Provide support to edit individual fields in modal frames as well

I am indeed exploring this possibility right now. However, it is more complex than it may seem, so I may abandon this effort. There is an alternative that you may want to try: Editable Fields module.

The problem I see here, is that there's no single place to control the output of CCK fields, as it's the case with fieldgroups. Fieldgroup module exposes hook_fieldgroup_view() that we can use to intervene when a field group is rendered. However, CCK does not expose such a thing for fields. Mostly because individual fields can be rendered using a myriad of ways, in different contexts (node view, Views, Panels, custom templates, etc.).

For fields, we can actually implement MODULE_preprocess_content_field(), but this affects only fields rendered on the node view. It does not affect fields rendered in Views or Panels, for example. Field output in these scenario depends on field formatters, and field formatters do not have a single point of control that can be used by external modules to intervene. And it makes no sense to hook into every single theme function implemented by a field formatter.

Editable Fields module resolves this implementing its own formatter, but this approach imposes a limitation on the formats available to render the fields to a single option. If something new needs to be done, it should resolve this limitation, otherwise it does not worth, because we already have editable fields module.

Also, this module has been coded per paid request, and it was not a requirement to offer this feature for single fields. So, I do not plan to spend a lot of time here. If it can be done easily, it will be done. If not, it won't.

Let me re-open this issue because I've been able to make it work for fields on normal node view pages, which is a start, and it might be enough for some sites outthere.

I'll commit to CVS in a while...

Ok, committed to CVS preliminar support for individual fields:

http://drupal.org/cvs?commit=315186

However, this works only for fields rendered on the node view page. It does not work for fields rendered in Views, or Panels. That's because CCK uses a different method to render this fields. It uses content_format().

Here's a patch for CCK to try to cover this cases as well: #687296: Allow external modules intervene whenever a field is rendered using content_format()

With that patch applied to CCK, it will be possible to add our behvaiors to individual fields in other contexts, which is something not covered already here... I'm current exploring this possibilities right now...

In summary: the feature has been committed to CVS for fields, but it only works on node view pages. That's for the moment...

hmm... well, I do not have more time to spend on this for the moment, and adding support to provide "Edit in Modal Frames" capabilities to fields outside the context of node view pages depends on that patch to CCK, which is something I would not apply unless feedback is provided in the CCK queue about it.

So... it seems to me this is now fixed. A new issue could be opened here, once and if the patch to CCK lands.