Author Topic: Displaying first name (Read 2434 times)

jsimonis · April 11, 2012, 10:04:38 am

We'd like to have a block in Drupal that shows up whenever you're logged in (know how to do this). Inside that block we'd like it to say:

Welcome [First Name]

So I need it to pull the person's first name from CiviCRM.

I am assuming I need to use the APIs to do this. However, I have never used the APIs before. Could someone help me on this?

Thanks!

Michael McAndrew · April 11, 2012, 10:15:33 am

Try http://book.civicrm.org/developer/techniques/api and other chapters in that book, and also http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC41/CiviCRM+Public+APIs

jsimonis · April 16, 2012, 10:25:33 am

Yea, I had looked at them, but it's so general that it's difficult to tell what to do.

It appears I'd use something like this:

Code: [Select]

require_once 'api/api.php';
$result = civicrm_api (Contact,Get,first_name);

If I understand correctly, that would pull the first name? But is it the first name of the person who is logged in? And what do I do with it after that?

Hershel · April 16, 2012, 11:05:17 am

Actually it's quite a bit more complicated than that. It's a two step process and the code would look something like:

Code: [Select]

global $user;
civicrm_initialize(TRUE);
require_once 'api/api.php';
$UFMatch_results=civicrm_api("UFMatch","get", array ('version' =>'3', 'uf_id' =>$user->uid));
$contact_id = $UFMatch_results['values'][$user->uid]['contact_id'];
$results=civicrm_api("Contact","get", array ('version' =>'3', 'contact_id' =>$contact_id));
echo $results['values'][$contact_id]['display_name'];

This code is completely untested and not guaranteed.

That's the basic idea anyhow...

Eileen · April 16, 2012, 01:26:02 pm

Just an aside

require_once 'api/api.php';

is no longer required as civicrm_initialize(); does that for you (pretty sure the True in initialize is also irrelevent now as the API turns on exception handling which is what the TRUE did).

There are a couple of api functions that just change the format of the result - they are only applicable when only one results can be returned. So, Hershel's code could also look like

$UFMatch_results=civicrm_api("UFMatch","getsingle", array ('version' =>'3', 'uf_id' =>$user->uid));
$contact_id = $UFMatch_results['contact_id'];

OR

$contact_id=civicrm_api("UFMatch","getvalue", array ('version' =>'3', 'uf_id' =>$user->uid, 'return' => 'contact_id'));

(return is a required param for the second option)

If you were really keen you could chain it

$contact = civicrm_api("UFMatch","get", array ('sequential' => 1, 'version' =>'3', 'uf_id' =>$user->uid, 'api.contact.get' => 1));

$contact_id = $contact['values'][0]['api.contact.get']['values'][0]['display_name'];

(note that I used 0 because I set sequential so it is re-indexed. Chained API calls set sequential by default)

Hershel · April 16, 2012, 01:41:57 pm

Thanks for the tips.

I just starting wondering now why we don't use module_invoke instead of calling civicrm_initialize directly. Is there a reason?

Eileen · April 16, 2012, 02:02:07 pm

I'm guessing that it's because that is a drupal only command?

Coleman Watts · April 16, 2012, 02:15:21 pm

Here's a utility function I wrote for D6. It makes all this stuff super easy, and is way more efficient than hitting the API twice on every page load. Just paste it into any .module on your site (a custom module, that is, not views.module or something else that will get overwritten by upgrades!).

Code: [Select]

/**
 * Quick way to retrieve a contact's name given their uid or cid
 * Cached as static for performance
 * A user's own name is cached in session for even better performance
 * @param $ret: 'first', 'last', 'nick', 'middle', 'display', or 'sort'
 * @param $id: optional contact or user id. Defaults to current user
 * @param $id_type: is this a contact or user id?
 */
function contact_name($ret, $id = NULL, $id_type = 'contact') {
  static $info = array();
  global $user;
  // Retrieve user's own name
  if (!$id) {
    $id_type = 'user';
    $id = $user->uid;
    if (!isset($info['user'][$id]) && !empty($_SESSION['contact_name'])) {
      $info['user'][$id] = $_SESSION['contact_name'];
    }
  }
  if (!$id) {
    return 'Visitor';
  }
  if (empty($info[$id_type][$id])) {
    $query = 'SELECT first_name, nick_name, middle_name, last_name, display_name, sort_name
    FROM {civicrm_contact} WHERE id = ';
    if ($id_type == 'contact') {
      $query .= '%d';
    }
    else {
      $query .= '(SELECT contact_id FROM {civicrm_uf_match} WHERE uf_id = %d)';
    }
    $db = db_query($query, $id);
    if ($contact = db_fetch_array($db)) {
      $contact['nick_name'] = $contact['nick_name'] ? $contact['nick_name'] : $contact['first_name'];
      $contact['full_name'] = $contact['nick_name'] . ' ' . $contact['last_name'];
      $info[$id_type][$id] = $contact;
      if ($id_type == 'user' && $id == $user->uid) {
        $_SESSION['contact_name'] = $contact;
      }
    }
    else {
      return 'Visitor';
    }
  }
  else {
    $contact = $info[$id_type][$id];
  }
  return $contact[$ret . '_name'];
}

