According to the installation instructions for Actions, I have to apply a patch. The instructions I have found on patching here on drupal.org assume that you can do command line instructions. My site is hosted on hostgator and I do not have command line access. I am fairly new to Drupal and this is the first time I have run across the need to install a patch.

I am using Drupal 5.10. I wish the instruction for the module were more comprehensive. Can anyone help me find instructions to implemented this patch on a hosted domain? and why do the instructions assume that you have your own unix box when most people using drupal will have it on a hosted machine with limited command line access?

Lastly, the instructions do not explain what the patch does, why it is necessary and must it always be applied. For a newbie, this is very confusing.

Comments

the1brit’s picture

the1brit commented

And what was the need for the patch in the first place? Actions is the foundations for a lot of sites. Why would 5.10 not be able to handle Actions without patching?

jvandyk’s picture

jvandyk commented
Status: Active » Closed (fixed)

Don't be scared by the words "apply a patch". What that really means is "change a file with the changes found in this special patch file".

If you look at what the patch contains, you will see lines beginning with a single + character. These are the lines that need to be added:

+  // Let modules modify the node before it is saved to the database.
+  node_invoke ($node, 'presave');
+  node_invoke_nodeapi($node, 'presave');

So basically we are adding three lines to Drupal. Where are we adding them? Inside the node_save() function in modules/node/node.module. So before the patch, the node_save() function looks like this:

 function node_save(&$node) {
   global $user;
 
   $node->is_new = FALSE;
   ...

And after we've changed it, it now looks like this:

function node_save(&$node) {
   // Let modules modify the node before it is saved to the database.   
   node_invoke ($node, 'presave');
   node_invoke_nodeapi($node, 'presave');
   global $user;
 
   $node->is_new = FALSE;
   ...

So if you are on a hosted domain, you could just edit the modules/node/node.module file "by hand" instead of "applying a patch". A patch is just an easy way for those comfortable with the command line to change a file in one fell swoop.

What the patch does is fire an event just before the node is saved. The actions module then lets you assign actions that happen when this event fires. In the user interface the event is called by the more friendly name "When either saving a new post or updating an existing post" instead of just calling it "the presave event".

If you do not apply this patch, the actions that you assign to run "When either saving a new post or updating an existing post" will never run, because the event is never fired, because Drupal 5 does not have those lines in node_save(). That is why we need to put those lines there.

the1brit’s picture

the1brit commented

Thank you for the quick response. The patch is done!!

vagrant’s picture

vagrant commented

On the issue of patching what do you do with patches that have lines like :

-+; $Id: $

-+++ ../../modules/qb/qb.module 2008-08-21 12:04:49.000000000 +0900

Considering this patch has to be done manually due to lack of command line access, what is the move? This patch is over 1000 lines of changes and notations like the above are all through the code.

Would anyone happen to have a post patched version of the ubercart quickbooks integration for 5.x?

Thanks for any input

jvandyk’s picture

jvandyk commented

This issue is for the small patch needed for the actions module in Drupal 5. For general help with patches, see the handbook.