CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Currently I have some customization that I did by putting a custom version of a core civicrm PHP file in my custom override PHP folder.
 
For example, I have a custom version of the core file "CRM/Activity/Page/tab.php" in my custom directory because I needed to add an extra select list next to the existing "create activity" select list that is only visible after the user clicks the "Activity" tab on a contact.

Is it possible to place this php file in an CiviCRM native extension instead? 

Yeah, overrides are technically possible -- but a bad idea.

I don't entirely understand what the override is accomplishing in this case -- is it adding a new <SELECT> that's adjacent to the existing <SELECT>? Or adding a new <OPTION> inside the existing <SELECT>? Since the <OPTION>s are auto-generated, shouldn't the default be right (i.e. all useable activity types should be included in the list)?

In any event, there are some other tools you can use to manipulate the output of that tab. For example, one might try to add some extra Javascript code ( http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC43/Resource+Reference ) to manipulate the tab:

function mymodule_civicrm_pageRun($page) {
  if ($page instanceof  CRM_Activity_Page_Tab) {
    CRM_Core_Resources::singleton()->addScript("
      cj('.whatever-widget').append('<whatever-html>");
    ");
  }
}

function mymodule_civicrm_pageRun($page) {
  if ($page instanceof  CRM_Activity_Page_Tab) {
    CRM_Core_Resources::singleton()->addScript("
      cj('.whatever-widget').append('<whatever-html>");
    ");
  }
}

// ... or ...

function mymodule_civicrm_pageRun($page) {
  if ($page instanceof  CRM_Contact_Page_View_Summary) {
    CRM_Core_Resources::singleton()->addScriptFile("org.example.myext","myext.js");
  }
}


In many cases, one could use some PHP code to manipulate the outputted region ( http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC43/Region+Reference ).

I haven't tested these with the activity tab per-se. There could be an issue since it's generated via AJAX (and we've mostly tested resource/region stuff with standalone pages) -- if there is an issue, let's identify that and fix it. It's more maintainable than using overrides.