Preprocess function doesn't render a search block form?

Hi netsensei, did you solve this one - it's puzzling me too

Is this still an issue or did you solve it? I'm closing it as fixed for now, since it's a support request and has been there so long. Hopefully you went to the forums or IRC and got your problem solved (the issue queue is obviously not the best venue for support requests). Sorry about that!

This issue is closed, but I wanted to post how I troubleshot my version of the OP's problem, for the benefit of others puzzled by the same problem. Also, I would be interested in receiving feedback from Drupal experts who can show me a better way to do this.

Note: I installed the devel module so the system automatically clears the cache on each page refresh. This saves me a lot of time.

How to find the contents of the array that builds the search form

Add the following function to the template.php file in your theme directory. Create the file if it doesn't exist.

function {theme_name}_preprocess_search_block_form(&$vars, $hook)
{
  // function to list all parameters
  $vars['search_form'] = "
" . print_r( $vars['form'], true ) . "
";

}

The output of the array appears when you view a page that includes the search box. For example:

/* relevant keys of $vars['form']
    [search_block_form] => Array
        (
            [#title] => Search
            [#type] => textfield
            [#size] => 15
            [#default_value] => 
            [#attributes] => Array
                (
                    [title] => Enter the terms you wish to search for.
                )
            [#input] => 1
... etc... 

How to customize the search block preprocess function

After discovering the construction of the array, create the actual preprocess function to perform the task. The following code is contained in function {theme_name}_preprocess_search_block_form(&$vars, $hook)

1. Locate the keys you wish to alter and add declarations within the preprocess function.

     $vars['form']['search_block_form']['#title'] = t( 'Search' );
     $vars['form']['search_block_form']['#default_value'] = t( 'Search this site' );
     $vars['form']['submit']['#value'] = "";

2. Add the following tags to render the form fields:
   

     unset($vars['form']['search_block_form']['#printed']);
     unset($vars['form']['submit']['#printed']);
     $vars['search']['search_block_form'] = drupal_render($vars['form']['search_block_form']);

   Note: I'm not entirely sure if we need to unset #printed. I'm only following other examples.

3. Concatenate the rendered fields into a text string.
   

     $vars['search_form'] = implode( $vars['search'] );

4. Copy the search-block-form.tpl.php file into your theme directory if you want to edit the output. I've seen examples where people take the raw array and build a new form completely from scratch.

How to remove the trailing colon from the search box label

In my layout, the colon interferes with the design. There should be a setting to turn this on or off. Instead, creating an override function in template.php is the recommended solution.

1. Copy the entire form_element() function from {drupal_install}/includes/form.inc into template.php.
2. Rename the function {theme_name}_form_element($element, $value)
3. Search for $t('!title: !required', and remove the colon so it reads $t('!title !required'

The colon is removed from the label the next time the search box is run.

Constructing your own search form

I haven't dug deeply into this, but I would bet that rather than using the drupal_render() function, you could manually compose the form using a combination of text, submit, and hidden fields.

Further questions

I'm still having problems figuring out why the $vars['form']['search_block_form']['#default_value'] and $vars['form']['submit']['#value'] don't modify the output values at all.