Notice: Undefined index: #value in forum_form_alter() (line 585 of drupal/modules/forum/forum.module)

Hello,

I have build a small form to allow some users to add a new taxonomy term to a vocabulary. To do so, I request the user to select a vocabulary (and the form collect the vid of the vocabulary), to input the new term and a description.

But anytime I access the form, I am receiving a notice:

Notice: Undefined index: #value in forum_form_alter() (line 585 of drupal/modules/forum/forum.module)

which is linked to the following code in forum.module:

/**
 * Implements hook_form_alter().
 */
function forum_form_alter(&$form, $form_state, $form_id) {
  $vid = variable_get('forum_nav_vocabulary', 0);
  if (isset($form['vid']) && $form['vid']['#value'] == $vid) {
    // Hide critical options from forum vocabulary.
    if ($form_id == 'taxonomy_form_vocabulary') {
      $form['help_forum_vocab'] = array(

The main issue is that in my form, I allow the user to select a vocabulary, so form['vid'] does exists ... but since it is a user input parameter, there is no form['vid']['#value'] ... hence the notice.

There are several issues here:

1. The forum module should not assume that because forum['vid'] exists, it means that forum['vid']['#value'] exists. It should test for both.
2. When writing a form alter, you should check the context (such as checking that you are targeting the correct form_id, and presence of some values) as soon as possible, so that clashes with other modules defining hook_form_alter will be avoided. This is clearly not the case here in this particular hook. The checks are done later.

I have implemented a fix for 1 on my install, but really what should be done is fix 2 and testing that it is not having side effects (if the hook is written like that at present, maybe there is a reason).

S.