Store variables in our own place to make them more easily overridable/importable/exportable

Interesting idea. I'm not sure that this should be handled by Pathauto on its own, but instead by a module that does this in general.

That said, it could be good to implement the "variable dump" idea I had as a Pathauto setting export: #259949: Add text file export of Pathauto configuration for debugging

If this does happen, it's much more likely on the 6.x-2.x branch (which doesn't exist yet, so I'll set this to 6.x-1.x for now).

I think it would be much more appropriate to support a generalized import/export variable solution.

This would be even easier if we stored the patterns and their options in the db like I'd like to start doing with #273104: Using "progressive disclosure" for alias patterns

Would this enable it to be use with the Features module for exporting path_alias patterns with an individual feature?

I'm repurposing this a bit. I'd like us to move at least the "general settings" and the feed setting and whether feeds are enabled to a different place of storage than the variable table (or maybe stored there, but just as a tree).

I also think we should refactor the code in this area a bit:

Our current pattern:

// Current:

function pathauto_clean_token_values($full) {
  // Get a list of tokens
  // Foreach it.
  // Call pathauto_cleanstring on it.
  $replacements[$token] = pathauto_cleanstring($value);

  return $replacements;
}

function pathauto_cleanstring($string) {

  // Use lots of variable_gets to find variables.
  // Do text cleaning based on those variables.

}

A better pattern:

// Proposed

function pathauto_clean_token_values($full) {
  // Load all the variables related to cleanstring.
  $configuration = pathauto_get_configuration_cleanstring();
  drupal_alter('pathauto_cleanstring_variables_alter', $configuration);

  // Get a list of tokens
  // Foreach it.
  // Call pathauto_cleanstring on it.
  $replacements[$token] = pathauto_cleanstring($value, $configuration);

  return $replacements;
}

function pathauto_cleanstring($string, $configuration) {

  // Use lots of variable_gets to find variables.
  // Do text cleaning based on those variables.

}

I'm repurposing this issue since it's the most related.

#686234: Re-architect alias transformations
#273104: Using "progressive disclosure" for alias patterns

have interconnected ideas.

Here is my crack at this (with help from greggles).

With this patch, pathauto variables are stored in a separate function and can be overridden when calling pathauto functions. This patch is against 6.x-1.3 but should communicate the general idea.

This patch works for me and seems like it should make our lives easier as we head toward the final goal in this issue. I think we should commit it as an interim step.

Yeah this would need to be rolled against the latest D7 and D6-2 branches. This wouldn't be appropriate for the 6.x-1.x branch.

Great. I will find time in the near future to roll a patch against the D7 and D6-2 branches.

I'll try to give a higher-level review later tonight as well.

Wondering if this will get in...