Pattern Syntax: Variables

Many modules store their settings to Drupal's variables table and in all such cases "variables" action should be used instead of "form".

This Example sets three different variables for three different modules:

• set Anonymous vote rollover to 1 hour (votingapi module)
• set fivestar widget display to craft (fivestar module)
• set minimum cache lifetime to 6 hours (system module)

Example (XML):

  <actions>
    <variables>
        <variable name="votingapi_anonymous_window">3600</variable>
        <variable name="fivestar_widget">
              sites/all/modules/fivestar/widgets/craft/craft.css
        </variable>
        <variable name="cache_lifetime">21600</variable>
    </variables>       
  </actions>

Another example

The Patterns module also provides this example for complex/multi-dimensional variables:

    <!-- Recommended way of defining complex variables -->    
    <variable name="theme_settings">
      <toggle_node_info_page>0</toggle_node_info_page>
      <toggle_node_info_example>0</toggle_node_info_example>
      <toggle_node_info_blog>1</toggle_node_info_blog>
      <toggle_favicon>0</toggle_favicon>
    </variable>

The above example is corresponding to the theme_settings variable serialized in the variable table as:

a:3:{s:21:"toggle_node_info_page";b:0;
     s:24:"toggle_node_info_example";b:0;
     s:21:"toggle_node_info_blog";b:1;
     s:14:"toggle_favicon";b:0;}

note: The serialized value has some line breaks inserted for easier reading.