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Patterns 7.x for developers

Patterns is a rather complex module, therefore it could take longer than usual to developers and contributors to feel confident with its codebase. This page aims at introducing the Patterns module from a developer perspective. If you want to have a deeper overview of the module after finishing reading this section, please visit the tour of the code section.

This page is still incomplete, if you are a Patterns developer feel free to contribute to it.

The directory structure

Patterns is divided in the following subfolders:

  • components: contains the components' code for running the patterns. If you want to write a pattern component for your own module, this one is probably the folder to look into to get some good examples.
  • includes: a large set of helping and core functions used by the Patterns module. The name of the includes are usually self-explicative.
  • css and js: contain a set of statis css and js files used by Patterns.
  • patterns: contains a number of examples of patterns files. You should not place your own patterns here, but rather create your own patterns directory somewhere in your file system.
  • tests: a fairly comprehensive battery of simple tests to check that Patterns is functioning as expected.
  • patterns_*: directories starting with this prefix contain a submodule. Please read the .info file for a description.

Important Patterns API

If you want to integrate your module with Patterns you will find useful the following methods:

  • patterns_io_save_pattern($content = NULL, $name = NULL, $format = 'yaml', $dir = NULL): save a valid pattern into the specified pattern directory and into the database. If the pattern code is invalid return FALSE.
  • patterns_db_save_pattern($pattern, $path, $name) : save a pattern into the database. No validation is performed, therefore it should be used carefully. If a pattern with the same name is found, it updates it.

Important Patterns hooks

Please read here.

Patterns conventions

  • Since patterns codebase grew large, all functions are named after the include they are part of. e.g. patterns_io_save_pattern can be found inside /includes/io.inc.

Writing a component for Patterns 7.x

A Patterns component is very much like a driver software: It is an interface between input data (user input) and the Drupal backend

Writing a custom parser for Patterns 7.x

Writing a Patterns parser is relatively straightforward, and it requires understanding the abstract pattern model, implementing just one

Writing an export function for a Patterns component

This page deals with an experimental feature of the Patterns module: Automatic exporting the configuration of a Drupal web site.

Guide maintainers

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