CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Prior to CiviCRM 3.0, the CiviCRM menu was implemented as a Drupal block which could be included on any page processed by Drupal. Beginning in 3.0, the code which loads the menu was moved into a Smarty template. This may have some good implications for maintenance (i.e. you don't have to worry about whether the Drupal blocks are properly configured), but it removes the ability to display the menu pages which aren't generated by Smarty.

To restore the old functionality without making major core changes, I put this quick snippet into a file called civicrm_navblock.module and enabled it:

<?php
/**
 * hook_block implementation.
 * 
 * @param string $op
 * @param int    $delta
 * @param array  $edit
 * 
 * @return mixed
 */
function civicrm_navblock_block($op = 'list', $delta = 0, $edit = array ()) {
  switch ($op) {
    case 'list':
      $blocks[0] = array (
        'info' => t('CiviCRM Menu'),
        'status' => 1,
        'visibility' => 1,
        'region' => 'header',
      );
      return $blocks;
    case 'configure':
      $form = array();
      return $form;
    case 'save':
      return;
    case 'view':
      switch ($delta) {
        case 0:
          global $_civicrm_navblock;
          if (!user_access('access CiviCRM')) { break; }
          civicrm_initialize();
          if (empty($_civicrm_navblock['content'])) { break; }
          $block['subject'] = '';
          $block['content'] = $_civicrm_navblock['content'];
          break;
      }
      return $block;
  } // switch $op
}

/**
 * Implementation of hook_civicrm_config
 */
function civicrm_navblock_civicrm_config(&$config) {
  global $_civicrm_navblock;
  require_once 'CRM/Core/Smarty.php';
  $smarty = CRM_Core_Smarty::singleton();
  if ($smarty->get_template_vars('buildNavigation')) {
    // Generate markup for use with Drupal bock
    $_civicrm_navblock['content'] = $smarty->fetch('CRM/common/Navigation.tpl');
    // Disable rendering in Smarty
    $smarty->assign('buildNavigation', FALSE);
  }
}

This takes care of loading the menu markup. But the markup doesn't work unless various JS/CSS dependencies are also loaded. This required a small patch to civicrm_html_head() in civicrm.module, i.e.

--- drupal/civicrm.module
+++ drupal/civicrm.module
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@
     }
 
     $head = null;
-    if ( arg(0) == 'civicrm' ) {
+    if ( arg(0) == 'civicrm' || user_access('access CiviCRM')) {
         require_once 'CRM/Core/Config.php';
         $config = CRM_Core_Config::singleton();

If there's a better way, please let me know. If there's no better way, feel free to copy/reuse.

It worked great but, oddly, the menu now appears only on the frontpage and not on other pages (even in /civicrm)

This wasn't working for me in Drupal 7. I had split your hook_block code into the appropriate new functions (hook_block_info and hook_block_view) but the block wasn't showing up in the list.

I stumbled upon a work-around though.


/**
 * Implementation of hook_civicrm_config
 */
function civi_navblock_civicrm_config(&$config) {
global $_civi_navblock;
require_once 'CRM/Core/Smarty.php';
$smarty = CRM_Core_Smarty::singleton();
if ($smarty->get_template_vars('buildNavigation')) {
// Generate markup for use with Drupal bock
$_civi_navblock['content'] = $smarty->fetch('CRM/common/Navigation.tpl');
}
}

function _civi_navblock_civicrm_menu() {
civicrm_initialize(); //this triggers hook_civicrm_config(), otherwise $_civi_navblock is empty
global $_civi_navblock;
if(isset($_civi_navblock['content']))
echo $_civi_navblock['content'];
}
I have the exact same hook_civicrm_config function, except I get rid of the line that sets buildNavigation to FALSE. I then added this new function (_civi_navblock_civicrm_menu) that outputs the menu to the page. The output was full of javascript that handled the menu for me and put it in the appropriate place. So, if I want to have the CiviCRM menu on one of my Drupal pages I just call this new function.

I also tossed if(!isset($_civi_navblock)) $_civi_navblock = null; at the beginning of the file, just in case.

The civicrm.module file change is still required.

We found an unrelated bug in 4.2.7 which involves menu rendering on supported configurations; the fix involves changing how the menu is rendered. If you currently use the technique from this forum post and upgrade to the next release (4.2., then you'll need to update civicrm_navblock as well. The new code is simpler (fewer hooks/globals), more performant (doesn't render menu unless absolutely needed), and more flexible (before you could enable the menu on Drupal pages but could never *disable* on civicrm pages; now you can enable or disable on any page).

Issue: http://issues.civicrm.org/jira/browse/CRM-11805
Fix: https://fisheye2.atlassian.com/changelog/CiviCRM?cs=45308
Revised module: https://github.com/totten/civicrm_navblock/tree/7.x-2.x