The front page has a Views Slideshow Block that grabs node data from custom CCK types. These types contain an image to be displayed in the slideshow (but not the node itself) and a checkbox for enabling or disabling the node from appearing in the Slideshow Block. The slideshow images by default link to the nodes from which they were created.

The problem is linking to a page rendered by Views. Since I can’t add a field for the image or checkbox in a view page (not that I know of, let me know if I’m wrong on this) I had to figure out a different way. And I did, but not without further glitches.

I added the image and checkbox fields to my Page content type and created a node with the appropriate image. It appeared in the slideshow and linked to the page. I then tried several methods to redirect the alias to the correct page. First, the Path Redirect Module. Fail. Then, cpanel’s .htaccess redirect configuration tool. Fail. Then manual .htaccess configuration. Fail.

I don’t really know why the .htaccess failed – I have suspicions it has to do simply with Apache not updating, the fact that I have the Global Redirect Module installed, the clean url directives that already exist in the .htaccess file, or some similar url rewriting conflict.

In a pinch, I added this snippet of code to the body of the page I created:

<?php
 header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
 header("Location: http://www.mysite.com/aliasname");
 exit();
 ?>

This delicious morsel did the trick, but not without a headache first. You’ll have to have access to posting PHP code, and post it as source, even if you select the PHP option.

I started setting up my attributes and naturally, added one by accident. After finding a button deceivingly named “delete”, I clicked it to correct my error. An http request was sent and the page reloaded – but my attribute was still there, winking at me like an old man who – while sitting on his porch – witnessed your ice cream tumbling off its cone after the first lick.

Luckily, a quick search found a remedy so I pass it along to you, the ethereal inter-web user:

http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=24502#p67476

Take that, old man.

use the same code to generate your menu:

<?php if (!empty($primary_links)): ?>
<?php print theme('links', $primary_links, array('id' => 'nav')); ?>
<?php endif; ?>

this calls the links() function inside of includes/theme.inc, which triggers the l() function in the includes/common.inc to write the primary links menu. We can’t override the l() entirely because other code uses it, so we’ll copy the code from theme.inc and override the l() function with a site template specific one. Here’s my code:

theme.inc

function mytheme_links($links, $attributes = array('class' => 'links')) {
 global $language;
 $output = '';
 $options = array(
 'class' => '',
 'html' => FALSE,
 );

 if (count($links) > 0) {
 $output = '<ul' . drupal_attributes($attributes) .'>';

 $num_links = count($links);
 $i = 1;

 foreach ($links as $key => $link) {
 $class = $key;

 $links['attributes']['title'] = $link['title'];
 // Add first, last and active classes to the list of links to help out themers.
 if ($i == 1) {
 $class .= ' first';
 }
 if ($i == $num_links) {
 $class .= ' signup last';
 $links['attributes']['class'] .= $class;
 }
 if (isset($link['href']) && ($link['href'] == $_GET['q'] || ($link['href'] == '<front>' && drupal_is_front_page()))
 && (empty($link['language']) || $link['language']->language == $language->language)) {
 $class .= ' active';
 }
 $output .= '<li' . drupal_attributes(array('class' => $class)) .'>';

 if (isset($link['href'])) {
 // Pass in $link as $options, they share the same keys.

//here's my call to the overridden function
 $output .= mytheme_l($link['title'], $link['href'], $links);
 }
 else if (!empty($link['title'])) {
 // Some links are actually not links, but we wrap these in <span> for adding title and class attributes
 if (empty($link['html'])) {
 $link['title'] = check_plain($link['title']);
 }
 $span_attributes = '';
 if (isset($link['attributes'])) {
 $span_attributes = drupal_attributes($link['attributes']);
 }
 $output .= '<span'. $span_attributes .'>'. $link['title'] .'</span>';
 }

 $i++;
 $output .= "</li>\n";
 }

 $output .= '</ul>';
 }

 return $output;
}

and now the l() function in common.inc gets changed to mytheme_l():

function mytheme_l($text, $path, $options = array()) {
 global $language;

 // Merge in defaults.
 $options += array(
 'attributes' => array(),
 'html' => FALSE,
 );

 // Append active class.
 if (($path == $_GET['q'] || ($path == '<front>' && drupal_is_front_page())) &&
 (empty($options['language']) || $options['language']->language == $language->language)) {
 if (isset($options['attributes']['class'])) {
 $options['attributes']['class'] .= ' active';
 }
 else {
 $options['attributes']['class'] = 'active';
 }
 }

 // Remove all HTML and PHP tags from a tooltip. For best performance, we act only
 // if a quick strpos() pre-check gave a suspicion (because strip_tags() is expensive).
 if (isset($options['attributes']['title']) && strpos($options['attributes']['title'], '<') !== FALSE) {
 $options['attributes']['title'] = strip_tags($options['attributes']['title']);
 }
 // Inject a span inside the anchor tag for the purposes of this theme - NOTE - May have to remove check_plain() around
 // the $text variable
 return '<a href="'. check_url(url($path, $options)) .'"'. drupal_attributes($options['attributes']) .'><span>'. ($options['html'] ? $text : check_plain($text)) .'</span></a>';
}

You can see that all I did was include the span element inside the anchor tag using simple php string concatenation. Until I can find a better solution, this does the trick. Don’t ask me about benchmarking, though…

<ul id="nav">
  <li class="first"><a href="link-goes-here" title="wow, how descriptive"><span>link 1 copy</span></a></li>
  <li><a href="link-goes-here2" title="round 2, FIGHT!"><span>link 2 copy</span></a></li>
</ul>

The spans inside the anchor tag are valid xhtml strict, and necessary for the nested/floating backgrounds. The l() function in drupal does a fine job of spitting out valid code, but I also haven’t found anything to delimit the angle brackets in the span element.
Here’s how I solved the problem.

