Pathauto no longer creating aliases on node_save()

thanks for the quick response greggles.

FWIW, I reverted back to 5.x-2.0 and the aliases are getting generated again.

Under my Pathauto settings there is both a pattern set for this specific node type, [workflow-current-state-name]/[nid], and a default pattern set for blank node types, [type-name]/[nid]. Pathauto's general settings are set so that the Update Action creates a new alias and deletes the old one. But with 5.x-2.1, at least in terms of Workflow module and changes in workflow state, the new aliases aren't getting created.

Is it possibly a module weight issue, i.e., maybe Pathauto needs to have a higher system weight than Workflow?

we have a node type called "article" with a corresponding workflow which has states "Drafts", "Editorial", "Published", and "Published Archive".

Our Pathauto config is set up to use [workflow-current-state-name]/[nid] for this node type. With Pathauto 5.x-2.0, when we use the workflow tab to change a node's workflow state from "Drafts" to "Editorial" and submit, Pathauto automatically generates the new alias, changing the path from "drafts/123" to "editorial/123". Since we have verbose mode on it even notifies the user when a new alias has been generated using the standard drupal_set_message().

However, with Pathauto 5.x-2.1, the alias does not get generated and no message appears after the workflow state change is submitted from within the Workflow tab. It seems the only time an alias is generated is when the node/edit form is submitted. This differs from previous iterations of Pathauto as we were able to generate the new alias from both the node/edit page as well as the workflow tab submit.

hope that's informative enough. please let me know if you need more info or if there's anything I can do to help.

regards,
brian

any chance we could try this?

<?php


          if ($node->pathauto_perform_alias || !isset($node->pathauto_perform_alias) || !user_access('create url aliases')) {
            // ... create the alias for the node ...
          }
?>

seems like the main difference is that the previous version that's working for me (5.x-2.0) allowed an alias to get generated if $node->pathauto_perform_alias was not set, i.e., if the node was saved other than through the node edit page or programmatically. Can we add back in the !isset($node->pathauto_perform_alias) in pathauto_nodeapi?

haven't had a chance to test it yet but will try to today.

in terms of the checkboxes, you are correct. If a checkbox is not checked it's value is not set vs. being set to FALSE.

so with the current requirement for $node->pathauto_perform_alias to be set to TRUE, this means that an alias can only get generated from the node edit form and only if the "Automatic alias" checkbox is checked.

This would explain why the alias no longer gets generated from the Workflow tab or through Views Bulk Operations as those are simply calling node_save().

How about adding a hidden field to the node edit form so that in addition to the Automatic alias checkbox field it gives us another value to compare, e.g.

<?php

 function pathauto_form_alter($formid, &$form) {
  
    ...

     $form['path']['pathauto_perform_alias'] = array('#type' => 'checkbox',
        '#title' => t('Automatic alias'),
        '#default_value' => TRUE,
        '#description' => $output,
        '#weight' => 0
      );

      $form['path']['pathauto_node_form'] = array('#type' => 'hidden',
        '#value' => TRUE,
        '#weight' => 0
      );
    }
  }
}
?>

and then in pathauto_nodeapi

<?php
 
          if (
              // if it's a node edit form and the checkbox is checked
              ($node->pathauto_node_form && $node->pathauto_perform_alias) || 
              // if it's a node edit form and the user doesn't have access to the checkbox 
              ($node->pathauto_node_form && !user_access('create url aliases')) || 
              // if it's NOT a node edit form, we need to allow the path alias to be generated
              !isset($node->pathauto_node_form)
          ) {

?>

i'll try to test this today

regards,
brian

thanks for the patch dropcube. this seems to have resolved the issue for us when updating a node through the Workflow tab and/or through Views Bulk Operations.

Any chance of this patch making it into the release?

One thing I sort of miss is the verbose option telling me the aliases have been generated. It looks as though this has been removed if one is generating the alias programmatically. But certainly not a high priority compared to not being able to generate an alias programmatically.

thanks so much greggles and dropcube. much appreciated!

greggles -

I updated to the dev version today and tested it out quite a bit and it seems to work like a charm. Aliases are once again getting generated on node_save via the Workflow tab and/or via Views Bulk Operations.

Thanks again to you and dropcube for resolving this so quickly! :)