Then to get the first name of the logged-in user just use:

Code: [Select]

print contact_name('first');

xavier · April 16, 2012, 03:16:46 pm

While we are nitpicking,

You should always specify what you want to get from the api.contact get. The syntax post 4.2 is return = array ('first_name'), and on 4.1 return.first_name=1.

With that and coelmanw wise suggestion of storing in the session the first name, I'd recommend taking the (small) penalty hit once per session to fetch the first name using two api calls (or one chained) instead of going the sql road, as you are less likely to have problems when you upgrade if the database schema changes (and it will at one point or another).

If I really were nitpicking, I'd point out that using the api for instance avoid fetching a contact that is deleted, something that the sql would fetch anyway

So in a nutshell: store in session, defines what fields you want to fetch when you use api.contact.get and... there is more than one way to skin a cat.

X+

Eileen · April 16, 2012, 03:52:45 pm

Ever wish you'd never asked

Quote

You should always specify what you want to get from the api.contact get. The syntax post 4.2 is return = array ('first_name'), and on 4.1 return.first_name=1.

Actually - 4.1 the syntax depends on the api call .... sigh.

4.2 supports a wierd & wonderful array of syntaxes that we have developed at different times. But we are pushing a single preferred syntax - one question (for you X) should we promote return = array ('first_name', 'last_name') or return = 'first_name,last_name'; ie. the second works in urls & I think it works in php too, not sure about smarty....

xavier · April 16, 2012, 11:39:55 pm

Hi,

On the rest/ajax interface, &return=first_name,last_name has been working for a while.

for php, I think that return = array is more php syntaxy (and would avoid issues if you put a space before after the ','), but we can move down the return string parsing if it's right now only for ajax/rest so it supports both.

Basically, don't have a lot of opinion about string vs. array. Can't we all love each other?

X+

Hershel · April 17, 2012, 02:28:17 am

Quote from: xavier on April 16, 2012, 03:16:46 pm

If I really were nitpicking, I'd point out that using the api for instance avoid fetching a contact that is deleted, something that the sql would fetch anyway

In this case it's nitpicking, but generally speaking, this is a serious issue and a very good reason to use the API and not SQL. Coleman's suggestion of a function and cache is very good, but definitely using the API to populate the cache initially is recommended.

Quote from: xavier on April 16, 2012, 11:39:55 pm

Can't we all love each other?

Yes. Please add that to the agenda.

Eileen · April 17, 2012, 02:55:26 pm

Agenda
1) All love each other
2) Drink Warm Beer
3) Drink Flat Coffee
4) discuss API

jsimonis · April 19, 2012, 04:26:24 pm

Well, I thought I was doing good, but I think I got lost in all the responses. Hopefully I can figure out which parts of this to use or not to use so I can implement this.

Eileen · April 19, 2012, 04:30:39 pm

Just the last post

CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

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Author Topic: Displaying first name (Read 2434 times)

jsimonis

Displaying first name

Michael McAndrew

Re: Displaying first name

jsimonis

Re: Displaying first name

Hershel

Re: Displaying first name

Eileen

Re: Displaying first name

Hershel

Re: Displaying first name

Eileen

Re: Displaying first name

Coleman Watts

Re: Displaying first name

xavier

Re: Displaying first name

Eileen

Re: Displaying first name

xavier

Re: Displaying first name

Hershel

Re: Displaying first name

Eileen

Re: Displaying first name

jsimonis

Re: Displaying first name

Eileen

Re: Displaying first name