First, I added a preprocess function in template.php and copied this chunk of code from root/includes/theme.inc:

function theme_links($links, $attributes = array('class' => 'links')) {
 global $language;
 $output = '';

 if (count($links) > 0) {
 $output = '<ul'. drupal_attributes($attributes) .'>';

 $num_links = count($links);
 $i = 1;

 foreach ($links as $key => $link) {
 $class = $key;

 // Add first, last and active classes to the list of links to help out themers.
 if ($i == 1) {
 $class .= ' first';
 }
 if ($i == $num_links) {
 $class .= ' last';
 }
 if (isset($link['href']) && ($link['href'] == $_GET['q'] || ($link['href'] == '<front>' && drupal_is_front_page()))
 && (empty($link['language']) || $link['language']->language == $language->language)) {
 $class .= ' active';
 }
 $output .= '<li'. drupal_attributes(array('class' => $class)) .'>';

 if (isset($link['href'])) {
 // Pass in $link as $options, they share the same keys.
 $output .= l($link['title'], $link['href'], $link);
 }
 else if (!empty($link['title'])) {
 // Some links are actually not links, but we wrap these in <span> for adding title and class attributes
 if (empty($link['html'])) {
 $link['title'] = check_plain($link['title']);
 }
 $span_attributes = '';
 if (isset($link['attributes'])) {
 $span_attributes = drupal_attributes($link['attributes']);
 }
 $output .= '<span'. $span_attributes .'>'. $link['title'] .'</span>';
 }

 $i++;
 $output .= "</li>\n";
 }

 $output .= '</ul>';
 }

 return $output;
}

I then modified the code as follows:

function stoneyacresfarm_links($links, $attributes = array('class' => 'links')) {
 global $language;
 $output = '';

 if (count($links) > 0) {
 $output = '<ul'. drupal_attributes($attributes) .'>';

 $num_links = count($links);
 $i = 1;

 foreach ($links as $key => $link) {
 $class = $key;

 // Add first, last and active classes to the list of links to help out themers.
 if ($i == 1) {
 $class .= ' first';
 }
 if ($i == $num_links) {
 $class .= ' last';
 }
 if (isset($link['href']) && ($link['href'] == $_GET['q'] || ($link['href'] == '<front>' && drupal_is_front_page()))
 && (empty($link['language']) || $link['language']->language == $language->language)) {
 $class .= ' active';
 }
 $output .= '<li'. drupal_attributes(array('class' => $class)) .'>';

 if (isset($link['href'])) {
 // Pass in $link as $options, they share the same keys.
 // here are the modifications
 $temphref = drupal_lookup_path('alias', $link['href'], '');
 $output .= '<a href="' . $temphref . '" title="' . $link['title'] . '"> <span>' . $link['title'] . '</span></a>';
 }
 else if (!empty($link['title'])) {
 // Some links are actually not links, but we wrap these in <span> for adding title and class attributes
 if (empty($link['html'])) {
 $link['title'] = check_plain($link['title']);
 }
 $span_attributes = '';
 if (isset($link['attributes'])) {
 $span_attributes = drupal_attributes($link['attributes']);
 }
 $output .= '<span'. $span_attributes .'>'. $link['title'] .'</span>';
 }

 $i++;
 $output .= "</li>\n";
 }

 $output .= '</ul>';
 }

 return $output;
}

Lines 29 & 30 are the brilliant bits. I scoured api.drupal.org till I found the  drupal_lookup_path function. Follow the link for the arguments that can be passed in. I specified that I wanted an alias, gave it the path ( links['href'] ), and passed in a blank character for language.

This is all rendered out in my page-front.tpl.php and page.tpl.php files in the standard fashion:

<?php if (!empty($primary_links)): ?>
  <?php print theme('links', $primary_links, array('id' => 'nav')); ?>
<?php endif; ?>

I hope this helps!

As the title alludes to, IE6 doubles the right and/or left margin on a floated element unless you declare:

display: inline;

Don’t worry about block-level items losing their width or height: they won’t. This isn’t a comprehensive explanation of the fix; it works for the conditions specified.

1. http://www.songho.ca/opengl/gl_tessellation.html
2. http://www.geometrictools.com/Documentation/TriangulationByEarClipping.pdf
3. http://www.freepatentsonline.com/EP0425189.html
4. http://mathopenref.com/coordpolygonarea.html
5. http://www.flipcode.com/archives/Polygon_Tessellation_In_OpenGL.shtml
6. http://www.flipcode.com/archives/Efficient_Polygon_Triangulation.shtml
7. http://glprogramming.com%Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
   Cache-Control: max-age=0

   red/chapter02.html

8. http://glprogramming.com/red/chapter11.html

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 71 bytes) in /home/milwaul0/public_html/drupal/includes/theme.inc on line 729

Confounded, I searched the internet and found this:

http://drupal.org/node/283579

The first option (making a php.ini file in the root) appears to need a restart of the webserver, so I tried the second option, allocating more memory to php via drupal using:

ini_set(‘memory_limit’, ’64M’); in the sites/default/settings.php file

But before that, I had to change the permissions of the file, which had been set to 555 (default, by the site admin I assume).

I initially set the memory to 64M to make sure it would work, since 33554432 bytes is 32MB. After it worked, I noticed that the permissions for the file had been reset to 555, so I changed that again and allocated 32MB for php. It worked. If ever any problems arise, I’ll know what to do.

What’s weird is that this error was triggered while allocating 71 bytes. I don’t know why there was even an issue… anyone?