"hello world" drupal module

That's a minor adjustment of something I did before on http://drupal.org/node/354910#comment-1186793.

Module code (save in folder 'helloworld' as 'helloworld.module'):

<?php
; $Id$

/* implementation of hook_menu() */
function helloworld_menu(){
  $items = array();

  $items['helloworld'] = array(
    'title' => t('Hello world'),
    'page callback' => 'helloworld_page',
    'page arguments' => array(1),
    'access arguments' => array('access content'),
    'type' => MENU_CALLBACK,
  );

  return $items;
}

/* generate output and stop executing other Drupal code */
function helloworld_page($name) {
  print "helloworld";
  die();
}

Info file (save in folder 'helloworld' as 'helloworld.info'):

; $Id$
name = Hello World
description = Simplest module ever.
core = 6.x
package = HelloWorldTest

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Here is an improved version.

The info file looks like this:

; $Id$
name = helloworld
description = Hello World module
package = HelloWorldTest
core = 6.x

Some extra items in hook_menu() are removed, since the default is adequate. Also proper HTTP headers are sent.

There are pros and cons when exiting early. Pros are less load on the server, but cons include cleanup and housekeeping tasks are skipped. For example, hook_exit() does not fire, so you don't get statistics, session updating and other things.

So, it is better to do something like this:

// $Id$

/*
 * Implementation of hook_menu()
 */
function helloworld_menu(){
  $items = array();

  $items['helloworld'] = array(
    'title'            => t('Hello world'),
    'page callback'    => 'helloworld_output',
    'access arguments' => array('access content'),
  );

  return $items;
}

/*
 * Display output
 */
function helloworld_output() {
  header('Content-type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8');
  header('Content-Disposition: inline');
  return 'helloworld';
}

Then in your theme directory create a file called page-helloworld.tpl.php with this in it:

print $content;

That is it! That theme file will be called for that path, and it has no HTML in it, so only what is returned from the function is displayed!

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