Menu Local Tasks - Tutorial?

2 simple steps to understanding local tasks.

1. DONT PANIC.
2. Steal the code you need from somewhere else ... like the user module for example.

Local tasks are displayed in the tabs across the top of the page. A good example of an implementation of local tasks is the login screen - by default you see 3 tabs login, register and forgot password.

The code for this is below

    $items[] = array('path' => 'user/login', 'title' => t('log in'),
      'callback' => 'user_login', 'type' => MENU_DEFAULT_LOCAL_TASK);
    $items[] = array('path' => 'user/register', 'title' => t('register'),
      'callback' => 'user_register', 'access' => $user->uid == 0 && variable_get('user_register', 1), 'type' => MENU_LOCAL_TASK);
    $items[] = array('path' => 'user/password', 'title' => t('request new password'),
      'callback' => 'user_pass', 'access' => $user->uid == 0, 'type' => MENU_LOCAL_TASK);

So you can see that everything is exactly like defining a normal menu item, but just by setting the type to be MENU_LOCAL_TASK drupal will display the menu items as tabs.

Not sure if thats such a good explanation - but hopefully the code will paint a thousand words :)

cool cool,

Mike

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I'm not sure if this applies or will help anyone... but I was looking for a way to just add items to the local tasks tabs and only for specific nodes. I added this to my page.tpl.php file before the $tabs variable is called.

if ( !empty($tabs) && $_GET['q'] == 'node/' ) : $tabs = ereg_replace("</ul>", '<li><a href="?q=node/" target="_blank">Tab Title</a></li></ul>', $tabs); endif;

You can use this for as many items as you want and also have it apply to all pages by removing

&& $_GET['q'] == 'node/'

in the if statement

VERY helpful... thanks.

There is one other minor typo... You need one more ")" at the end of your first conditional.

Here is the re-written code with the extra ) and the MENU_LOCAL_TASK edit implemented.

function example_perm() {
  return array('example callback permission');
}

function example_menu($may_cache) {
  $items = array();

  if ($may_cache) {
    //Nothing goes in here
  }
  else {
    //Non-cachable menu items
    if (arg(0) == 'node' && is_numeric(arg(1))) {
      $node = node_load(arg(1));
      if ($node->type == 'blog') {
        $items[] = array(
          'path' => 'node/' . arg(1) . '/example',
          'title' => t('Example Tab'),
          'type' => MENU_LOCAL_TASK,
          'callback' => 'example_node_callback',
          'access' => user_access('example callback permission'),
        );
      }
    }
  }

  return $items;
}

function example_node_callback() {
  return t('THIS IS AN EXAMPLE!');
}

All this techniques are very interesting, but checking the hook_menu documentations I think I came up with a way of creating local tasks depending on arbitrary conditions.

In my case, I was trying to add a local task to nodes of certain type, and noticed two very powerful properties of a menu entry, those are %placeholders and the 'access callback' property.

Using a custom 'access callback' function, we can create a menu entry that can be cached and that can be present on arbitrary conditions. Here's what I did:

function yourmodule_menu() {
  
    //notice the %node placeholder
    $items['node/%node/mylocaltask'] = array( 
    'title' => t("Test local task"),
    'description' => t("Make a test for local tasks"),
    // THIS IS THE TRICK
    'access callback' => "yourmodule _check_local_tasks", 
    // PRELOAD $node FOR US
    'access arguments' => array(1),

    // normal callback, just point to the function of your liking
    'page callback' => "carabas_send_test",
    // PRELOAD $node when executing the page callbac
    'page arguments' => array(1),

    // do this a local task
    'type' => MENU_LOCAL_TASK
  );
  
  return $items;
}

function yourmodule_yourlocaltaskcallback($node) {
// notice there is no "node_load" here, the $node is already loaded properly
  return "testing your node with id $node->nid and type $node->type";
}

function yourmodule_check_local_tasks($node) {
// same thing as above with $node
//change the test to your liking.
  return ($node->type == 'yournodetype') && user_access('your task permission'); 
}

Hope this helps!