theme_hook_suggestions in a renderable array? Is it possible?

Posted by rylowry on November 13, 2012 at 5:42pm

I am working with some entities that get themed with a #theme property in a renderable array. I would like to add some theme suggestions, so the entity could be rendered differently if a template is available. Something like this...

<?php
$element = array(
  '#theme' => 'entity',
  '#theme_hook_suggestions' => array('some_other_function'),
);
?>

However, this doesn't seem to work. Can anyone confirm or deny whether such a thing is even possible? I have a feeling this is just wishful thinking.

Comments

Found a solution

Posted by rylowry on November 13, 2012 at 6:13pm

I found a solution to my problem. I abandoned #theme_hook_suggestions, which just wasn't working, and ended up using the 'pattern' propery in my hook_theme function.

<?php
function hook_theme() {
  return array(
    'template_page_template' => array(
      'render element' => 'elements',
      'pattern' => 'template_page_template__',
    )
  );
}
?>

... and later on in my entity class ....

<?php
  public function buildContent($entity, $view_mode = 'full', $langcode = NULL) {
    $content = parent::buildContent($entity, $view_mode, $langcode);
    $content['#theme'] = 'template_page_template__' . $entity->type;
    return $content;
  }
?>

By adding the pattern in hook_theme, bundle type specific templates can get picked up if the are present, but if not, the theme function will fallback to template_page_template. All is good :D