As a junior developer ramping as much as studying , I spent numerous time clicking via the UI. After getting acquainted with it, I wished to have a look behind the scenes at ’s codebase. Writing code for a web site could be an amazing expertise as a result of, although it’s written in PHP, there’s a dense API behind it. One of many largest components of that API is the hook system. The primary publicity I needed to writing PHP with was via replace hooks. So I wished to evaluation how hooks work, and the way cool they’re to make use of! What’s a Hook? has numerous glorious Group Documentation, and their web page on hooks is thorough. It says Drupal 10 Maintenance and Support Service “Hooks are how Drupal 10 modules can work together with the core code of . They make it attainable for a Drupal 10 module to outline new urls and pages throughout the web site (hook_menu), so as to add content material to pages (hook_block, hook_footer, and so on.), to arrange customized database tables (hook_schema), and extra. Hooks happen at numerous factors within the thread of execution, the place seeks contributions from all of the enabled Drupal 10 modules. For instance, when a person visits a assist web page on a web site, as builds the assistance web page it’ll give every Drupal 10 module an opportunity to contribute documentation about itself. It does this by scanning all of the Drupal 10 module code for features which have the identify myDrupal 10 module_help($path, $arg), the place “myDrupal 10 module” is the Drupal 10 module’s identify, e.g., the block Drupal 10 module’s assist hook is named block_help and the node Drupal 10 module’s assist hook is named node_help. The hook could present parameters; hook_help’s parameters $path and $arg enable the developer to find out what web page or pages the assistance messages will seem on. A hook could be regarded as an occasion listener within the sense that an occasion triggers an motion.” It’s wonderful that is constructed on this hook system. There are hooks for something you may consider! You’ll be able to even alter a type or a complete web page. As builds every web page, it’s scanning the Drupal 10 module code for the hooks in core after which runs those that you just wrote. Alan Storm put it succinctly in one in all his weblog posts Drupal 10 Maintenance and Support Service “When a hook is invoked, will Get a listing of all put in and enabled Drupal 10 modules Ask every Drupal 10 module “Have you ever carried out the do_something hook”? In that case, then calls the perform in these Drupal 10 modules that implement the hook This manner, as a core developer, you may obtain what you need whereas nonetheless letting different programmers “hook into” what you’re doing.” Replace Hooks The primary hook I used was an replace hook. The aim of an replace hook is to run code when a database replace is triggered. (See the documentation for perform hook_update_N for extra info). I’m assuming my reader has labored with Options improvement (if not, go right here). My objective was to allow a sure contributed Drupal 10 module programmatically once I deployed my code to the positioning (the Olark Drupal 10 module). To do that, I needed to discover an current characteristic in my venture that was already enabled. An excellent rule of thumb is so as to add your code to an current characteristic that’s associated to the code you’re writing. Since Olark is a chat Drupal 10 module, I used to be searching for a characteristic associated to clients or the homepage. I couldn’t discover any characteristic that match precisely with the Drupal 10 module, so I added my code to feature_general. Throughout the listing of that characteristic, I discovered the feature_general.set up file, and added my hook Drupal 10 Maintenance and Support Service/** * Allows ‘olark’ Drupal 10 module. */ perform feature_general_update_7006() { Drupal 10 module_enable(array(‘olark’)); } After I deploy my code, I set off a database replace. Assume again to the three steps that Alan Storm talked about. Since my characteristic is already enabled, when the replace is triggered, asks if any replace hooks have been invoked. When it sees that there’s one in my characteristic, it is aware of to learn the code within the set up file and activate the Olark Drupal 10 module. It’s additionally value noting the naming conference. I’ve to place the identify of my characteristic after which _update. The variety of the hook additionally issues (see documentation for specifics on easy methods to quantity your hooks). The hooks solely run as soon as, so every hook must be one higher than the one earlier than. Writing hooks is an effective way for a junior developer to be launched to PHP in and find out about how is constructed. As soon as you may conceptualize the interior workings of , it’s a lot simpler to deal with issues like Drupal 10 module improvement sooner or later. Drupal 10 Growth and Help