging table as 'f'alias
$sql = db_select('flag_application',
$sql->join('flagging', 'f', 'f.flagging_id = fa.flagging_id');
$sql->join('node', 'n', 'f.entity_id = n.nid');
$sql->join('users', 'u', 'f.uid = u.uid');
$sql->fields('fa', array('status'))
    ->fields('f', array('entity_id', 'timestamp', 'flagging_id'))
    ->fields('n', array('title'))
    ->fields('u', array('name', 'uid'))
    ->orderBy('timestamp', 'DESC')
    ->limit(25);
$results = $sql->execute();

$rows = array();

foreach($results as $result){
    switch ($result->status){
        case 0:
            $status = 'Pending';
            break;
        case 1:
            $status = 'Approved';
            break;
        case 2:
            $status = 'Denied';
            break;
    }
    // for each row in the results, get all the data for that row
    // The order matters (make it same as you made for the headers)
    $rows[] = array(
        // l() makes links
        'title' => l($result->title, 'node/'.$result->entity_id),
        'name' => l($result->name, 'user/'.$result->uid),
        'entity_id' => $result->entity_id,
        'uid' => $result->uid,
        'flagging_id' => $result->flagging_id,
        'status' => $status,
        '#attributes' => array('class' => array('application-row')),     
        );
    } //end foreach

   = array(
        '#type' => 'select',
        '#title' => 'Actions',
        '#options' => array(
          1 => t('Approve'),
          2 => t('Deny'),
        ),
    );
    
   = array(
        '#type' => 'tableselect',
        '#header' => 'header',
        '#options' => $rows,
        '#empty' => t('No applications found.'),
        '#attributes' => array('class' => array('applications')),
        );


    $form['pager'] = array('#markup' => theme('pager'));

    $form['submit'] = array(
        '#type' => 'submit',
        '#value' => t('Submit'),
    );


return $form;
}

[gmaff]

Jeez. As a beginner this video probably contained exactly what I needed to know, but sorry, you were speed reading and mumbling - 1/10 for presentation skills. Perhaps a rehearsal would have been a good idea too! All I'm trying to do is get output from a table I have created displayed in a side-bar on the home screen. Just a straightforward table - no check boxes or other paraphernalia and only two columns. It shouldn't involve all this. I have used CMS systems in the past to do this and I get databases. Drupal is just complicated. Having said that, I really am trying to give it a chance!